Always A Blogsmaid, Never A Bride

I mentioned here that we were trying to get our bedroom ready for my friend Katie's bachelorette party and it didn't work out as well as planned. Although the bedroom debacle didn't work out, the party went very well if I do say so myself.  We had an adult "toy" party and a potluck style dinner to kick the night off. The theme was "Paint The Town Red" so everyone wore red themed items.

Ms. Katie holding up her new octopus massager courtesy of Passion Parties by Amber.

Here's a group shot of everyone.

With all the house updates and whatnot, I had to get creative with the way I spent my money for the wedding.  Part the reason half of the bachelorette party was a potluck. Another way was with my dress alterations. I found out from the other maids it was going to cost me around $50 to get my dress shortened and a little slit on the side stitched up. With my less than perfect sewing skills, after seeing Sherry from Young House Love (if you like my blog, you will love theirs) get super creative with hem tape, I figured I would give it a shot. Hey for $3.97 at JoAnn Fabrics you really can't go wrong.

This was the dress to start. Pretty but just needed the minor alterations. Luckily, I didn't need any fixin' in the boob area otherwise I wouldn't be telling you this story.

I started by examining the underside and carefully using a seam ripper to take out the slit's seams.

I needed the dress shortened to above my knee so I folded the slit in half, measured and then made little marks with a red pen (think teacher's correction pen) to give myself a guide on where to cut. I also noticed that when you aren't in school anymore you don't tend to keep rulers around the house so I had to bust out the old tape measure.

With a deep breath and a little anxiety I made the first cut knowing if I screwed this up, it might be the end of a friendship (jk I think Katie would forgive me???) I went just below the cut line to have room to fold the hem over properly.

I did a test on the part of the fabric I cut off to see the proper temperature of the tape. The box said just to use the recommended iron settings for the fabric you are using, in my case, 100% polyester. Then I tried it on my hem. I went on the lower part of the hem line I made so when I folded the hem over it would be even. The tape is lightly adhering. I had to run my nail over it to keep it stuck until I could get the iron on it. Then just using the iron on the proper fabric setting, evenly ironed the area for about 10-15 seconds as the box directed. So far so good.

Closing up the slit was a breeze. I had to shorten the liner of the dress as well so I wouldn't have it poking out the bottom so I cut a chunk long enough to close the slit up out and used it as a patch. I lined up the outside of the dress and used four pieces of tape to make sure the glue covered evenly and close to the two open seams. I then just folded the liner up and hemmed that as well.

This was the closed slit seam. You can barely notice where the stitching ends and the glue begins.

Voilà! Not too bad for a first timer. Glad I saved the $46 for my hair!

If I wasn't crafty enough with apparel, my bride Katie, was not feeling our options when it came to dying our Touch Ups Flash shoes. Every option for dying, gave a muted feeling keeping that satiny feeling, was expensive for everyone and they would not do only one shoe (we are wearing all different colors matching the decor). Since she didn't mind if the satininess was kept or not and just wanted the vividness to match her decor she took matters into her own hands.

These were the original.

She ended up hand painting the shoes. She color matched her decor with acrylic craft paints. Then after lightly diluting the paint in water she carefully painted the shoes preventing any streaks. She swears practice makes perfect, so if you have a scrap piece of satin laying around, try it on that first. She let them dry completely. A quick layer of spray-on Scotchguard and they were as good as if one had bought them from the store like that.

Amazing huh?!

The shoes perfectly match the gorgeous handbag she got us as bridesmaid's gifts off of an Esty shop called Mermaids Dream. Thanks so much Katie!

To tell you the truth, compared to normal dyeable shoes, these are ten times more fabulous. I beg you to tell your brides if you are in a wedding! The you can't beat the color.

There you have it, you can still be a bridesmaid and get by on the cheap! Can't wait for the wedding...today!