Bridesmaid and Flower Girl Dresses

How to make 3 bridesmaid and 2 flower girl dresses:

1. Find the perfect pattern and material.
After searching for quite a while, Miriam picked out McCall's Evening Elegance pattern #3954 for the bridesmaid dresses and Simplicity pattern #9497 for the flower girl dresses. Her wedding colors are plum and white, and after looking for a long time, we finally found the perfect color satin at Hancock's, along with the same color sheer overlay for the bridesmaid's and white braid, and a white overlay for the flower girl's at Hobby Lobby.

2. Cut out the dresses, making sure you have multiple measurements and making alterations as needed.
I cut out and began sewing the flower girls' dresses, then when Miriam was home one afternoon, she and I made a great team cutting out the bridesmaids' dresses. I chalked most of the pattern pieces on the fabric, making alterations as needed - a lot of them needed lengthening for the tall bridesmaids! Miriam came behind and cut them out. I also made the necklines a bit higher, as the pattern made them a bit low, and after Miriam didn't like the too "poofy" sleeves on the first dress, I took those out and used a different pattern's sleeves instead.

3. Spend hours sewing at away at your sewing machine.
My serger helped a lot, finishing seams nicely, and making lovely rolled hems on the flower girl dresses.
4. Enlist help as needed.
Meet Miss Dee-Dee! Her real name is "Dear Dummy" but she's a bit sensitive, so I call her Miss Dee-Dee for short. =) As a thank-you for making the dresses, Miriam generously bought me a dressmaker that I picked out off of Ebay! It was so wonderful as I made each dress, to be able to adjust the dressmaker to match the measurements of each woman, and fit the dress to it, since the bridesmaids live rather far away and wouldn't be able to come for fittings! This made sure that they'll fit right (hopefully!). She's been a great help!

5. Add the finishing touches.
Isn't the braid lovely? It adds the perfect finish to each dress.

It was time consuming to sew it all on by hand, but I managed to do it while watching things or listening to the radio. I finally finished the last dress on Thursday evening, staying up later then I should have sewing the last two rows of braid, but wanting to finish the dresses once and for all!

6. Enjoy being done!
Here's proof of the finished results. I really enjoyed sewing them all, but it is a relief to have them finished. =)

Miriam's maid of honor is our sister Lydia, and her bridesmaids are two of her good friends from college.

The flower girls are our sweet neices, Sara Rose, age 4, and Lisa Beth, almost 2!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I am very grateful for all the sewing I've done over the years, in order to prepare me for sewing these more intricate dresses! Thankfully, the different kind of fabrics weren't too hard to work with, and my machine didn't mess up, praise God!