Wedding Memories

We spent the last four days in Colorado celebrating my sister and new sister in law Mandy and Bailey for their wedding!  They had beautiful weather, spectacular fall foliage and so many fun surprises including a choreographed first dance.  When we weren’t celebrating with them we were hanging around our fabulous airbnb, playing board games and entertaining my kids and niece and nephew.  It was just a great weekend!

Mandy and Bailey did tons of planning for this event and I feel like I let them down with the little I helped with!  One of the few things Mandy requested from me was to figure out something to do with Grandma’s wedding dress (which was also my mom’s wedding dress).  Mandy tried the dress on, and it was a bit of a fright.  The entire dress, despite being “preserved” was very yellowed, and its buttons had rusted.  We went back and forth on what to do with the lace and finally found a company that sold necklaces made from wedding gowns.  I ended up using that idea to make a charm for Mandy’s bouquet.

The first step of this process was to see if the lace would survive some brightening.  I’d read chlorine bleach was a bad idea for brittle items, and I’ve started using an oxygen based bleach lately instead.  Unfortunately they said oxygen bleach tends to make rust stains worse…  This meant I couldn’t risk bleaching the entire dress.  Instead I took a strategic swatch of fabric from the lace of the dress and placed it in a jar of water mixed with oxygen bleach powder.   I let it sit for 2 days, shaking and stirring occasionally.

After 2 days the lace looked considerably whiter!  The next step was to get the satin a darker color to use as the background.  There were no tags indicating what the satin material was made of, but I assumed it was at least partially silk.  Assuming this I dyed it using fiber reactive dyes (my favorite) to spectacularly bad results.  After this I tried the “burn test” and it really didn’t look to ball up quite like polyester usually does, so maybe it was a blend. In the interest of time I bought some RIT synthetic dye and a pan from the thrift store (that still works on the induction cooktop – I brought a magnet with me to the store and tested all of them!) After 30 minutes of boiling, and the normal rinse, wash procedure I ended up with a fairly green that wasn’t quite the forest Mandy requested but still provided a nice contrast with the white lace.  After this you can follow my steps below to see how I did the rest!

Lace Wedding Dress Pendant

What you’ll need:

• lace from dress (brightened if desired, see above)
• satin from dress (dyed if desired, see above)
• scrap fleece
• scrap cardboard
• Cabuchon setting tray 5/8″ wide or 1″ wide (I bought these)
• E5000 glue
• gloves
• clamps

1. Cut out a cardboard circle that is 1/8″ narrower in diameter than the cabuchon tray you chose.  (either 1/2″ for the 5/8″ or 7/8″ for the 1″)
2. Using the cardboard circle as a template, cut out a circle of lace and circle of satin that is approximately 1/4″ wider than the template all around.  (Ultimately this will make  circles 1″ diameter for the 5/8″ holder or 1 3/8″ diameter for the 1″ holder.)
3. Cut a piece of scrap fleece 1/8″ smaller than the template. (Either 3/8″ diameter for the 5/8″ or 3/4″ diameter for the 1″)
4. Stack the satin circle on top of the fleece circle on top of the cardboard circle.
5. Using gloves, add E6000 along the back edges of the cardboard, and then gently pull the satin to overlap and stick into the glue.  Make sure to pull taunt and keep the fabric siting flat.  Place this in the middle of a book (between sheets of waxed paper so it won’t get glued together.  Clamp and let dry overnight.
6. Remove the satin pendant from the clamps and then place E6000 on the back of the pendant again and then repeat step 5 for the lace.
7. Remove the satin and lace pendant from the book, place E6000 into the base of the cabuchon tray and then place the pendant into the tray. I had to use my nails to sort of tuck it into the tray, it was a very snug fit.  After you get it in the tray, clamp one more time and let dry another 24 hours.
8. At this point you are ready to wear! You might want to “fluff” the pendant up a bit since it has been clamped so many times at this point!

Complete side note – Patricia has gotten really good at actually counting objects and singing the abcs.  She counts 1-11 and then 18,19,20.  We’ll have to work on that.  She right now is singing the “a-b-c” song behind me over and over again and for the ending she keeps saying “now I know my H, I, J’s” and it is hilarious.