MOG Dress Completion, and Accessories!

Now it was time to hem my MOG dress, but first I had to get some shoes.  I tried on every shoe in this city...even bought a few pair!  But nothing felt comfortable.  I couldn't imagine wearing any of these shoes all night, let alone dancing in them. 

I began wondering HOW on earth do those dancers on TV do it? 
Of course!  They wear DANCING SHOES!

So I got on the phone and called a dancewear store close to me.  Yep, they have dancing shoes IN STOCK.  So I  IMMEDIATELY drove over there. 

I tried on several styles...EVERY single shoe I tried on was MUCH more comfortable than ANY of the 'pretty' ones I had tried before.  Even the ones that were the wrong size were more comfortable!

These were not the prettiest, but they had a sole that could be worn outside (unlike the shoes for ballroom dancing, which have a soft sole).  The color was blah...tan...but I knew I could paint them any color I wanted!  Plus, my dress is full and long...how much would they really show? 
So I bought these:

Gorgeous, eh?

Once I took them home, I compared them to the pair of shoes I had already purchased.
Visually, there was no comparison...the dancing shoes were much wider and clunkier.  the other shoes were 'prettier'.  But...imagine...if that wide shoe fits, how in the world is my foot supposed to survive in the narrow, 'pretty' shoe?

I got out the masking tape and began taping the soles.

 

Then I started mixing paint!  I used Lumiere paints and mixed gold and silver to get an 'in-between' color.  Here you can see the painted shoe on the left and the unpainted one on the right.

 

 

But as you can see, the newly painted shoe doesn't match the 'pretty' shoe.  I kept painting. 

 

After a few days, I decided the shoes were STILL too gold for my taste, even though the dress DOES have a gold mesh underlayer in the bodice.  I really wanted them to be a bit more silver.  So I mixed paints again...this time using a Platinum color mixed with some gel medium to make it more translucent.  Better.  In this picture, the platinum color is the one in the center.

Then, in a moment of weakness, I decided to see what would happen if I rubbed SHOE POLISH on them to 'antique' these shoes, like the 'pretty ones'.  Well, duh!   These shoes don't have folds to hold the darker polish...they are smooth.  I quickly rubbed it off as best as I could and called the shoes DONE!

Oh, the 'pretty' shoes were returned to the store, unworn.

Now that the wedding shoes had been acquired, I could finally hem the MOG dress.  After it had hung for a while to let the bias skirt 'seek its place in the world', my sister came over and pinned up the hem for me...she is very good at that kind of stuff!

I hand-basted close to the folded edge, then marked a constant amount UP from the fold.

Next, I cut on that marked line, so that I would have an even hem allowance.

I decided to use hem lace on this hem...I wanted it to look nice but be very secure.  I didn't want it pulling out after accidently catching a heel on the hem! I found some purple hem lace in...where else?...my grandmother's stash!  But it wasn't quite enough to go all the way around the dress hem.  No biggie, I thought.  I'll go ahead and start sewing with this lace, then get some more in the morning when the stores open.

I soon realized that it was miles around this them!  But I sewed and sewed...using a herringbone stitch on TOP of the lace to make it lay very flat...hoping to make it less likely to catch on anything.

Then, in the morning, I left home to pick up some more purple lace.  Well, duh.  Have you tried to buy hem lace lately?  There are VERY few colors available, and that is *if* you can find the hem lace at all!  I had to buy navy blue...so part of my hem has purple lace and part has navy blue!  sigh.

I was reminded by friends that I might want to get a little purse to carry...something to put my phone (camera) in as well as a hanky.  Hmmmm....  that is not something I had thought about before.  But after shopping around town, I quickly realized that a) my taste exceeds my budget, and b) there is not much selection in this town!

One day I was prowling around in Kohls, looking for who knows what...when I stumbled upon this tiny little wrist purse.  It was exactly the color of my MOG dress!  So I had to buy it.

 

Once I got it home, I pried off that silly silver name on the front.

Then I used Glad Press 'n Seal and a Sharpie to make a pattern of that front area...

I used that pattern on a piece of the layered lace-mesh-satin fabric and cut a panel to cover the purse front.  I used hot glue to attach it!  Done.

Leave it to me to turn this wedding into one big craft project!

But it turned out fun and fine. 

Oh, BTW, the MOB decided she wasn't crazy about her teal dress, so she took it back and got a dark blue one.  I was worried that now mine might look too similar to hers...but since no one else seemed to care, I didn't either!  In the end, we coordinated! :)

 

The End.