Elialex # 3- Birthday Tea!

This dress was kind of a nightmare to make, not gonna lie.  I should have given up on it several times, but for some reason, I just couldn't let it go. 

Below we have the first "finished product" with the skirt that came with the book this time.  Admittedly, it had been slightly altered because, for one thing, the skirt was about a foot longer than even pictured.  Yikes!  Still, it looked pretty great from the front, right? 

And then we have the back...WTF, right?  Needless to say, I would not wear this out of the house this way.  I'm sure this was partially the pattern not being right for my big butt, and partially user error.  Either way, this was bad bad bad! 

So, I tried to make it a peplum shirt, but the zipper still made the back poke out horribly. 

 I really didn't want to start over because-just look at the pretty green ribbon I had added as accent!  I didn't want it to get ruined when I took out the zipper, but luckily, it made it through.  Incidentally, I only added this ribbon in the first place because I had messed up on the lining and I wanted something pretty to cover that up. 

SO, eventually I got up the nerve to try again, and used the last scraps of this lovely brocade that I had left, and made a whole new skirt, and added a whole new zipper, and walla!  I fixed it!  Jer (the hubby) also complained that it was too long, so I made it quite a bit shorter.

Ready for it?  Elialex dress number three!  Here I am with my husband at yet another birthday event for me.  Turning 30 means people have to pay attention to you a lot and tell you how great you are.  I highly recommend the experience.  The necklace and earrings that I am wearing in some of the pics was a present form my folks that I got at the tea.  :)

Don’t I look cute in my little fitted version?  Let me tell you, this dress was a pain in the butt!!!  Even in these pictures it hadn’t gone through its final transformation.  I recently added some black lace to the waist to cover up some puckering in the back (yet another mistake!).

  What a success form a total failure, right?  The lesson here- sometimes your mistakes can help you to create something even better than what you expected.  It even looks fairly good on the inside!

My shoes are gold and sparkly! And that beautiful beaded burgundy purse (jealous, right?) was a present from my sis. Also, my husband is the cutest ever.  :)

And now for something completely different!  This is my sis Rachel and her boyfriend Mike, who were also at my birthday tea.  And look!  She wore a Peony dress that I made for her for her birthday last June!  It made me so happy to see her wear it. 

She styled it with these great tights too.  Isn't she beautiful?  Yes, she is. 

Anyway...back to me!  One more Elizalex's to come!  I have actually made two more, but one of them will be a gift so I can't show it yet.  But don't be sad! I'm sure I will make many more in the future (especially considering that I finally got the bust right on the next one!