Western wedding attire

My mom was married to a wonderful man 10 days ago, in a laid-back, country themed wedding. The invitation stated "casual western attire encouraged". I don't do western, it just isn't my style. But that doesn't mean my kids won't wear it! Mom said denim was a-ok, but as family of the bride, I still felt the need to dress up a little. Almost a year ago, I won a great book called Absolutely A Line from Sew Mama Sew. It has a pattern for a basic a-line dress, with a million variations on the same basic dress to make it different. I found this great dressy variation in the book, and couldn't wait to try it out. I bought this great lightweight denim with a turquoise dot (have I mentioned turquoise is my favourite colour?). This variation on the main pattern seemed like the best of both worlds: a fancy tuxedo-style bib on a denim dress. This variation includes facings, which worked out quite well. I love the look of no visible stitching around the neck and arms! While finishing this dress, I remembered my hatred for ruffles!!! Really, I don't hate them, I just hate working with them! It takes forever to equally disperse the fabric, pinning all along. But after all the work, I must admit that it worked out, and looks pretty good!
When it came to Monkey's outfit, I knew I had seen a great tutorial to "westernize" a plain shirt. (Cheri from I am Momma, Hear Me Roar has one here) So, off I went, in search of a plain shirt. WalMart had just what I was looking for: can't beat $7! By the time I started to plan his shirt, I had already ordered my dress, and planned out Sweetie's, so I had an idea of what the colour theme should be: turquoise and green. Off I went to the fabric store, and came home with some super fun paisley! I even branched out and brought home some lime green piping to jazz it all up. I had all that I needed, but was a little scared to give it a try. I put it off until 2 days before the wedding (I had a plain old plaid shirt waiting in the sidelines in case I had to fall back on it). I did it my way, a bit different from Cheri's method: I traced out the front and back shoulder sections of the plain shirt, and tried to make a template. The first template was a bit small, but luckily, it was done on scrap fabric. I adjusted it, and began cutting away. I made the embellishment of 2 layers: 1 layer of white twill (leftover from sweetie's dress), and 1 layer of the paisley fabric. (it turns out the twill is too heavy, I wish I had just used white shirting or something lighter) I cut both, then sewed them, right sides together. I trimmed the corners and edges, and turned it right side out. Pinned it all on, with piping behind it. I wish I had a zipper foot because it would have made sewing it all on with the piping much easier, but, all in all, it worked pretty well. Here's a detail of the back of the shirt (please ignore the LOVELY haircut - that's what happens when Daddy takes him for a cut - he comes home with a fauxhawk!)

And this sweet pic gives a bit of a peek at the front of the shirt. This pic was taken during the ceremony. It was in a chicken barn - very laid-back, yet the decorations were so nice, you almost forgot where you were!

...as for Mac's outfit - he doesn't do western either, so it was a nice, neutral gray striped shirt. It was basically down to whatever shirt we could find in the store that fit him correctly (all the "stylish" shirts are cut so close to the body!) Mac nearly ripped a few shirts in the shoulders as he tried them on!

So, there you have it, the story of my feverish, frantic sewing preparations for my mom's wedding. I'm so happy the way it all turned out. More importantly, so happy with how the wedding as a whole turned out! It was a lovely day for a lovely couple, and we couldn't be more happy for them!

I'll leave you with a family photo taken on the lovely day.....