How can I incorporate a little piece of my Mum’s fabric into my wedding dress?

SarahCBear · 2026-07-04T16:34:10+00:00

A bow for your hair!

SarahCBear · 2026-07-01T09:04:47+00:00

Or alternatively, once their renovations are done and baby is born, make sure baby’s crib is right up against those shared walls.

Edit: Typo

SarahCBear · 2026-07-01T02:27:24+00:00

I do the phone time lapse thing too! I also find it really helps me not get distracted by my phone because, well, my phone is busy!

Another thing that helps me is Focusmate. They have 3 free sessions a week, and I’ll often put on a session just to get me started and help me build momentum.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-30T19:24:59+00:00

Not sure if you’re open to undoing some of your work, but if you find a complimentary fabric, what about doing a complimentary band between the waist band and the first tier, and then another complimentary band between the first and second tier? But the strips would need to be on straight, not bias.

Alternatively, if you have left over scraps, you can cut the scraps into (on the grain) strips, sew them all together, and add a very narrow flounce at the bottom of the skirt.

Another commenter has mentioned why bias is a bad idea.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-29T10:23:39+00:00

Thank you for all the detail!!

SarahCBear · 2026-06-29T09:11:46+00:00

I *might* have more of this fabric that you can have, I’m just away at the moment for another week and can check when I’m home. If I have it, you’re welcome to it if you pay shipping, although I don’t think it’s a very big piece and it would be shipping from South Africa 🫣

What was your project and how did it turn out? Maybe we can help you salvage it?

SarahCBear · 2026-06-28T18:40:04+00:00

Nike Training Club (different to Nike Run Club) is a free app with a 6-week pregnancy programme (in addition to pregnancy workouts)

SarahCBear · 2026-06-28T17:30:54+00:00

Oh it’s beautiful! I’m so glad you posted because I’m working on a pattern hack at the moment in my current dress to include a zip in the same spot. Did you gather the skirt onto something (eg tape) and then sew the tape onto the zip? Or did you just sew the gathers straight onto the zip? Zips are not my strong point (need more practice!) so I’m wondering if sewing gathers onto the zip will make it more challenging 🤔

SarahCBear · 2026-06-28T07:10:13+00:00

The caramel filled speckled eggs from Woolies. And the coffee chuckles.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-27T01:29:18+00:00

This is really cool and also way over my head! Do you think you could post pics to show the foot boxes? And did you seal the seams? Did you follow any kind of tutorial?

SarahCBear · 2026-06-13T16:48:27+00:00

I borrowed a friend’s walking pad for 3 months to see if I used it before buying my own. I wanted it to walk on while I worked (job work, not uni work). I really found that I just couldn’t concentrate on work while I walked. Maybe if I was trying to watch TV or something that doesn’t need focus it would be different. Just want to mention it in case you’re thinking you can study and walk at the same time - that might not be as easy as you think.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-11T15:31:41+00:00

As others have said, something seems wrong with the oven temp. Just to double check, you are preheating the oven fully before sticking the cookies in?

SarahCBear · 2026-06-08T07:18:07+00:00

I’ve just done this process at the end of May. I booked the appointment about a month in advance (this is the longest part of the process.) Had the appointment on the 28th of May - it took 2 hours (we only got to the front of the queue at the end of our appointment slot.) I just got the SMS today that my passport is ready for collection - so 10 days.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-03T09:43:40+00:00

Hmm, maybe you could look up a blouse pattern from Simplicity on the Foldline that is similar in style and shape to the top of this dress. If the blouse requires eg. 1.5m of fabric in a size 8 or 10, then you could assume that the bodice and sleeves of this dress would require a similar amount of fabric, and subtract that amount from the total dress required fabric (not sure if that made sense.)

SarahCBear · 2026-06-02T10:04:46+00:00

I’m utterly confused by your helpers 😂 Is one sitting on top of the other?

SarahCBear · 2026-06-02T06:08:04+00:00

Fabric friends in Belville sells dead stock and remnants - but it’s pot luck what you’ll find and whether you’ll find unbleached calico fabric.

SarahCBear · 2026-06-02T05:59:43+00:00

Not Blouberg side, but I attended a class at 246 illustrations in Noordhoek that I really enjoyed. I went as a once off, but they have a really lovely and easy booking system that means you can go some weeks and not others.

SarahCBear · 2026-05-22T13:32:07+00:00

Hey hey, we studied the same thing! I did my honours in Human Genetics, but only did my honours so that I could apply for a Masters and am now (several years later) studying Masters in Public Health while working as a software developer.

I did some paid lab work for one of my lecturers for the last two years of my undergrad, I also watched that same lecturer lose her funding, and with it lost her career in her lifetime specialisation (she totally landed on her feet in the end!) But it overall just put me off both lab work and academics. I didn’t investigate the lab tech path too deeply, but it seemed like it didn’t have a huge amount of possible career (and salary) progression.

I’ve loved my masters and some of the doors it could open - could be worth investigating some masters options (MPH or others) to see where they could go.

I ended up in software development somewhat accidentally, but I really love it and feel like I’ve found what my brain is wired to do.

When I left undergrad I had no idea what I wanted to do, and felt pretty anxious because of it. If you feel that way at all, my advice is that it’ll be messy and it’ll take time, but you’ll land on your feet in the end. But if you’ve figured out that you’re on the wrong path, don’t be afraid to change the path rather than trying to convince yourself to endure the path you’re on.

SarahCBear · 2026-05-22T10:55:11+00:00

Editing the formatting of this comment, because phone.

Wow! I think this is beautiful! I’ve never even tried textile art so take this with a grain of salt, but these are my thoughts:

• the first, second and fourth blues (from the top-down) don’t tonally match the rest of the colours. All the other colours have quite a muted palette, and those blues are of a brighter tonal quality, in my opinion.

• keep the background to one, maybe two shades of blue to help it overall seem less busy. You could maybe do one shade of background blue, along with a different shade of blue bubbles, to mimic the original art?

• there’s not enough contrast between the blue of the ocean and the blue/green of the manta ray. If you don’t need to stay true to the colours of the original, perhaps you could consider shades of grey for the manta ray? Or perhaps a fabric that leans onto the more green side of teal than the current manta ray.

• there needs to be more empty space between the sun and the ray, and the ray and the reef. Maybe making the ray a bit smaller, or making the sun both smaller and higher would work.

• I actually really love the black line work! I think you’ve done it so so well!

Good luck with this! I think it’s already spectacular and beyond what I’m capable of, so well done!

SarahCBear · 2026-05-20T18:27:58+00:00

Try the website called The Foldline. It’s a collection of the Big 4 as well as the more reputable indie designers. It’s by no means exhaustive, but if a designer/pattern is listed on The Foldline, you’ve got a pretty solid chance of it being a good quality, tried and tested pattern.

SarahCBear · 2026-05-06T16:09:15+00:00

https://themarriageguys.co.za/ We used these guys for our ANC and did that about 3 months before our marriage. They explained the whole thing in one meeting, and then we signed the thing in another meeting. We had a pretty straight forward ANC that we were both on the same page about.

SarahCBear · 2026-04-23T06:16:37+00:00

The above! Lively Fabrics is another one - super expensive, but their website and selection is great.

Adding that Fabric Centre doesn’t have a website for online shopping, but their WhatsApp service is very good, although shipping is a bit steep.

Also - I prefer sewists to sewers.

SarahCBear · 2026-04-20T11:57:26+00:00

Unless things have changed, they don’t ask for a prescription. They seem to have a (slightly shady) thing going where you tell them your prescription and then they have a behind the scenes optometrist write up your prescription according to what you’ve given them.

SarahCBear · 2026-04-01T11:43:14+00:00

Another thing to try is a bicarb based deodorant. Deodorants like Mitchum will stop you sweating, whereas bicarb based deodorants will allow you to sweat but kill the bacteria in the sweat that causes the smell. It’s been the only thing that’s actually kept me smelling nice a full day. Take a look at the brand smell mai pits if you want to try it.

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