This past weekend was a little different for Matt and me. We left the work clothes in their piles on the bedroom floor and the measuring tapes stayed in the toolbox. Instead, we got dolled up in our best duds and put on our dancing shoes.

What was the occasion for such finery? The celebration of my sister’s wedding.

You know I’m all about DIY, though, so for the past couple of months I’ve been taking a bit of time off from the basement renovation to work on this little number.

I’ve no plans to turn this into a sewing blog, but this was a special dress made with a special fabric for a very special occasion, so please bear with me as I break with our regular program of country living and home improvement to share a little bit about The Dress. For those that want the full project breakdown, see my review on Pattern Review.

This dress is the most challenging thing I’ve ever sewn, and it’s my first sewing project at the farm. The fact that my sewing room isn’t set up yet and has in fact become the holding room for most of the boxes we haven’t unpacked and a lot of the things that we don’t know what to do with yet complicated things slightly. Between a desk leftover by the past owners where I could set up my sewing machine, an ironing board in the dining room and a few square metres of clear floor space behind the living room couch, I made it work.

I probably would not recommend tackling a project like this concurrent with moving, renovating and caring for a large property, but despite a bit of stress about finding sewing time everything worked out very well in the end.

The fabric for this dress is actually courtesy of my sister, the bride. She bought it for me in Malaysia when she was visiting her fiancé’s family. Initially I wasn’t sure where I’d ever use such a fancy, brightly coloured fabric. But when my sister said that she wanted to be the white in the middle of a brightly coloured rainbow of her bridesmaids, I knew this was perfect.

A family wedding is a tremendously special occasion, and I was very happy to be part of my sister’s and her new husband’s special day. Congratulations, Jennifer and Jeremy. I wish you much love and happiness together.