His Commands Are Not Burdensome

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."

--1 John 5:3

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

--Proverbs 1:7

"Obeying commands about modesty is so hard! All these rules your parents put on you for how they want you to dress are so constrictive. You know what? There's one day in your life when you can wear whatever you want! Hey, your female attendants can even wear what they want! What's more, you and your friends can get drunk (or give an opportunity to others to do so) if you really want to. You can play that rock music as loud as you want and dance to it. It's called your wedding day!"

Does that not sound quite right? I wonder why. Oh! Maybe it's because the Bible says much to the opposite. 

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;"

--1 Timothy 2:9

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

--1 Timothy 4:12

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;"

--Ephesians 5:18

I wonder how Christian girls read the first verse of these three and then go on to wear completely immodest clothes for their wedding, (or to someone else's; looking at you, bridesmaids.) Especially when there are such sweet, beautiful alternatives to culture's dictates about wedding apparel. 

More skin showing = prettier. Wrong. To be proven in this article. 

More skin showing = more attractive. Hmm. The point of a wedding is getting married to one man. Do you really love him? Show him that by saving yourself for him, starting on your wedding day.

I have a question. What is your purpose for wearing 1/2 a dress to your wedding? Is it to glorify God? I'm guessing not. 

Is it because you really wanted a pretty dress and this was the ONLY one you could find?? Nope. 

Is it because it's your only chance to wear a fancy and immodest dress, per tradition? Well, it is not your only chance. You don't have the option at all to be immodest as a Christian woman.

It's time for ladies to stop going with the flow. We need to stick out, be different, and represent Christ in a non-Christian world. A wedding is a great opportunity to be a good example to others. What other time can you be assured to have the rapt attention of at 100+ people on you and what you're wearing? Be an example to the young ladies who haven't had a wedding yet. Show them how gorgeous and innocent a modest wedding can be. 

A "modest wedding dress" does not imply being plain, long-sleeved, and choke-necked. My wedding dress isn't going to look like that. No, I plan to have a lot of fun designing the prettiest, best thing I can come up with! I'm not Amish, (and you aren't, either, if you're reading this post online!) but I am a part of Christ's body and His representative on earth. I need to act accordingly.

By the way, I'm not Mormon either, in case you wondered. :)

Let me assure you that you aren't missing out on anything by attaching shoulders to a dress. You aren't missing out on anything by having a dress with a back on it, for goodness' sakes! And you are sure of God's good opinion of you if you are careful to include Him with your special-day decisions.

A note to the bride: If you can't be sure that your sweet bridesmaids will choose modest apparel, think about choosing their designs for them. They have to do what you want them to! :)

"Adorn yourself in modest apparel" has got to be one of the easiest commands to obey in the Bible. There's so many options that are beautiful, and won't hurt other people's consciences! 

If you wouldn't comfortably wear the dress to the grocery store or to Sunday morning worship service (on account of how much of you it exposes,) let me suggest that you should re-think the design of your special dress. 

My mother and I were enjoying looking at what the web has to offer in terms of modest dresses for the bride. If you can't sew - or don't want to - there are tons of wedding dresses out there that are quite beautiful.

Here's a few sites that I've seen out there that have some nice dresses to offer: (Note: I do not endorse everything I see on every single website.)

https://www.elizabethcooperdesign.com/store/c10/Modest_Wedding_Dresses.html

This dress captured my heart :)

https://fantasy-bridal.com/categories/modest-wedding-dresses?

https://www.moncheribridals.com/modest-by-mon-cheri

Once you see how beautiful a modest wedding dress can be, you will realize that you're missing out by not looking at the alternatives!

And of course, if you're not excited by what you see, you can always design your own! (Plus...sewing your own will be a lot cheaper...)

~A few handmade designs~

Another trend I've been seeing in Christian wedding planning is to serve alcohol at the reception.  

Yes, I know that the Bible allows the drinking of alcohol as long as you don't get drunk. But as my mother and I were talking about this, she pointed out something interesting: 

As a young person, you don't know your tolerance for strong drink. You don't know how much it takes to make you drunk. What if you actually have a tendency to become addicted, and that first drink starts you off? 

As the host/hostess of a wedding, you don't know your guests' tolerance for strong drink. What if they have never had wine before, drink a little bit, think it is delicious, and discover that they have a strong tendency to become addicted? Perhaps, if the occasion had not been offered to them in Christian society, they wouldn't have taken their first drink and made a crucial, life-affecting mistake.

Sure wouldn't want that one on my conscience.

We recently went to a very nice wedding where no strong drinks were served. Everyone was happy and sociable, and nobody missed the alcohol! 

My mother has written a very good post about alcohol and "social drinking" on her blog. You might enjoy it!

Well, I don't usually write rants on my blog, but this is one I've had saved up in my plans for awhile. Thanks for reading!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

"Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:"

--Proverbs 7:4

"For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it."

--Proverbs 8:11

How I Made This Dress, Part 3...Finishing Up

When I have the bodice completely done on a dress, I have usually passed all the hard work. Just have to attach a simple skirt, and I'll be done! 

Not so with circle dresses. Those can be finicky to the very end. 

And not so with the tiered skirt to this dress, because I had a lot of work ahead of me to make all those gathers!

My mother told me how to do a tiered skirt. Here's the "formula" I used for how long each of my panels needed to be.

Here's how I did my panels...

I cut a panel and sewed the ends together (right sides together) to make a round. On one of the panels, I had to add extra yardage to make it the right length. This dress fit easily into 4 yards of fabric, using the excess from one panel to complete another.

I sewed 2 rows of gathers on one edge.

It would have been cute to just hem the bottom of this panel and have a blouse!

I gathered the second panel until it fit pretty well with my last panel, then sewed it up!

To this I added a short panel to complete the skirt.

I made a sash out of the dress material, and I was...done!!

Here's some more dress pictures.

Hope you enjoyed this dress-making process!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

How I Made This Dress, Part 2...SLEEVES

 Hello all,

Here's another installment of photos and explanations from my recent dress project! Enjoy!

The inspiration for this dress was this 1940's tiered dress, and the fabric came from Joanns.

We left off in the last post with a sleeveless bodice. This post is about how I made the puffed sleeves!

To start off with, I laid my bodice by the section of fabric I had cut my bodice from. In the photo above, the armhole of the bodice is mirrored against the place where it was cut from. Note: the fold is at the top here. 

Cutting straight down from the top gives me this shape. FYI: The sleeve is facing the other direction than from the last photo.

I rolled the straight edge of the sleeve over twice and hemmed it.

In this picture I'm making a small cut into the folded sleeve to tell me how far to sew gathering stitches.

Here's my first row of gathering stitches: not back-stitched at the end, stitch length 5 on my machine.

I sewed another row next to it.

Then comes the fun part...making the gathers! I gathered until the left side of the sleeve was about the same size as the armhole.

I sewed the ends of the sleeve together. I didn't sew over the hem, though, because I'd need access the hem to string my elastic through.

It was time to attach the sleeve to the bodice. I put the sleeve around the armhole backwards, with right sides of the fabric together, and sewed around the armhole. I don't remember pinning it, but I might have.

Aligning the bottom of the sleeve and the top of the armhole.

Ta-da!! 

It would have been cute to leave it as a sort of butterfly sleeve, but its destiny was to be a puffed sleeve...

I cut 2 pieces of 1/4" elastic a little larger than the circumference of my upper arm. 

I attached a safety pin to one end, and threaded it through my hem/casing, When the end of the elastic was about to disappear into the casing, (it's a good thing to watch for) I stopped and sewed it down. 

When it was about to come out the other end, I sewed it down on that side too. Be careful not to sew over your safety pin when you secure that end of the elastic, by the way!

Then I stitched the rest of the under-arm seam shut, right over my elastic and hem.

I distributed the gathers around the sleeve opening.

Then...I made another sleeve ;).

I hope you enjoyed this sort-of-tutorial!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey

How I Made This Dress, Part 1

 Hello all,

I'm pretty excited about this new dress! It is a little different than the designs that I usually make. I documented a lot of the process so I could share it with you. Here goes Part 1!

The inspiration for this dress was this 1940's tiered dress, and the fabric came from Joanns.

First, I Visualized My Design

Here was my rough drawing of what I planned to make. Yes, the finished product turned out different. I changed some things...and forgot some things because I was not paying attention to my drawing. Just being honest!

 I used another dress I made to give me some dimensions for the bodice. I folded it in 1/2 and laid in on my folded fabric. (Look at this post to see how I fold my fabric)

My front (lower) and back (higher) neckline 

More lines :) I made my armholes and shoulders larger than my original markings, because I was cutting a yoke out of this bodice, which meant that I needed room for its seam allowances. 

Speaking of the yoke, I used this measuring tape as a sort of compass to make the yoke the right distance from the neckline.

I cut the back neckline and the armhole out. I opted to cut the armhole a little differently than I had drawn. 

I also drew a line for the bottom of my bodice, but I didn't end up cutting it at all! I had planned to cut it before I attached the skirt after sewing the bodice, so I could make sure that the bodice was the length I wanted it to be. But I left it with a low-waist at the end.

Cutting my front neckline

I decided to make my neckline a little bigger

The yoke

For the yoke lining, I salvaged some muslin from my sewing scraps. 

I had to do the yoke lining in 2 pieces, but it turned out fine. I made sure to leave seam allowances for the connecting seams so the lining would still fit my yoke once its pieces were sewn together.

I sewed the lining to the yoke, (with the yoke on the right side of the fabric) and snipped into the seam allowance. This is to make the curves of a neckline lie flat and smooth when you flip a lining or facing to the inside.

Now it was time to sew the yoke to the bodice.

I sewed an arc of lace to the main piece of the bodice first, and then added the yoke. This way, my lace could not move around while I sewed the yoke and bodice together, and I used that first seam as a guide for where to sew my yoke on. My lace didn't get completely enclosed in a seam this way :)

Then I sewed the back of the bodice to the back of the yoke...

I top-stitched above my lace, folding the seam behind it upwards so that my lace would lie down and not up.

I sewed the side seams together.

Well, that'll be all for this post. Stay tuned for more of the process!

to God be the glory,

Miss Humphrey