Very interesting tradition of the Amish wedding dress. My great-grandmother was a Seminole and they had different tradition. If you look at the woman on the left in the photo I've linked you'll see that she wears a large collection of bead necklaces. Upon birth a Seminole female would receive a bead necklace, and over the years she'd add more necklaces. At middle age she would start removing them one by one until at her death she would be left with the original necklace she received at her birth. Seminoles also had their own version of the birthing room. If a death occurred in the confines of their village the would abandon the village and find a new spot to set up camp. Infant mortality was quite high in those times and in order to keep from moving constantly they would set up a small shelter just outside the boundaries of the village as a birthing shelter. Here is a link that might be useful: Seminole Women boiling cane sugar

Hi Gena I have a friend (not me of course) with a similar addiction. My friend, (I'll call him h for husband) started out on the light stuff first, gardening then composting. Soon that was'nt enough. H works in construction, like myself, and things are slow so he and his wife (w for the rest of this tale) decided to start renovating their small house during his off days. Then w ordered him some worms for x-mas. H was careful not to schedule any work so he'd be home when they arrived (careless mailman could leave them in the sun). First sign of trouble: h calls w at work (which he never does) to state they arrived. He then calls again to say he called the company that sent the worms with a problem (they had sent more worms than were ordered and he thought the bin they sent was too small) oh and he had talked to the worm guy himself!! the same famous guy from the web site!! w was happy her gift was appreciated. W began to notice behavioral changes in my friend, small at first, a little dirt by the worm box, box moved to different parts of the house ect. Then the changes became more pronounced, work around the house had slowed, but h had finally taken his starter plants out of her empty aquarium so she was excited to get some fish and so she let it slide. Then the weather turned cold, (my friends h and w have an agreement that h has custody of the thermostat during the cold months and w during the hot, saves on electric and arguments as h likes it colder than his wife). Imagine her horror as she sat under her electric blanket and saw the worm bin in the fish tank with the heating pad at a comfortable 75 degrees. More trouble: work at my friends house has slowed to a crawl. W, while using the computer found the browser history had many worm related sites on it. Turns out when not messing with his worms h was reading about them. Like a true addict h explained this by saying he was just a concerned newbie. Begging forgiveness he moved the bin to the garage. h had a few busy weeks at work so all was good, then he had an entire week off and much to do at home, small house, 1 room at a time, lots of stuff to move to tile, paint ect. W notices this is taking a long time! H, who like me has 20+ years of construction experience has several thousand plausible excuses for this. It's a necessary skill to explain delays. Still there is more web proof that he's reading about worms, turns out he's not smart enough to erase his web history. w mentions the web use but rather than repent h considers using the library computers. Other personality changes: h agrees to accompany his wife to petsmart (which he never does) w finds him asking about redwigglers, turns out he read they sold them as exotic pet food. W is now concerned this is spiraling out of control, he has too many for his bin yet wants more. W takes hubbies atm rendering him helpless to buy worm related products without leaving a traceable paper trail. One day while shopping wife notices husband in fishing (bait) department at wal-mart(like me he does'nt fish) h now must show receipt if he shops alone. h is left with homedepot, lowes, and gas card only, none sell worms. Another cold wave in florida: H is worried about his worms so he closes the garage door all the way, usually he locks it slightly ajar so any of w's cats who did'nt come in at bedtime can sleep in relative warmth. w is awakened by screaming cat at bedroom window. worms in back yard now. h blames heating pad autoshutoff not himself and considers rewiring it. h repents and starts to get some stuff done; he totally reorganizes all of their large storage bins in the garage, he does such a good job one is totally empty! He also finds the paper shredder that was stored during the office renovation (w had been asking for a month) lets hope his motives are pure. unfortunately like all addicts h was thinking only of himself soon the storage box was drilled, and that sunday while looking for the sunday paper w found him shredding it. H explained that he needed to move his worms (the box was full, not his fault they sent so many and things would get better when they were moved. w then returned home on monday to find h filling the storage box with water. I need to make sure there is nothing to harm the worms he explained. w mentioned he uses the same paper for the rabbit and never worried but he did'nt hear her. after a week of filling and letting box drain w came home and found the box in driveway drying in the florida sun. H is in the house, he has gotten the juicer out and is juicing some apples (w's favorite) Alas the juice is to hydrate the worms bedding so they'll eat more. h apoligizes and starts sorting his worms to their new bin. things will be better he tells her and himself when they're moved. several hours later he is done and ready to start his new worm ignoring life. all he needs to do is put his harvested castings in his pots outside in the morning. Trouble: H starts to put his castings on top of his veggies, oh oh found an egg. well h thinks that's only about 4 worms but i should really sort this better. three hours later w comes out and asks whats going on. I found 20 or so eggs and some babies he replies and then explains how this represents a gazillion worms over time, w doubts his math and his sanity so h does his normal chores instead. He is still trying. H sleeps poorly worried about the neglected worms. The next day he begs off going to a superbowl party. Too much to do around here he says. wife attends party but leaves early to surprise h with some company and some takeout (she knows he loves football and is proud he missed the party to get things done). She arrives home, no tv on in living room, truck is in driveway, no sign of h. w goes outback and follows extention cord to shed where h is sorting castings and listening to the game on radio. As h stands in his now dark shed he hopes this is what they mean by rockbottom. Sorry this post was so long but i want my friends story to warn others of the dangers of this hobby.

I would suggest the Nazli Gelin Book 2 Garden Party that has two patterns that could be adapted for wedding dresses. One is shown in beige or ivory and has a lot of open space; the other is a white tunic with a scoop neck, short sleeves, plain bodice with a natural waist, and then a skirt part in a vertical herringbone pattern. The skirt could be made any length desired, and beading around the neckline and sleeve edge would be darling. The book is available from Universal Yarn Company and can be found through "Google" on the internet.

OK- I totally cheated. Over the weekend I met up with a family friend who happens to have been sewing for most of her life- helping to outfit community theater productions at last minute notice in addition to her many other achievements with her hobby. I asked her for tips, and she told me to stop by her house (she's on a tight travelling schedule, so I went last night with the tops, black sleeve fabric, thread, and every pattern with short sleeves in it I had at home.) She chose one of the patterns, cut them with an extra long mid section, ironed, pinned, and sewed all four sleeves between 6:30 and 10:00 while I tidied cut pieces, folded patterns we weren't using (gosh darn things!)collected pins, started sewing the snaps in the pants, and generally watched carefully. I had offered to take the others home to do once I saw how to do it, but she was up & running and would have none of that. It worked wonderfully, they are regular short sleeves that have a touch of gathering/slight puff over the shoulder since the tank ended about an inch to inch and a half from the edge of my shoulder. She did a zigzag stitch to hold the twice folded hem at the end. I only hope that it doesn't shrink when I wash it- cold water of course, since I didn't get to wash it beforehand. I'm going to have to pick up a nice bottle of wine for her when she's back in town. The snaps for the pants, on the other hand- are kind of funny because I put the pants on and we pinned them where I wanted them- but it turns out the front parts are offset (height) by about 1.5 inches. I guess I tend to tie the backs higher than the fronts, although you can't really notice just by looking. I don't think I should move them because then I'd have to start tying them differently. BTW, when I asked for "clear snaps" they seemed confused- until one asked if I meant plastic- so I ended up with nylon plastic snaps that can be ironed. Thank you for all your suggestions.