Help me design a dress for my friend's wedding!

Help me design a dress for my friend's wedding!

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• 6.16.2011

I need help!

I am so excited to be a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding (I've never done it before, and she is also in my wedding 3 weeks later!).  I'm having fun helping her with DIYs and watching both of our weddings develop--they will both be really fun and cute.

She will have four bridesmaids, and we each get to pick our dress in red or orange.  Of course I wanted to make mine, so I haven't done it yet, waiting to see what the other bridesmaids choose.  But I had in mind something full-skirted and retro.  I don't usually wear bright red, but the fabric I bought is BRIGHT lipstick/fire engine red cotton sateen.  Would  make a nice flared or pleated skirt, and I have enough for a variety of bodice options.  I was imagining something like one of these ModCloth cuties...

Or these from Anthro:

Or these from J.Crew, the classic source for classy bridesmaid dresses!

But none of them seem perfect...

I was thinking about a halter, strapless bodice, full or ruffled skirt, or something with a cute self-fabric belt.  A little retro, very classic... but still waiting to see what the other bridesmaids got.  I want to sort of coordinate.

Now the other three have bought their dresses, none of which are anything like what I was picturing...

One of the bridesmaid's dresses is kind of like this, a darker red:

One of them is a dress kind of like the one in this random picture I took with my phone at Marshall's one time, but in very bright red:

And one is this (Helmut Lang?) dress from Nordstrom, totally different than the others...

So now I'm faced with a dilemma.  If I do something cute and strapless or halter or full-skirted, I will definitely be the only one in such a classically-shaped dress.  I'm okay with that, but I want it to be different enough that it's clear it was intentional, but not so different that I don't look like I'm one of the bridesmaids.

I am out of ideas for actual design of the dress.  I have a few favorite patterns I've been thinking about using:

But I still don't really know what I want the final shape to be.  I need your help!!

What would you do?  Post a link to the perfect dress, if you've seen it, or throw in your two cents about bridesmaid coordination!  I would love your input before I cut out the dress!

Update: Here's what I made!