So I mentioned working on D's wedding dress, with her permission I'm going to try to blog the process!
This dress is actually a partial remake. Some time ago D bought a dress at a thrift store to use in an underwater shoot, since it had a lovely flowy skirt. That dress was this, in offwhite:
From Disney's 2008 Wedding dress collection.
Details after the break!
Here's the before pics that D took:
It's hard to describe how truly unflattering that bust gathering is.
Anyway, D loves the skirt on this. It's fabulous it's true.
But that bodice...
So obviously the solution is to totally remake the bodice! I'll not post what the goal is, so it can be a surprise!
We spent a few Saturdays in SF getting good fabric matches (thanks Bunny!).
For the sewing, I started out by having D try on my 1912 dress because for the top I'd used the top bit of a prom dress pattern and I don't recall modifying it much. That fit her really well, so I pulled that pattern out and made a muslin, adding an inch to the neckline so we'd have more freedom there.
Three fittings later, we were happy! (whoops, no pics of the fittings, but you can use your imagination).
In between the fittings I removed the bodice from the skirt, which was really nice 'cause I was able to look at the guts of it and learn some finishing techniques.
Anyway!
Once we had the muslin fit how we wanted, and tested with boning, we drew the seam lines on and pattern making time!
All that hat to be trued/evened out and made to be smooth and matched. Fun times~
Then paper pattern!
I chose to continue the 5/8" seam allowance from the commercial pattern just to be consistent and to give the itty bit extra of wiggle room, should it be needed.
Then cutting! We have the liner, a stretch taffeta that matched the colour wonderfully, and a silk chiffon overlay, hence all the pins.
Then I cut out a light weight cotton to flatline the bodice.
Almost ready to assemble!
After I sewed those together I went back and trimmed everything even to the cotton, as that's the most stable fabric of the three.
I'm normally a pretty careful/precise sewer, but I was eeeextra precise with this, 'cause, wedding, no pressure.
Tiny little shavings. Can't be too careful!
Then sewing! But... the side front and the side back pieces didn't match! Queue panic. Thankfully I hadn't tossed any of the muslin pieces, and looks pretty obvious I added extra seam allowance to one piece.
Okay that looks huge there, 'cause perspective, but it's actually exactly 5/8".
I'm 95% sure that it's a case of adding the seam allowance twice but for now I stopped after pressing. Not even clipping it yet, gotta dispel that 5% with a fitting!
This dress is actually a partial remake. Some time ago D bought a dress at a thrift store to use in an underwater shoot, since it had a lovely flowy skirt. That dress was this, in offwhite:
Details after the break!
Here's the before pics that D took:
It's hard to describe how truly unflattering that bust gathering is.
Anyway, D loves the skirt on this. It's fabulous it's true.
But that bodice...
So obviously the solution is to totally remake the bodice! I'll not post what the goal is, so it can be a surprise!
We spent a few Saturdays in SF getting good fabric matches (thanks Bunny!).
For the sewing, I started out by having D try on my 1912 dress because for the top I'd used the top bit of a prom dress pattern and I don't recall modifying it much. That fit her really well, so I pulled that pattern out and made a muslin, adding an inch to the neckline so we'd have more freedom there.
Three fittings later, we were happy! (whoops, no pics of the fittings, but you can use your imagination).
In between the fittings I removed the bodice from the skirt, which was really nice 'cause I was able to look at the guts of it and learn some finishing techniques.
Anyway!
Once we had the muslin fit how we wanted, and tested with boning, we drew the seam lines on and pattern making time!
All that hat to be trued/evened out and made to be smooth and matched. Fun times~
I chose to continue the 5/8" seam allowance from the commercial pattern just to be consistent and to give the itty bit extra of wiggle room, should it be needed.
Then I cut out a light weight cotton to flatline the bodice.
After I sewed those together I went back and trimmed everything even to the cotton, as that's the most stable fabric of the three.
I'm normally a pretty careful/precise sewer, but I was eeeextra precise with this, 'cause, wedding, no pressure.
Then sewing! But... the side front and the side back pieces didn't match! Queue panic. Thankfully I hadn't tossed any of the muslin pieces, and looks pretty obvious I added extra seam allowance to one piece.
I'm 95% sure that it's a case of adding the seam allowance twice but for now I stopped after pressing. Not even clipping it yet, gotta dispel that 5% with a fitting!
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