Hi there,

I am getting married in November this year (wooo!) and I've always wanted to make my own dress. My mum thinks I'm nuts and that I should just cough up and buy one. There are some OK dresses around, but they all seem to cost in excess of £1000! Where as I'm sure I could make my *perfect dress* for under £200. For me the maths adds up to make my own, plus the fact it will be unique and I can have exactly what I want on it. But I think mum is scared that I will make a hash of it, and end up with something that doesnt fit properly or just looks naff. I'm a semi experienced dress maker, but definately not to professional standard. I am 5ft 7, and have more or less slim hourglass proportions - I'm not sure what would suit me.

Have any of you wonderful and wise craftsters made your own? How did it go? What snags did you hit? Do you have any recommended patterns?

Thanks for your help guys!

Rainbow Han xx

HI there,
Ive made a few dresses now, so I thought Id be ready to make a wedding dress for my boyfiends sister. However, she is now pregnant! Which is great, but she would still like me to make her dress! She is quite gothic in her style. Making the dress shouldn't be too much of a problem, but I was astonished by the lack of any nice maternity patterns out there, let alone bridal ones. Oh yes! and she wants to get married in black and green- so Im starting to think ive bitten off more than i can chew!! I have been looking at a couple which I think would hide a bump, and that are large enough already (shes a UK size 18 I think):


The first ( View A on the pattern)  one is empire line, which I think would be good for hiding bumps- and has effectively 2 skirts which might drape nicely, and I could do the main dress in black and do the under skirt in green... has anyone made this one before? PLus Mccall's info on the pattern isnt showing up on my computer...
http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M5003.htm??tab=evening_prom_bridal&page=2

The second is really nice and very loose around the hips and carries on the gothic theme- but this one hjas a train where as the other one doesnt.It is princess seams all the way down which might not be as flattering. But this one goes up to a size 24, where as the first one goes up to a 22, which might be more useful with an expanding tummy...
http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M4378.htm??tab=out_of_print/evening_prom_bridal&page=2



so if any of you lovely people have any advice/experience on altering dress patterns for pregnant bumps or helpful insights I would be soooo grateful.

Thanks very much,

Hannah

Hi,
The corset is a beautiful thing, the ultimate show of femininity (well in my opinion at least!). Sop for quite a while I have wanted to make one, and here is my first attempt. I used Vogue 8325, with a couple of changes. For instance, instead of using plastic boning, I used steel spiral wire boning. Instead of normal hooks and eyes, I used chunky corset hook and eye tape. And I also changed the size of the eyelets, so I could use a specific lacing bone. I had a couple of problems along the way- I cut the boning a bit to long (though I did exactly as the pattern said!) and it started to pop thorough the seams a bit. So I used bias binding to hide the problem!
But apart from that I think it has turned out quite well for a first attempt…And its fits like a dream!I used a blue/white classic brocade, which I think looks a bit victorian... Ive put some pics up here of construction and the final product..
Anyways, let me know what you guys think.
Han x


Fabric


bones I cut


lining



finished front


finished back

me in corset


me in corset again...

Hi there,
here is the first dress I made (i only started recently) for my end of year ball. it is Newlook pattern 6401, which i think is beautiful, and has lots of variations as seen here: http://www.simplicitynewlook.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=134_138&products_id=7498
It was quite simple to make and quite a nice shape- though i think its the fabric that makes this dress good. its kinda a japanese pattern with white/silver blossom and blue spikey flowers. to accent this I chose an ice blue colour for the contrast sash  which ties round the open back and falls to about calf level. there is also a mini train which poofs when you walk which you cant really see in these pics! The front is very deep cut aswell. anyway here are a few photos! let me know what you think.






thanks,
 

HI there!
THis is my first post on crafster, so I hope im doing this right!

I'm in my final year at University and the theme for the end of year ball was 1950's. So I (and my friends) decided it would be a good idea to make big circle skirts with petticoats. we wanted some really swingy skirts.we looked at many of the costume patterns and thought they werent very authentic, so I did some searching on ebay and found this pattern for $9 (5 quid in english terms!), which is an original from 1953.


however this did not include a petticoat pattern, and the skirts really needed one as they are huge! So I followed this tutorial, with help from my friends! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=193708.0

we adapted it and used 32m of netting instead of 48m- it took for ever to gather!
and they turned out like this:


Anyways the finished skirts look great:

 and here are some pics at the ball!





let me know what you guys think!
cheers,

Hannah