Silk Wedding Dress - 6 Months in the Making

[UpKnitCreek]

It's been over six months of pattern drafting, muslin-making, pin pricking and hand sewing, but I finally finished this wedding dress for my friend who got married this past weekend. It's a strapless ankle-length dress with a sweetheart neckline, made of silk charmeuse in a nice cream white colour, and I designed the pattern based on this dress:http://www.happyseamstress.com/sewing/the-making-of-a-wedding-dress-part-1  The top edge of the bodice is trimmed in French lace I sewed on by hand with silk thread. In fact the lace is left over from my own wedding dress that I made over two years ago:  http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=217964.msg2345349#msg2345349

The Front:

I went through many many metres of muslin (I think we did 5 fittings) before I had a final pattern for the dress that fit well. That took about 4-5 months. The final month or so was a flurry of silk and thread as I raced to get the dress done on time (made it with a week to spare, ha!). A lot of the work in the end was hand sewing to finish the hem and attach the lace.

Detail of The Back:

The bride wanted a wine-red bow around the midriff and down the back. It was originally going to be made of wide satin ribbon, but that proved to be too flimsy and out of scale with the dress. I ended up finding some fabric that was a perfect colour match, but was way too soft and drapey to support a bow. To counteract that, I lined the bow with two layers of tulle to give it enough body.

More photos and info on the dress at my blog: http://www.happyseamstress.com/sewing/the-big-day

[girly_fish]

what a gorgeous dress, such a beautiful bride too!

Your tulle idea for the bow is brilliant, will need to remember that!

[Silversark]

Is that a seam going down the center front?  I hope she didn't snag it on something

[Fontiua]

soo pretty. I love the bodice details

[SailorMaat]

Wow you did an amazing job on your friends dress.

[FoxyBlue]

Gorgeous!!!

[michelleandbean]

Beautiful.

[Lilybet85]

This is a beautiful, beautiful dress (and I agree that the bride is lovely too!). I love the detail work on the neckline.

[wewilltaketothesea]

WOW, that is amazing and beautiful! She is such a lovely bride, and you are a great friend for making her her dream dress! Awesome job!

[kjlutz]

Beautiful dress.  Your attention to detail and hard work really paid off.