Bridal sewing…The dress!

Making the toile cleared a lot of worries from my head and the next big task was to choose the fabric. Not easy when you have a daughter who, by her own admission, finds it almost impossible to make a decision! 

Having looked around without much luck a friend suggested we take a look at samples she had from Platinum Bridal Fabrics. By looking at those ones & searching their vast website we were able to selected a few possibles & request our own samples.  The company will provide a couple samples free of charge & they are actually good size samples so are great to see the design. 

As well as the lace we also used a Matt duchess Satin & tulle from the same company. 

The body of the dress was made up as explained in the last post. Lining & corset first with an ankle length underskirt attached.

 Then the interlining,  to which the skirt was attatched, then finally the Satin outer layer. 

The button looping  was  also added at this point as the main fitting had been done. It’s a sort of braid that has slightly stretchy loops, I forget the real name but I bought it from Stone Fabrics although I see you can also get from Sew Curvy now too. 

The skirt overlay had 4 layers in tulle. Each layer cut slightly longer than the last & all handbasted on top of Satin skirt. The final layer had a lace edging that was machined to the sides & back before attaching. I choose to leave adding it to the front until the final fitting when I hand stitched it. 

Adding the lace edging to the curve of the skirt edge meant that it was best to pin in small sections at a time, cutting the tulle backing & overlapping to smooth where needed, before sewing with a medium zigzag stitch along lower edge then again around inner edge. 

At this point the dress only just fitted in my sewing room so it was a good job it was just the lace overlay to go! 

With the strapless dress complete we could still play about with the neckline ideas before cutting the lace, checking motifs were in the required place. 

Using my drafted pattenpieces as a guide it was then the scary job of cutting the lace out. I lined up the grain line with the design & cut each section slightly larger than needed so motifs were kept whole. 

The front & back panels were then basted at shoulders & pinned in position on bodice before hand stitching into place. 

The process was repeated with each panel, smoothing out wrinkles & cutting into shape as I went. There were plenty of fittings as I was being over fussy!! 

Now for the final bits… the neckline shape was cut & finished with the decorative edge from the lace , as were the armholes (sorry rushing by now so forgot pics!) Buttons were decided apon & I patiently stitched on all 27! 

I had cut a single motif from the fabric & handbeaded it to add extra sparkle so this was added to the upper point of the skirt side front. The same beads were also on the veil & hair vine which will be in another blog. 

Yay finished with 4 days to go! 😃