Fall Wedding

Photo: Robert Gaona

In September of 2015, K contacted me about making her wedding dress. She had found a picture online of a dress that she loved but couldn't find anything like it in the shops. I poked around and finally figured out that the original dress was custom made by a woman named Penelope Perkins in Salt Lake City.

Photo: Alixann Loosle Photography

K loved the layered look of the skirt but wanted some changes. I did a few rough sketches until we were both on the same page about what she wanted. Then came swatches and fabric choices and finding a base pattern. I decided to use Kwik Sew 3929 because the neckline was close to what she wanted.

This was a very different experience from my first wedding dress, as almost everything I needed to do I had already done before. I didn't have the same nail-biting moments where I "knew" what I had to do (but I only knew it because I had read about it in a book or watched a video online) but wasn't entirely confident I could pull it off. So this time around I had much more confidence and much less terror.

The muslin revealed some fitting issues and I made the following adjustments to the pattern:

Sway back adjustment of about 3/8"
Take in princess seams here and there
Lower center front section by 1 inch
Lower armsyche by 1/2"
Adjust front shoulder slope - not sure what to call this, but I had to slash and spread a little dart (you can see this in the photo below)

Blue lines are new stitch lines

Construction details:

The bodice and skirt were underlined with white cotton batiste
I used poly charmeuse for the base layer for both bodice and skirt, and the bodice has a lace overlay
I used the same poly charmeuse for the lining, and underlined the bodice lining with muslin
The bodice has boning at center, side fronts, side seams, side backs and just outside back zipper for a total of nine spiral steel bones (I later shortened the center bone by about 3 inches)
The skirt handkerchief overlays are alternating chiffon and lace - once I knew how long I wanted the points to be for each layer, I got to review high school geometry to figure out the size of each square
I cut the waist of the skirt overlays large so that I could add volume with pleats (you can see these in the picture below where K's mom is zipping up the dress)
I did not hem the lace overlay and I sewed a tiny rolled hem for the chiffon layers - about 13 yards worth of hemming
Neckline lightly eased to shorter twill tape to help it curve inwards
Waist stay added to help distribute the weight of the skirt
Wedding dress strength invisible zipper
Lining hand stitched to outer layer
Fabric was purchased from Fabric.com

K's mom came to almost every fitting and her joy and excitement for her daughter was palpable.

Photo: Robert Gaona

K works for our local park district and she and her husband were married in one of the local parks. We've had a mild fall in the midwest, and their day was sunny and bright, warm in the sun and slightly crisp in the shade.

Photo: Robert Gaona

I love these kinds of projects: fun, challenging sewing on something that really matters to the client. I am so grateful for this work. Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers - may you all find projects that will you with gratitude for the gift of sewing!