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| 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.
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| 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)
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| 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.
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| Photo: Robert Gaona |
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Photo: Robert Gaona |
