Wedding Dress Part II: Inspiration & Design

Wedding Dress design by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Helloooo everyone! I’m back after my thee-month-blogging-break….and I’m married!

It still sounds pretty unbelievable, but we had the most amazing wedding anyone could imagine. And… I actually wore a handmade wedding dress.

I have to admit, there were times when I did not believe this would happen as it wasn’t an easy process and things didn’t always go too smoothly, but in the end I wore a dress I made. A dress I am very happy with and super proud of.

I promised to share the process of making my wedding dress myself, and, of course, pictures of me in my wedding dress. I didn’t share much before the wedding as I didn’t want my friends and family know too many details about the project. Of course they sort of knew about it and it was sweet of them and annoying af to ask me about my progress constantly.

In this post I’ll share some of my favourite designs that inspired me and (scroll down if you’re impatient)  the design I went for in the end.

Here’s a selection of my favourite designs from my many Pinterest sprees:

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As you can see, one side of me was really inspired by very romantic, fairy-like dresses with long tulle skirts and lacey tops. I really love this look and was so close to making a dusty blue tulle dress! Luckily, I talked to the Mr. before and learned that he wasn’t fond of neither tulle nor lace. Happy that I asked.

It was important to me to make something he’d love as well, and this also helped me to narrow down some options. I had another design vision which was very different to the layers and layers of tulle. There would’ve been no way of combining both styles, so having the Mr speak his mind was more than helpful for my peace of mind.

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While looking for the perfect dress, I really fell in love with designers like Kaviar Gauche and Jenny Packham. I love the classic, elegant style and vintage vibe of those dress designs. The silhouette is very clear and the fabrics are very effective.

Also, on a practical matter: It’s hard to find luxurious-looking tulle in the perfect not-tacky-looking colour that also is affordable. It’s near impossible I can tell you that much! I didn’t completely ditch the tulle skirt as I made one for my hen do, but I wouldn’t have found anything wedding-dress worthy within my budget.

Anyway…

This is all good and all that, but I’m pretty sure you’re much more interested in the design I used eventually.

Once I decided to go with the more elegant, simple silhouette, I did a lot of sketching. And again I couldn’t make my mind up. Until I found THE MOST PERFECT dress of all time. It’s so perfect (in my opinion) I would’ve bought it of the rack if it wasn’t for the price tag.

I absolutely fell in love with the Jenny Packham dress design called “Esme”. (“Alicia” and “Bardot” fell in second place). 162018

This Jenny Packham design is so so elegant and has that 1930’s feel to it which I absolutely love. I love 1920’s and 30’s Hollywood gowns and this seems to be the incarnation of all those beautiful art deco dresses.

Since I didn’t want to pay for it, I had no other option than to make it myself. Luckily, I know how to sew. What a coincidence!

I decided to incorporate the following aspects into my dress design:

  • simple, elegant silhouette
  • long skirt (maybe a short train)
  • sheer layer over a spaghetti top
  • embroidery (provided I manage that technically)
  • plunging back neckline 
  • pastell colour (either champagne, blush pink or dusty blue)

That’s enough for today. I hope you enjoyed this post!
I’ll share more about the draping, drafting, muslining and sewing as well as the understructure with you in the next posts. For now, I can tell you that much: I managed to tick everything off that list, eventually!

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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17 thoughts on “Wedding Dress Part II: Inspiration & Design

    1. Hehe, I’m with you – even after just having been married, I keep looking at pretty wedding dresses 🙂

  1. You choose a gorgeous design in the end and I bet you really made it your own! Can’t wait to read more about it, and so nice to have you back on the blogosphere!

  2. I’m so happy for you. And wildly impressed that Mr. Not-for-you knows what tulle is. You’ve done a great job training him.

    1. So am I! Apparently all the talking at him about sewing stuff had an impact in the end.

  3. I am really looking forward to the rest of these posts as the dress you have picked that you love is the same one I do! I am (not-so) patiently waiting for the big question so this *could* come in handy!!

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