Soo, here we go with the next part of my wedding dress series!

Today it’s all about muslining and pattern making – I know some of you just want to see the final dress, but before I finished my dress I had to make a pattern and muslin. That’s just the logical order of things. Sorry, folks.

I didn’t use a ready made pattern. Instead I decided to base my dress on a Jenny Packham design and draft it myself.

I’m not a big fan of muslins, but since we’re talking wedding dresses it’s better safe than sorry. Also, as I created the pattern from scratch I had to muslin it for a good fit. Sorry for the mediocre photography, btw. This was done in a lot of late night sessions, and I was so focussed on getting the job done, I didn’t care much about the pics at that time.

I needed to make a muslin anyway, so I decided to drape my bodice instead of flat drafting with paper and pencil. I had a very precise vision in mind and draping gave me much more control over shapes and silhouette. My dressform is padded to my size (sort of) which also was pretty convenient for the task at hand.

I started by outlining the shape of the spaghetti top on my dressform. I used sticky florist’s tape for that. You can see it through the muslin/cotton fabric which helps a lot.

I cut a rectangle and aligned it with the centre front. Starting from there I smoothed the fabric over the bust and created darts by pinning away the excess fabric:I cut off most of the excess fabric, leaving a generous seam allowance. Using a sharpie I traced the lines of the florist’s tape to transfer all the markings and seamlines. I did the same for the back.Once I was happy with the first bodice piece, I used the same technique for the sheer layer on top. This one was a lot trickier as it’s supposed to sit loosely and therefore was harder to drape on the dressform.

I used polyester chiffon of which I had bought 10m on Goldhawk Road last summer. The sheer bodice and skirt took quite a few attempts to get shape and fit right, so 10m was just enough! Keep that in mind when shopping for your wedding dress. It’s always better to have a little fabric extra, just in case. Those long skirts eat up fabric like crazy!

This was probably the most frustrating part of the pattern. It took a lot of muslins to get the sheer top right. I alternated between draping, copying the pattern onto paper and cutting out another muslin. In between I made loads of adjustments and kept checking measurements.

The spaghetti top was a pretty good fit from the start. I just moved the darts slightly on my paper pattern, using my bust/apex aka “nipple” measurements.This was the last muslin before cutting out the whole dress again and sewing it together properly, finished seams and all, to get a glimpse at what it might look like.

Here’s a pic of the skirt – I changed it a bit later on to give it more fullness at the bottom and removed the train. I loved the train until I tried to walk (let alone dance) in it. Not possible! As this dress goes completely without petticoat, tulle or hoops, you really have to be careful not to get your feet tangled in all that flowy fabric. So, bye bye train it was!

(In retrospect: Best decision ever!)The skirt is based on the Sew Over It “Ultimate Pencil Skirt” pattern – one of my favourite patterns of all time, seriously. I have made a lot of pencil skirts from this pattern and it turned out to be a perfect base for my Jenny Packham copy.

Another advantage: I made the skirt so often, the pattern is fitted to perfection by now which saved a lot of time. I simply lenghtened the skirt pattern to floor length and added fullness to the bottom at the back and side seams. All in all I had a hem line of around 3 metres – enough to walk and dance in.

You can see the adapted skirt pattern in the background:

Once I had my muslin ready it was time for the trial dress. I used the same sheer apricot chiffon and an ivory poly satin as lining.

This is what ironing 6m of fabric looks like!

Instead of lining the spaghetti top, I tried and finished the seams with bias binding. It didn’t work very well and stretched out quite a bit. I didn’t put too much effort into the trial dress and probably could’ve made this work somehow, but I didn’t want to gamble and fully lined the bodice on my actual silk wedding dress later on.

Handsewn bias binding on stay-stitched seams:

Both bodice layers attached at the waist seam.

Handrolled hem seam finish on the chiffon top:

I love the shape the open back. Having an almost backless dress created some issues finding a bra/suitable understructure. But more on that in one of the next posts.

This is the finished skirt pattern, cut out from poly satin. The hem on the top layer was still a bit too short and then again too long on the lining skirt. But since hemming is the VERY last thing to do when sewing a wedding dress, please simply ignore that.

I was quite happy at that stage. Obviously, it looked nothing like a wedding dress, especially in this bright orange colour. But the silhouette and fit were pretty good so far. 

Also, you always have to keep in mind, that all dresses looks very different depending on the wearer. I am not very tall and my, plus, I have a very short torso and wider hips. So an elegant long and narrow skirt appears a bit compressed on my body. If you look closely, a lot of models are standing on stools while posing with a wedding dress on, to give them the appearance of incredibly long legs. 

So far, so good! What do you think? Can you see a wedding dress taking shape?

Let me know what you think! Any questions? Leave a comment and I will answer as best I can 🙂

xx

Charlie

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Happy sewing!
♥

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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:

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.

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). 

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

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Happy sewing!
♥

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