Wedding Dress Part VII: Revealing the Dress

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Oh hello!

It’s nice to see you’re back! Thanks for following this journey of my handmade wedding dress so patiently, you really deserve to see some actual dress pics now! So here we go…DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

This is THE dress! I’m pretty proud I have to say. And here’s my DIY bridal bouquet  – there will be another post about some of the wedding DIYs, as well. It’s hydrangea – my favourite flower of all time – , two kinds of roses and baby’s breath. Pretty simple recipe, but very effective. I absolutely loved it, and it turned out even better than my trial bouquet a couple of weeks before.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here’s the dress is all it’s glory and from all possible angles:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
IMG_1021A

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I’m in love with the embroidery, I’d never thought it would turn out so well! As it was a super sunny day I also served as the disco ball at the party! I never wore the dress outside before, so the reflecting sequins were quite a happy surprise.

And here’s the open back that cost me a lot of nerves until I discovered self-adhesive bras…

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I have never felt so pretty in my life! Putting on the dress was easy as pie as I could put it on all by myself. As I did not have any underskirts or petticoats, using the bathroom was no problem at all. It was just like wearing a normal maxi dress. Here’s the steps of putting on the dress:

First closing the waist-stay, so the dress would stay on and I had both hands free for the zip and button fastening. Putting on the lining top, then closing the zip. After that, putting on the delicate embroidered top and last but not least, closing the button fasting at the back.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Me finding a loose thread just before the guests arrive. These pics show the layers of the dress nicely and my matching shoes!

Shoes and bag and everything colour coordinated in blush pinks and champagne matching our pastel themed barn wedding.

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Trying to frantically apply nail polish before the first guests arrive, because yes, I forgot about that and was way too late for the party already. So I tried to squeeze that in between taking pic with out photographer and shaking hands with arriving guests.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

This is my excited face, apparently. Oh and my pretty rose-gold SKAGEN earrings, matching our rose-gold wedding rings (and my dress!)DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

It was such a lovely, happy, wonderful day. The complete wedding (reception, party, ceremony) all took place in a beautiful rustic barn in a tiny village in Germany. We got married by my wonderful grandfather, who was a pastor until he retired some years ago. It was unbelievably touching and romantic to be able to celebrate this way. After years living away from family in London, it was nice to see everyone again for this wonderful occasion.

Most of the wedding was DIYed, not just including the decorations, but also my hair and makeup, some of my accessories, the bridal bouquet, our wedding cake and more. If you’re interested, I’ll share these on the blog, as well.

If you have any questions regarding the dress or something else, just leave them in the comment section below.

Here’s some more wedding pictures! Beware, there are quite a few – so grab a coffee or tea (or delicious, cold German beer) and enjoy!

All the pictures were taken by our amazing wedding photographer who was with us the whole day, early morning until way past midnight, snapping our favourite moments and making all these wonderful memories last forever. So if you’re getting married in Germany, check out his website!

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

So this is it!

Let me know what you think. Have you made your wedding dress yourself? Or are you planning to? I’d love to know!

If you missed out on any of the making of posts, just click on the wedding dress tag below or choose the DIY Wedding category on the right to find your way to the other posts in this series.

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Wedding Dress Part VI: Constructing the Dress (+ Detail Pics)

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comTime for a quick recap! What have I done so far? I’ve designed, drafted, muslined, fitted my pattern. Then made a trial dress. Spend hours on making a couture corset, which I ended up not wearing, sigh. Again, spend hours on hand-embroidering my bodice. All preparations done. Check.

Finally, it’s time to have a look at the construction of the dress. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, this post is picture-heavy!

After all these teaser pics and showing you details (as I will do again in this post), here’s a quick reminder of the actual design of the dress. It’s based on Jenny Packham’s Esme dress, changed to my needs:
DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com(This is a sketch of when I thought I had to go without the embroidery)DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

So what do we do first? Well, yes we pre-wash our fabrics. I actually skipped that part. I didn’t want to take any chances as all my fabrics were 100% pure silk and you don’t want to mess with expensive fabrics. I wasn’t planning on washing my wedding dress anyway, so it wasn’t that important.

So my first step was to iron metres and metres of fabrics. Why am I telling you this? Well, it’s simply part of the process. As I mentioned before, wedding dress sewing isn’t romantic. At all. It’s nerve-wracking and most of all, it’s work. A lot of work. And some of it is acutally pretty boring. So here is me ironing 6 metres of my silk lining fabric:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comI started sewing all four (!) skirt layers first, starting with my lining. It was my first time working with silk, so I thought starting with a layer you wouldn’t see was pretty clever. And I practised on some fabric scraps as well. I noticed pretty quickly that the knack with silks is simply using millions of pins. I didn’t use any gelantine or starch to prepare my silk for sewing and it still worked pretty well. Sometimes laziness pays off.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Trickier than the silk itself were all the bias seams at the skirt panels. Most seams of the dress are french seams, so I had to be extra careful. The lining seams got a bit stretched, but they’re pretty much invisible anyway.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

As you can see, I chose a blush pink/salmon coloured silk for my main lining. It’s a very drapey, soft silk and although it’s not transparent, it was slightly see-through. For that reason, and as a ‘reflecting’ layer to create more luminosity I lined the lining, because why not. The lining lining is a cream poly satin that I used as a lining for my trial dress. Here’s a picture in which you can see the actual shape of the skirt panels pretty well. This right here is one of the two back panels (on the right) and the foldes front panel:

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The skirt is basically the Sew Over It Ultimate Pencil Skirt, lengthened and flared to about 3m of hemline.

Now you all want to know what fabric I used as fashion fabric/top fabric, right? Well, here we go!

From the beginning I knew I probably wouldn’t end up with a white dress. I didn’t want anything too out there or, for instance, a bright red dress. I wanted it to be a pretty blush tone, champagne or dove grey. It took me ages to find the perfect fabric and I finally found it on Goldhawk Road: it’s a 100% Pure Silk chiffon (I say organza) fabric for 22£/pm with an ombre effect: it’s ivory blending into a really lush, blush pink from one border to the other:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Although in retrospect I’d say it’s not the ideal fabric for a fitted, slightly mermaid shaped dress, it was simply perfect. I got a lot of compliments just because of it’s subtle and pretty colour. Our wedding was pastel themed anyway, so all the pieces came together in the end.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comIsn’t it simply georgeous? It’s almost like liquid rose-gold.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

So here’s a rough coloured version of the sketch:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

As you can see I wanted the blush pink lining to peak through the sheer ivory top layer of the bodice. The skirt would also be lined in blush pink, with a double ivory/blush pink top layer, so the ombre effect would be subtle but still pretty visible on the dress as a whole with the brightest colour at the top, blending into a darker salmon pink tone at the botton.

The plan was to create a unconventional wedding dress that would still let me look like a bride. So bridal at the top, individualism at the bottom.

After embroidering the bodice fabric, I cut out the bodice pieces, sewed front and back panels together and finished the seams. I created the lining bodice, a spaghetti top which is lined and basted top layer and lining together at the waist seams. I didn’t attach the spaghetti straps until after having constructed the dress as a whole with an added waiststay. Only after that step I knew exactly where the top would sit and how long I needed the straps to be.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Apart from the french seams on the sides of the bodice and skirt panels, most seams were hand-sewn. I finished the neckline and armhole edges on the sheer bodice with a hand-rolled hem, the go-to technique when finishing silk fabrics.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I decided to add a pretty detail on the front and back when I attached the lining straps:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here you can see the understitching on the lining’s lining and where I handsewed the straps onto the lining bodice.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

A very fine hand-rolled hem at the neckline with just enough edge standing over to keep the sequins from my skin (scratchy!)DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The back opening is finished with a hand-rolled hem as well. (I spend a lot of hours doing this while watching Homeland non-stop). The button is vintage, a single one I found in my collection.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here’s the loop I created for the button. If you look closely, you can see a tiny piece of white cotton fabric in the corner, to stabilise the silk georgette from the strain of the button fastening.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The ruched shoulder seams…DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

…also with the edges finished with a hand-rolled hem. I actually didn’t sew the row of sequins up to the seamline. I left a tiny gap of about 1,5cm on each shoulder piece and added single sequins after sewing both pieces together.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Now to the skirt:

First of all, I had to deal with three layers of silk fabric plus one slippery layer of poly satin. So yes, there was basting involved. First, I finished all seams on the skirt (except for the hem) and then basted all four layers together at the open centre back before the zip went in.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

One last fitting before sewing in the zip along the newly marked seamline. I sewed the zip in by hand and I might have added a row of machine stitching afterwards, but I can’t actually remember.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here’s a photo of the finished zip and waistline with sewn-in waist-stay:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The raw edges are sewn onto the lining, thus finished. I added a small tap at the bottom of the zip to prevent any raw edges from itching (especially since I had to shorten my zip by cutting off the lower half). The centre back seam then blends into a french seam below the zip:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I’m pretty happy with the result. None of the delicate silk fabrics got caught in the zip during all these numerous fittings, which is pretty awesome. DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

You can also see that I created tucks and pleats instead of darts of the top layers of bodice and skirt. The lining pieces all have darts. This is to have a bit of give in the delicate, non-stretch silks to prevent them from ripping, e.g. when sitting down.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

End of the zip blending into the waistseam and finished seams of the open back:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

I recycled an old bra for the waiststay closure:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The waiststay is attached to the waistseam at the darts and side seams, invisible from the outside:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here’s the well-enough matched-up french side seams of bodice and skirt. (You can see the subtle difference between the georgette at the top and the organza at the bottom)DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

The colour scheme top to bottom:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

All four layers (roughly 12m hemline), three of them hand-finished. This pic was taken after the wedding, so please excuse the frayed seams and dirty fabrics.DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.comDIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Here you can compare the texture of the embroidered georgette to the delicate silk organza:DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Well, and that was it. Apart from the more-than-average-priced fabrics and a lot of hours of fitting and handsewing, I simply have sewn a dress I wore to a special occaision. There was no wedding dress magic involved. So if you are thinking about making your wedding dress yourself, do it! All you need is time and a lot of nerves.

So you want to see the finished dress? Here it is:

DIY wedding dress by thisblogisnotforyou.com

Just kidding. That was enough pictures for one post. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the final post in this series: The big reveal! (Although you probably have a pretty detailed picture of the dress in mind by now. It might not be very huge surprise tbh.)

So there will be wedding pictures soon! And, if you don’t mind, I’ll share some other wedding DIYs after that, as well. Let me know when you get tired of all this wedding stuff! I’m sure not done yet.

If you missed out on any of the other making of posts, just click on the wedding dress tag below or choose the DIY Wedding category on the right to find your way to the other posts in this series.

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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Wedding Dress Part V: Embroidering the Bodice

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comThis is probably the making of part of the wedding dress I am most excited to share with you! That’s very likely because it was the most fun part to create. Assembling a garment is fun, but it is also pretty repetitive as it is a similar process with many garments (even a wedding dress is just a dress after all). So trying something I haven’t done before was exciting and helping me loads to keep my sewing mojo up during the process.

The embroidery was initially part of the plan but I kind of discarded the idea once I started making my dress. I thought I wouldn’t have enough time because I procrastinated for too long and didn’t really start until five months before the wedding.

While making my dress I was really unhappy about not using embroidery and also, the dress seemed to become a lot plainer than I wished.

Eight weeks before the wedding, when I knew I could finish the dress on time, I decided to take a week out of the sewing schedule (which I didn’t stick to anyway) to try my hand at embroidering. I had never done this before, I didn’t have an embroidery frame, I didn’t even have the notions yet.

Not a particularly promising outlook, right? I decided not to get a frame and experiment with a DIY solution, and also ordered relatively cheap acryl beads, diamonds and sequins online.
Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com

At first I experimented with shapes and arragement of the different sized and coloured beads etc. I roughly stuck to the embroidered pattern of the Jenny Packham Esme dress I based my wedding dress on.

It’s a beautiful Art Deco style pattern which really suits the 1930’s silhouette of the dress. I changed it a bit here and there and also used a different colour of sequins to match my fabric. The colour of the sequins is hard to describe, it’s not gold or rose gold. Actually more like a warm silver if that makes sense? It reflected the colour of the fabric really well which helped ‘carmouflaging’ the sequins a bit so they weren’t too loud.

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comBefore testing out DIY embroidery frame solutions, I used a small embroidery hoop to check if my fabric was suitable for embroidering.

My lining fabric is silk satin and my main fabric silk chiffon (although I’d say it’s a silk organza rather than a silk chiffon). Anyway, the fabrics are way too delicate to hold the strain of heavy embroidery, so I got some extra silk georgette in the exact same colour (which was lucky) when I bought my wedding dress fabrics last summer.

The georgette is as lightweight and transparent as the chiffon/organza, but much stronger and actually worked really well with my embroidery attempts:Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comOnce I got the knack of it, I had to think about creating a larger frame which would fit the whole of my bodice plus seam allowance. I used some styroform boards and pinned the fabric on it very tightly. The advantage was also that I could pin my template underneath so I didn’t have to mark the pattern on the fabric.

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comHere you can see my template underneath the fabric, which I drew with pencil on drafting paper to make sure the pattern was neat and mirrored exactly.

The outline of the seamline was marked on the fabric with basting stitches.Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comI actually didn’t use too many different kinds of beads and diamonds:

  • cream white rocailles beads
  • silver rocailles beads
  • transparent beads
  • sequins (silver/gold coloured)
  • 3 different sizes of acryl diamonds (5mm, 10mm, 12mm)

Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com
Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comI had roughly outmapped the lines and shapes, but the exact positions and arrangement of beads and diamonds came about during the creative process.

It was so much fun, it was hard to stop. But I had to get on with the rest of the dress, so I limited the amount of embroidery compared to the Packham dress and only embroidered the bodice front and back pieces.

It took a week and three seasons of Homeland to finish.

My back hurt a lot during that time, but it was absolutely worth it. Embroidery like knitting can be very addictive because it so relaxing in a way.Wedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.comWedding dress embroidery by thisblogisnotforyou.com

What do you think? Do you have any experience with embroidery?

Next time I’ll share the last steps of assembling the actual dress before the big reveal! So make sure you pop by!

xx

Charlie


Happy sewing!

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