A December Bride, part 2

 In my last post I described the alterations made on this bride’s dress.  In this post, I’m going to show you how her headpiece and veil came together using pieces from her mom’s headpiece.

Her mom’s veil and headpiece were just great, great like something from the 1980’s.. it was so fun to work with it - changing parts of it while keeping parts of it similar to the original design.

Bride’s mom’s veil 

The idea for the bride’s headpiece and veil was to use just the bottom piece of her mom’s headpiece and add a removable veil.

Mom’s veil and headpiece separated

A closer look at the lower section of the
headpiece before I got started

I did not want to change the design of the lower piece, just make the weave a little tighter.

To do this, I needed a starting point.  Starting on one side, I untwisted the strands until I got close to the end of the wrapped wire and began weaving from there.

Untwisting before starting the new twist design

Making progress, slow and steady

Just about finished

As I was going along, I secured sections to the wrapped wire with invisible thread.  When I reached the other side, I taped the ends together with blue painter’s tape so I could fit it to the bride.  After making sure of the fit, I replaced the painter’s tape with masking tape and wrapped the ends in tulle.

Ends wrapped with blue painters tape, temporarily

Replaced the blue tape with masking tape,
 then covered ends in tulle

With the headpiece finished, I started on the veil.  I cut a piece of tulle long enough for a finger tip veil and blusher then secured the comb about a third of the way from one end (this would be the blusher.)

The piece of tulle is gathered from side to side forming
the blusher on one end, the veil on the other.

The comb was wrapped in tulle then secured to the veil along the gathers.

The veil is attached over the back of the headpiece.  
It can easily be removed by just carefully removing the
comb from the bride’s hair, leaving the headpiece in place

Here is a side view of what the veil
looks like with the blusher 

Worn by her mom and now by her, I am so grateful to have played a small role in making this happen.  

Blusher
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Fingertip veil
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Headpiece without veil
Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Beautiful.

A December Bride, part 1

This bride has just celebrated her first wedding anniversary - Happy Anniversary, Olivia and Michael!

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

I met with Olivia, her mom, and her sister at the beginning of November 2020 in her soon to be mother-in-law’s kitchen.

Sometimes when I “meet” a dress for the first time, I’m not really sure what direction I’ll go to alter what needs to be altered. Each dress I work on is as different as the one that came before it and the one before that. The fit varies even more because no two brides are alike - and by that I mean, style - how they want the dress to fit. Some brides want a very form fitting dress, some brides want loose, some want color added, some more fullness, some less and so on. Olivia liked where the “off shoulder” sleeves sat on her upper arms. When I started to figure out a plan for her dress, I wanted to make sure I didn’t change that.  

There were three main areas that needed attention with this dress - the center back seam, the sleeve length and the hemline.  

The first area I focused on was the back. There was about a 4” space along the zipper line where the dress needed to come together.

 

My first thought was to let out the side seam allowances.  After doing so, the back still didn’t come together. I decided to create more room by adding a panel to each side seam to bring the center back seam together nicely. Knowing I would be hemming the bottom front edge of her dress about 4-6”, I used the excess fabric to create the new side hip panels. The lace overlay was stretchy and I was hoping there would be enough stretch to fit with the new panels so I didn’t do anything to the overlay, just yet.

Side seam ripped open. New piece would be stitched
in place between pins

Open area

New pieces cut

New piece in place, same was done on
the opposite side

The same was done to the lining. “What’s done to the outer fabric needs to be done to the lining.” This is so important to remember, if nothing was changed on the lining piece, the dress would not be a comfortable fit. And the lace overlay did indeed have enough stretch.

 There was a curve along the loops/buttons, 
I didn’t like that

I fiddled with the edge where the loops and buttons attached thinking I needed to but all it did was create the curve. Sometimes I overthink how to fix something and usually it turns out to be less complicated than I made it. In this case, I just went in and undid what I did - if that makes sense. The line was straighter and I moved on to altering a few places in the front.

Fixing a gap along the upper bodice where
sleeve connects to the front bodice.
I sewed a dart on the inside, as pinned

The next part of the dress that needed some attention were the sleeves.  The lace sleeves had an eyelash trim piece around the cuff, finished with loops and satin buttons along the inside seam, beautiful.  To shorten the sleeves, I first marked the new sleeve length with a purple mark and then with a pin, marked the new opening along the inside seam line where I would reattach the loops and buttons. With everything marked, I removed the trim along the cuff, loops and buttons.

Cuff detail removed, new sleeve line marked in purple,
side opening marked with pin

I folded the lower edge along the line I marked with a purple water soluble pen.  At this point, the bride tried the dress on to make sure the sleeve edge hit where she wanted.

 

Sleeve folded, pinned and ready to try on

 Knowing the length was where she wanted, the next step was to cut the sleeve - this part makes me anxious, it’s so final. I’ve started leaving ‘wiggle’ room when I cut anything, if it’s at all possible. In this case, I left about 1 1/2” of wiggle room which was hidden under the eyelash trim.  I was breathing easy.

Sleeve cut to its new length

Next I pinned the trim in place and folded the inside edges to form a neat hem - ready to reattach the loops and buttons.

Trim and inside edges pinned in place

Finished sleeves:

Front view

Inside view

The last part of the dress I needed to work on was the front hemline. As you can see, some length definitely needed to come off.

Satin underskirt hem is pinned, this shows how
much the lace overskirt needs to be taken up

Starting with the front of the satin underskirt, I pinned the hem in place from one side seam to the other, leaving the train untouched. The hemmed underskirt now acted as a guide for the lace overskirt. The goal was to have the eyelash trim just brush the floor with heels on :)  With the satin underskirt pinned in place, I marked out where I wanted to cut the eyelash trim and then cut along that line.

Cut line marked in purple

Cutting the lower part of the overskirt

Lower edge off, underskirt pinned in place

Next step was to reattach the part I just cut off positioning it so the eyelash trim barely touched the floor.

Playing with the placement

Lace trim pinned in place

Lace trimmed stitched, bottom edge
is where it needs to be

Final fitting - this time in my sewing room.  Notice the shoulders?  They are still where she wanted them to be.  I try very hard to keep the details brides like about their dresses the same.  Sometimes altering changes these details, it can’t be helped. In this case, I was able to keep the sleeves where she wanted.

Thank you, Olivia, for asking me to work on your dress. You are beautiful!  Your photos are magical, to me.. something out of a fairy tale.

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

Photo by Katelyn Whitehead Photography

There is one more part to this dress I am going to write about in my next post - her veil.

Something new, something blue

About a year and a half ago, I met the sweetest couple to talk about making a wedding dress.  Yes, both were at the initial appointment and while the bride talked design, their fiance was a part of that process.  Not in the way of giving ideas, more in the way of being interested in the design talk that was happening between the bride and myself.  

The wedding was set for the following Fall 2020, so there was plenty of time to start work on finding fabrics and putting a muslin pattern together.  What I didn't account for was Covid.

As with any dress, I like to start with a picture.  For this dress, we did start with a picture for inspiration, it served more as a concept or the 'essence' of what their dress would be.  I am going to show the concept dress but keep in mind, it is only a concept, my starting point.

Inspiration Dress

The bride liked the design of the skirt and wanted to add some color along the sides and back;  liked the look of the appliques on both the bodice and skirt, and wanted an off the shoulder bodice with long flowing appliqued sleeves.

I made a pattern of the dress from muslin with the design elements discussed at the first appointment - off the shoulder bodice with sheer sleeves, skirt with a pop of navy blue, chapel length train.  Because of restrictions due to covid, we could not meet in person to fit the pattern.  So instead, I mailed them the pattern, did a Facetime fitting with help from their mom, and then had them mail the dress back to me to make adjustments.  We did two appointments like this before I started on the dress.

Muslin pattern - front

Muslin pattern - back

Putting the dress together

The skirt ~ 

To add color to the satin skirt layer, godets made from navy blue satin were attached along each side seam and center back seam.  A layer of organza and two layers of tulle were added to soften the contrast between the navy and white creating an overall softness to the skirt.

Skirt with a layer of organza and two
layers of tulle

Front skirt

One last detail to the skirt before adding the appliques ... pockets! 

Pockets in a wedding dress are just a fun
detail to add

The bodice ~ 

The original idea was an off the shoulder bodice constructed from satin with an appliqued tulle overlay and sleeves made from the same appliqued tulle. Due to covid, shortages and longer than usual shipping times made us rethink this plan.  The uncertainty of when or even if the fabrics we first thought of using would arrive, caused us to come up with another plan.  To get a similar look, we used chiffon for the sleeves and purchased about 25 mirrored pairs of appliques that were cut and pieced to the bodice, sleeves and upper part of the skirt.  We purchased from businesses closer to home still open and able to ship.

Appliques

Cutting and laying out the appliques

Attaching appliques to center front bodice

 

Sleeve work ~

With most of the bodice appliqued,  I started thinking of how I wanted to keep the sleeve in place and comfortable across the upper shoulder.  I decided to make two bands, one for each sleeve, using soft foldover elastic. It stretched from the top of the seam connecting the sleeve to the bodice at front and back.  

Foldover elastic attached to upper front 
and back of sleeve

Attaching appliques across upper sleeve

Appliques stitched in place

Attaching buttons and looping to the center back ~

Hand stitching buttons in place

Looping pinned in place, button
 placement marked

Button and loops in place

Bodice and sleeves appliqued

Adding appliques to the top part of the skirt ~

There is a concealed zipper on the skirt and I wanted to attach the appliques in way that it looked like just one applique covering the zipper. 

Pinning applique along zipper seam 

With the back of the dress finished, I moved to the front to finish up.

The dress and veil ~

For the final fitting, we were able to meet in person.  After not seeing each other since that very first appointment with their fiance back in the Fall of 2019, it was really nice to see them in their dress, mask and all.  

One of my favorite moments with this bride came on the day of their final fitting, I will remember this moment for a very long time. They wanted color added to their veil that would match the color added to their dress so I dyed a few appliques earlier in the week but had not yet attached them to the veil.  So, at the fitting we positioned and stitched each one in place, together.  

Mary, it was so nice to meet you and Spencer.  Thank you for trusting me with making your dress during a time that was anything but normal, a time that should have been carefree for you. 

I hope our paths cross again someday! Congratulations!!