I've nearly finished turing my mother's wedding dress into mine. All that's left to do now is the embroidery and some hand-sewing (the hem is done, but I have to redo the sleeves, hand-finish some seams, tack the facings, and sew on a button, which feels like it will take as much time as sewing the rest of the dress). I'm really pleased with how it looks so far, but obviously you'll have to wait for the final reveal because we brides are jerks that way.
In the meantime, I will give you some wedding dress pictures to look at. Before I took several very deep breaths and cut into it, I took a whole whack of pictures of the dress itself, inside and out. I thought I'd share some of them with you. I put a few of them in a previous post, but there are a lot more here. Emphasis on a lot. This is a very picture-heavy post. I usually do mouse-over commentary on pictures, but not so much for this post.
The thing about wearing this dress is that the bodice is huge on me. You can't really tell from the pictures, and I wasn't going to document it for the world to see, but I could look down and see my navel. Not the bridal look I'm going for.*
]
Sadly, there is still no decent picture of this dress from the back.
These sleeves -- so long on the family tyrannosaurus arms...
Very hip zippers.
Okay, this is hilarious, but I wanted to show the petticoat underneath, and how genuinely creamy the silk is. I'm going to unpick the petticoat and hem it to wear with my Butterick 6582s.
Details:
This gorgeous, gorgeous waist seaming. I'm stealing this idea for another dress some day. But then it would mean I'd have to do something like that bow band to hide how it attaches to the bodice. By the way, I'm unpicking that bow band to use on... soemthing.
The waist bells out with a combination of pleats and darts.
The side zipper makes the dress beautiful to look at from the back but very difficult to get into or out of. Difficult as in your hairdo is going to be destroyed difficult. It was not a fun experience.
The various hooks, snaps, and ties that keep the petticoat and bow closed.
Front bodice details: boning supports the waist, the bow and front facing are tacked to the lining, and the front facing also invisibly catch-stitched to the bodice.
How the bust was won.
Does anyone know what this tag says/means?
I love this bow, and you can bet your boots I'm going to put it in my dress.
Seam finishes and dressmaking details:
The seam allowances were enormous - about an inch each.
The skirt seams were turned and stitched.
The bodice seams were whipstitched. And check out those notches!
More whipstitching along the zipper.
Completely invisible catch-stitching along the hem.
Unpicking the hem (which I didn't bother to do for all the panels because the bottom of the skirt was kind of grubby), I found quiet joy in seeing that even couturiers cheat by using selvedges.
Interesting bit of mending on the hem with the double thread.
When I was unpicking one of the darts, I came across the remnants of the tailor's tack. Pretty pink thread!
The front and back facings were catch-stitched to the bodice close to the seam. (Don't ask me what those holes are from.)
I aspire to this level of invisibility. The pressing line along the top are from the dry cleaners -- they did this to all the seams. Very annoying. Speaking of which...
I've had some people tell me I should wear Aged P's dress as-is, but even if I could have magically resized the bodice, there are major problems with it. When I said it was in fabulous condition, I meant for having been put back in the box right after a wedding on a warm day nearly sixty years ago. Sadly, there were quite a few stains, mostly on the back panel, including this gigantic water stain in the picture below. Very annoying, because that meant the largest panel had the least amount of useable fabric.
It was a challenge to unpress out all the seam allowance lines the dry cleaners pressed in.
Well, there was nothing for it. I unpicked the side zipper, got out the DC's massive tailor shears, and...
No turning back now!
*So, as I said, Aged P's uncle was a couturier in England and told her he do would her dress and to "send me your measures, dear." So she did. The dress didn't arrive until the week before the wedding and it was huge on her. She had to stuff tissues into the bodice!
In the meantime, I will give you some wedding dress pictures to look at. Before I took several very deep breaths and cut into it, I took a whole whack of pictures of the dress itself, inside and out. I thought I'd share some of them with you. I put a few of them in a previous post, but there are a lot more here. Emphasis on a lot. This is a very picture-heavy post. I usually do mouse-over commentary on pictures, but not so much for this post.
The thing about wearing this dress is that the bodice is huge on me. You can't really tell from the pictures, and I wasn't going to document it for the world to see, but I could look down and see my navel. Not the bridal look I'm going for.*
]Sadly, there is still no decent picture of this dress from the back.
These sleeves -- so long on the family tyrannosaurus arms...
Very hip zippers.
Okay, this is hilarious, but I wanted to show the petticoat underneath, and how genuinely creamy the silk is. I'm going to unpick the petticoat and hem it to wear with my Butterick 6582s.
Details:
This gorgeous, gorgeous waist seaming. I'm stealing this idea for another dress some day. But then it would mean I'd have to do something like that bow band to hide how it attaches to the bodice. By the way, I'm unpicking that bow band to use on... soemthing.
The waist bells out with a combination of pleats and darts.
The side zipper makes the dress beautiful to look at from the back but very difficult to get into or out of. Difficult as in your hairdo is going to be destroyed difficult. It was not a fun experience.
The various hooks, snaps, and ties that keep the petticoat and bow closed.
Front bodice details: boning supports the waist, the bow and front facing are tacked to the lining, and the front facing also invisibly catch-stitched to the bodice.
How the bust was won.
Does anyone know what this tag says/means?
I love this bow, and you can bet your boots I'm going to put it in my dress.
Seam finishes and dressmaking details:
The seam allowances were enormous - about an inch each.
The skirt seams were turned and stitched.
The bodice seams were whipstitched. And check out those notches!
More whipstitching along the zipper.
Completely invisible catch-stitching along the hem.
Unpicking the hem (which I didn't bother to do for all the panels because the bottom of the skirt was kind of grubby), I found quiet joy in seeing that even couturiers cheat by using selvedges.
Interesting bit of mending on the hem with the double thread.
When I was unpicking one of the darts, I came across the remnants of the tailor's tack. Pretty pink thread!
The front and back facings were catch-stitched to the bodice close to the seam. (Don't ask me what those holes are from.)
I aspire to this level of invisibility. The pressing line along the top are from the dry cleaners -- they did this to all the seams. Very annoying. Speaking of which...
I've had some people tell me I should wear Aged P's dress as-is, but even if I could have magically resized the bodice, there are major problems with it. When I said it was in fabulous condition, I meant for having been put back in the box right after a wedding on a warm day nearly sixty years ago. Sadly, there were quite a few stains, mostly on the back panel, including this gigantic water stain in the picture below. Very annoying, because that meant the largest panel had the least amount of useable fabric.
It was a challenge to unpress out all the seam allowance lines the dry cleaners pressed in.
Well, there was nothing for it. I unpicked the side zipper, got out the DC's massive tailor shears, and...
No turning back now!
*So, as I said, Aged P's uncle was a couturier in England and told her he do would her dress and to "send me your measures, dear." So she did. The dress didn't arrive until the week before the wedding and it was huge on her. She had to stuff tissues into the bodice!
Good Luck! Can't wait to see the final pictures of the dress, its going to be stunning.
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteThat tag reads "10 % nylon" as clear as day to me but maybe I'm wrong
ReplyDelete