The Sewing Place

My Wedding Dress

Missie

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #45 on: May 13, 2020, 16:57:41 PM »
Ooh pretties!  The fabrics look lovely  :D

Bodgeitandscarper

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #46 on: May 13, 2020, 19:28:05 PM »
The lace looks lovely  :)

Lachica

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #47 on: May 13, 2020, 23:04:31 PM »
That's lovely, and against the pink silk will suit you very well.
Mary
2020 stash: not gonna count, not gonna feel guilty.

Elnnina

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #48 on: May 14, 2020, 15:24:07 PM »
The fabrics look lovely, and the fit is good as well.  Now just enjoy making all of this up.

sewmuchmore

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #49 on: May 15, 2020, 18:38:43 PM »
Only just come across so first congrats, secondly what a beautiful ring and thirdly fab dress and so much work in it all ready.
I do love a challenging wedding dress make but can't see any more wedding in the family for a long while, sigh.
@Missie Do you mean power mesh?
« Last Edit: May 15, 2020, 18:40:46 PM by sewmuchmore »
It's not easy being this perfekt

Janet

Kenora

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #50 on: June 14, 2020, 20:49:16 PM »
I've only just come across this post too (catching up), so many congratulations @charlotte:toast: Your ring and your dress are looking lovely.
Minding my P's & Q's in Portreath

Missie

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #51 on: June 15, 2020, 11:46:31 AM »
member=159]Missie[/member] Do you mean power mesh?

@sewmuchmore  Yes!  That's the one, thank you!

maliw

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #52 on: June 15, 2020, 11:54:49 AM »
How have I missed this???
First of all congratulations and a stunning ring, I love emeralds.
Your dress is going to be fabulous and a 'one off'.
I will watch and read your posts with interest to see your progress and I'm certain your finished dress will be gorgeous.
Im off as I'm begining to sound like a certain judge on Strictly CD.
At leisure on the leisure penninsula

charlotte

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #53 on: July 02, 2020, 09:53:21 AM »
We've set a date and I've made a start! (February 2022 which sounds like ages away but is actually only 18 months and I think it will come round rather quickly...)

Corselette is cut out and the back panels are finished.



The fabric is Liberty Tana Lawn Wild Flowers, which I am using for inside details, and is the same fabric that my bridesmaids' tops will be made from. It's underlined with the cerise cotton lawn that my main fabric will be underlined with, which gives it a pink tone. The top of the panels are edged with bias strips on the 'outside' (i.e. the side you will see when you unzip the dress), to match the main fabric.

I'm going to sew the front panels together, prep the side back panels, cut the boning and then tack everything together for a fitting before sewing it properly. These panels have a giant 1.5" seam allowance, so there is plenty of room for manoeuvre! I won't cut the bodice until I have finished fitting the corselette.

I also drew a picture:


SkoutSews

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #54 on: July 02, 2020, 10:48:12 AM »
Once again, lovely work! You choose some beautiful fabrics.

Missie

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #55 on: July 02, 2020, 12:16:07 PM »
That is very pretty @charlotte and gorgeous work as usual but you will need it to be made of firmer fabric than lawn.  It needs to support the boning and also the weight of the dress which lawn on its own just wont do.  Also the lawn will not be stable enough on its own and the seams may well tear under the strain.   Whenever I make boned bodices, I use tie canvas and lawn sewn together as one layer and this goes between the fashion fabric and lining (I don't tend to do separate corselette, but that is personal preference).

charlotte

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #56 on: July 02, 2020, 14:46:47 PM »
@Missie Hmmm... These back panels are double layers of underlined Tana Lawn. The underlining is also a cotton lawn, but a generic one and a lot heavier weight than the Liberty. The seams and boning channels are sewn through all four layers, with the separate boning channels sandwiched between the layers, so I think they are sturdy enough. The rest of the panels are currently just two layers rather than four (but still with separate boning channels), so in light of your advice I think I will mount them onto an additional canvas layer, or a second layer of the heavier weight cotton - the canvas might be too much with the two layers of lawn, but I will do some experimenting.

The corselette in my practice dress is just a double layer of Tana Lawn, but the skirt is a lot lighter than the skirt will be on the actual dress.

charlotte

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #57 on: July 15, 2020, 11:32:16 AM »
Progress update:

I finished the corselette:



I added an extra layer of firm cotton to the two layers of lawn. I experimented with a petersham waist stay but I could not get it so that it was both tight enough to feel like it was holding everything up and loose enough that I could sit down and eat! Instead I sewed the petersham ribbon around the waist of the corselette and added an elastic stay for extra security. A bias strip around the top matches the fabric of the underbodice. You can see the hanging loops too, which are secured within the seam allowance at the waist. Once the dress in finished I will add some crocheted thread loops to hold them in place at the top edge.

I then had a complete disaster with my bodice



In spite of what it looks like in the picture, this actually fits. The main problem, I think, was the way I applied the fabric and underlining together (i.e. really badly!), causing the horrendous wrinkly mess you can see above.

So I started again. I recovered the back panels but had to recut the front panels. Luckily they don't use much fabric.

I added an extra layer (calico at the front, and lawn at the back) with a few more strips of boning (originally I planned to only have boning in the corselette, but it was definitely needed in the underbodice too). It's only tacked together so far (hence the weird looking extra visible unpressed seams) but I am much much happier. Some of the boning is visible from the outside, so I plan to slip in some strips of cotton flannel between the layers where needed.





wrenkins

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #58 on: July 16, 2020, 10:46:09 AM »
@charlotte I have no idea what most of this means but I'm having a lovely time. Keep going. It's absolutely fascinating!
Piece of advice. Lots of people will stand on your dress (yes really...it's all the hugging) so make sure the bottom is well secured to the top!!!!
Harbouring resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die!

RJR_38

Re: My Wedding Dress
« Reply #59 on: July 19, 2020, 07:53:40 AM »
@charlotte I have no idea what most of this means but I'm having a lovely time. Keep going. It's absolutely fascinating!
Piece of advice. Lots of people will stand on your dress (yes really...it's all the hugging) so make sure the bottom is well secured to the top!!!!

Yep!! My photographer stood on mine before we even left for the church. The first I knew about it was when there was a rip sound and the whole room went silent... I could have cried and hit him in equal measure! Luckily it was the lace over the top and only a couple of inches in a place that wasn’t hugely visible. Mum safety-pinned it from the inside and you couldn’t tell.