Wedding dress progress/How to make a wedding dress that fits!

Wedding dress progress/How to make a wedding dress that fits!

• 4.14.2011

As you may know, my mom and I are making my wedding dress for my August wedding.  It is a very exciting process!!

I don't know exactly how much I should share with you, and how much you'd rather just see the big reveal when it's all done... but right now we've just had one afternoon to work on it so it's in the beginning stages, and it may not look like much.  I shared with you the other day about my fave wedding dress inspirations, so check those out before you judge what I'm about to show you!  Keep in mind the flavor/look I'm going for =)

I also showed you the fabric for my wedding dress in a tiny sneak peek a week or so ago.  Since then my mom and I have made/modified the pattern, cut out the dress, and assembled the skirt.  I also made the petticoat to go under, and draped the mannequin it's on with the fabric so it has the general shape of the final thing!  I'm not sure if I should show you those pictures, though; it might ruin the surprise!  But I will tell you about the construction...

The basic shape is very simple and the layers of fabric and self-fabric flowers and embellishments will make it beautiful, if all goes according to plan.  For the top, I knew I wanted a simple sweetheart neckline with pretty, shaped straps, and I realized I had a pattern that was very close.  McCall's M5849 is one of my all-time favorite, most versatile bodice patterns, and it's discontinued!

But I have my old copy, and we cut it out in the lining fabric, after measuring my waist, bust, and rib cage compared to the pattern.  You can measure your pattern pieces and add the numbers together before you cut it out, so you know it'll fit--you just have to subtract the seam allowances from each piece.  See, we added a little here and there?

Then we assembled it with BIG basting stitches to take out later, and tried it on me.  Here it is on the mannequin.  On me it fit about the same, so we took it apart and made some modifications to the pieces.  We also--no picture of this--re-drew the sweetheart neckline to a more dramatic dip.

So that's the bodice construction.  For the skirt, I knew I wanted a shape like this:

 (pics from Style Me Pretty, Ruffled, and Green Wedding Shoes)

So I know I'll need a lot of petticoatage.  That's not a word.  But you know what I mean; fullness and stiffnessm, specifically in a cone shape, rather than fullness starting with lots of gathers at the waist.

We had a bridal petticoat in a closet at my mom's house, something we'd picked up at Goodwill Outlet to go under1890's-era dresses at fashion shows my mom does, but it was tearing at several seams and really cheaply made, so I cut it up!

Here's the before:

I measured each of the layers to a couple inches shorter than my wedding dress skirt length will be, and cut off the top!  It was a pain because this thing was so cheaply made and uneven, but I got it done and pleated it onto a waistband, so now it's the right length and the fullness is in the right place at the bottom.

To cut out the skirt, I knew I wanted a circle skirt or gored skirt shape.  I decided on gores because a full circle might end up with uneven pulling on the sides (since it is on the straight grain at the center and bias on the sides, and the weight of the fabric can distort it), and I didn't want a seam down the center front.  Here's a cute vintage pattern with the skirt shape we're making on a princess-seamed dress:

You don't need a pattern for a 6-gored skirt.  We just used my waist measurement, divided by 6 panels and added the seam allowances along the sides.  That gets you the top of each piece.  To find the width at the bottom, multiply your skirt length by pi or a little over 3 and divide that number by 6 panels.  Here's the pattern piece as my mom made it:

(The cats help out when I sew at her house).

I assembled the skirt and put it over the petticoat on the mannequin--then we took the layers of tulle I bought and told you about here and draped them over, tying at the waist with the ribbon that may end up my sash.  I don't have any of the self-fabric flowers yet, but I did find some lace I like and may use.  Ohhh, I am so excited!!!

This Saturday we are going to work on it again and I'll hopefully get the shirring done on the bodice and make the tulle into layers of skirt.  More progress updates to come next week!!

What do you think--do you want to see what it looks like on the mannequin, or wait till the end?? ;)