Wedding Gown Update -- All Finished!!

Whew!

That was one

HUGE

job!

I totally left my comfort zone

and stretched myself

to the limit

with this dress

learning

two

new techniques

that I had never done before.

1) The corset back.

2) The pickup skirt.

~~~~

The corset back really turned out nice

and to tell you the truth

was not as hard as I

imagined it to be.

Certainly more time consuming than a zipper,

yet not much more difficult

and an amazing result.

Would I do it again? 

In a heart beat. 

I have a tutorial

(That I will post once life has settled down a bit)

One thing I would do differently with this

corset back, or rather two things. 

First, I would have cut it back

quite a bit more

leaving more of

the lacing

and less dress. 

Once the dress was on

and all laced up,

There was only 2-3 inches

of the lacing after

cinching her in nice and snug

rather than the beautiful

wide lacing

displayed above. 

Secondly, 

I would not have used ribbon

as the lacing and instead

invested the time into

creating a lacing 

out of self-fabric

with more body

(which I did try but it's not a good memory and we'll leave it at that) 

When the ribbon is laced

and cinched tightly

for that snug fit,

it crumples and looks more like a thick

string rather than the beautiful

double-faced

satin lacing as pictured. 

Even though the dress is

beautiful

it has lost some of its

decorative charm and interest because of those two things. 

Sigh. 

Live and learn, right? 

~~~~

Second was the skirt pickups.

So widely popular

and appearing to be an easy thing,

they turned out to be really quite

a challenge,

at least from my perspective.

Depending on the look your after,

there are some decisions to be made prior to construction,

ideally in the drafting stage,

both of these being the total length of the dress

and placment of the drapes. 

Of course, not realizing this and not making them in advance,

I was faced with struggling with the drape placement as well as getting the fullness we desired, especially in the back. 

I knew that I needed to add additional fabric

to the length of the skirt,

and I thought I had with the addition of

15 extra inches

to the over all length of the gown 

(basically guessing and not really thinking through the process)

but that was just not enough.

I now know that I needed at least 20 to 25 inches, perhaps more,

(which would have radically changed the amount of fabric needing to be purchased)

for the look I was after --

a very draped and full back with plenty of

length for a moderate train.

To maintain any sort of train beyond a sweep train,

I sacrificed much of the fullness and drape in the back as a result,

something that was disappointing to myself as the creator and

something that made its presence, though beautiful, fall somewhat flat.

The front drapes, however, were very nice and

we were both pleased

with the result.

This is the front bustled at the sides.

(I personally prefer the dress bustled because of the extra fullness)

  Sadly, I realize I did not get any photos of the back of the dress finished

to displacy the full train.

Here is the only shot of the back fully bustled and not hanging, propped up agains the ironing board, just for an idea of what I'm talking about.  

(not the best picture, sorry) 

The sleeves didn't work out like I had hoped either. 

I really struggled to get them on

and get them to hang right

(try 5 hours' worth of time)

only to have the bride try on the dress

and not really like how the petal sleeves turned out;

they just weren't right.

I then cut them down and creating

a cap sleeve instead. 

Now reading back over this post,

I realize I've sound a bit negative, if not hard on myself. 

I'm really not trying to be. 

I just want you all to realize that

this was a huge learning experience for me. 

It's important for me to share what I've learned. 

So if anyone out there every tries to

make a wedding gown with those features,

at least they will have a reference point of what not to do. 

The things I do love about the dress are:

the fabric that draped so beautifully

(a soft, matte satin that almost glows)

the lace

(beautiful, delicate with a touch of pink)

((I rocked the application!  Love working with lace)) 

the beading

(because I didn't have to do it and it's really beautiful)

Most of all,

I really love how

beautiful

Bobbie

is when

she wears it. 

I have always said that

the dress

is only the frame

to the picture, not the picture itself. 

Sew Happy,