Aaand…. it’s made! A sneak peek in to the making of a custom outfit.

Aaand…. it’s made! The custom wedding outfit, that is.

After I draped out the pattern for the blouse yesterday, getting the v-neck and shoulder folds exactly the way I wanted them, marking everything out and drawing out a nice armhole, I proceeded to remove the muslin from the dress form.

Building the top

I then ironed the two pieces of cloth out flat, and traced the shape and markings I had made on to paper, smoothing out the lines and correcting the curves as I did, and then I added seam allowances.

This top was to be made with the same cloths as the skirt I was also making the bride, the Anemone in bridal white worn at the natural waist. So it was going to have a top layer of sheer and smooth silk Georgette,  and two layers of silk Crepe-de-chine, to add weight and avoid sheerness (always lurking with whites!).

I wanted to avoid bulk in the shoulder area where the pleats are, so I decided to turn the folds in to darts in the lining layer, to reduce the quantity of fabric there.  The top and middle layers got treated as one, basically the Crepe-de-chine was the interlining for the Georgette, giving more body to it, and hiding the selvages from being visible from the outside when the lining layer was added.

There is an invisible zipper up the left side for ease getting in and out.  I love how all the hems are clean and smooth inside and outside thanks to the lining!

The full look

The Anemone, in it’s fluid simplicity, compliments the top perfectly, and the result is an elegant, polished but relaxed and simple bridal look.  The blouse will look beautiful worn with other skirts or over jeans, and the skirt could be re-hemmed, and worn on it’s own. All pieces could be dyed as they are 100% silk throughout.

I cant wait to hear what the bride thinks, it’s shipping tomorrow and will deliver next week!

Every time it’s different!

So that’s a sneak peek in to what is standard procedure here. All dresses, regardless if they are fully the original design or if they have custom designed elements like this one had, are entirely customised, the patterning is usually done from scratch based on the customer’s unique figure and shape, through draping and adaptation of the original sample pattern, so it’s really easy, not to mention super fun, for me to add personalised details and striding off the beaten path is basically the standard.

No two dresses are born exactly alike!

And so your own unique wedding dress (or everyday dress for that matter!) is just an email away!