I made my wedding dress; a real, actual wedding dress. And let me tell you it was actually a very joyful and (mostly) stress-free experience which I did not expect. When I got engaged I knew that I would make my dress, mostly because I feel most comfortable in clothes I’ve made. I didn’t set out to do it super cheaply but knew that an added benefit would be saving some money vs. buying a couture gown.
Cheesy as it sounds, the dress was more than a dress; it felt very much like the culmination of my sewing; a dress to end all dresses and a celebration of my sewing journey. And with that in mind, two things were certain – 1. I knew I would use By Hand London sewing patterns as my starting point, and 2. I hoped I’d find my fabric at New Craft House (and, spoiler alert, I did!). These 2 small businesses have been central to my sewing journey and I was determined to celebrate that.
I’m going to start at the beginning which was around a day after getting engaged (in July 2023) when I started researching styles I liked. I’m going to share my inspo and then veer into the world of fabric shopping (although I didn’t actually do much shopping around).
The Inspo & patterns:
So starting with the inspo, I had a few designers that I loved already – mainly Emilia Wickstead and Jesus Peiro. Along with looking at pictures of their gowns, I also looked at my own dresses and which necklines I liked the most. The main bodice that kept jumping out at me was a very timeless square neckline with princess seams which lent itself nicely to the Kim bodice pattern from By Hand London. Did I go back and forth on whether it should be Kim or Flora? Yes, yes I did. But ultimately whilst I wanted the dress to be very ‘me’, I also wanted it to feel special and Kim with her princess seams felt like the perfect fit.
As for the skirt, I intimidated myself a bit with this inspo, but quickly talked myself out of the imposter syndrome and decided if I had enough time I could create anything. I already had in mind that I wanted blue shoes from Loeffler Randall, and so wanted a way to show these off. It was either going to be a leg slit or a hi-lo hem. However when I saw the wrap skirt of Jesus Peiro gowns, I knew it was what I wanted to recreate – it seemed special and different to all my other dresses, with some added drama, but was also not completely out of my comfort zone to wear. I didn’t have a clear pattern in mind for this but recognised the similarity of the front and back pleats to the Flora skirt from By Hand London. So I had in my mind that I would self-draft it but cross check the pleats against that pattern to ensure a seamless fit to the bodice.
The fabric:
Fabric-wise, I didn’t have firm ideas of what I wanted. I knew I didn’t want lace or applique because I wanted the simplicity of the gown to shine, but I had in my head a duchess satin or crepe. That is until I went to New Craft House to check out a fabric I’d been eyeing up online.
Now before I go into it, for some context I had just had a colour consultation from Color Guru (a gifted experience in return for an Instagram story/ post). I had the unexpected outcome of being a Twilight Autumn (in my head I would definitely be a Winter) and so instead of white, I was being recommended to wear ivory or cream. I have to say at this point that I wasn’t completely convinced but I have since been fully convinced as you probably realise since my dress fabric was cream.
Back to fabric shopping, I took my Mum so that she had some experience resembling dress shopping (this was the only thing I could give her as I wasn’t planning to try on any actual dresses!) I made a beeline for the fabric I had seen online and it was love at first sight, BUT I was very concerned about how cream it was, still struggling in my mind against my colour analysis results and whether I should be wearing white or cream. I bought half a metre and I took pictures at every single angle with every light and lipstick possible which I will spare you from looking through.
After a couple of weeks I decided it was definitely the one and I went back and bought a very bouncy (and heavy) 8 metres, of which I would end up using around 6. I also bought it in a pale pink to make a bag for me and my maid of honour. At this point I hadn’t made my skirt pattern and was unsure how much I’d need, plus had the fear of it running out. Note at the time of writing there is still some of this fabric left – don’t sleep on it!!! [Affiliate link to the best fabric ever]
It would be a while before I bought the lining and notions, so I’ll save that for another post, but at this point the fabric was in the bag, the design was decided, and all that was left was the very intimidating exciting job of actually bringing it to life.
Kate Eva 