Something Old & Something New - A Self drafted wedding dress

A bride approached me with an interesting dress conception. She had a blouse with lace front and cotton back+peplum. She wanted me to use that lace from the bodice for her wedding dress bodice front. And then she pulled out three more fabrics. A nude netting, white floral lace and a peach chiffon. "Combine a dress for me from these" She then begun explaining what she wanted where. I would be lying if I said I wasn't overwhelmed by all this.

So this is the result of her idea. See through front, a netting back with some of the flowers from the skirt lace hand sewn on the netting plus some flowers around the armhole. She said she felt insecure about her armholes showing and this was our solution. The front lace stayed the same shape as there wasn't much to work with to begin with. The lace skirt is a semi circle with a train. The chiffon under the lace skirting is gathered at the waist and also has a train.

The dress fastens with buttons in the front until mid thigh so she can show off her legs while dancing. As the bodice area is very light and the white lace fabric is VERY heavy and would drag the whole dress down, I built in a waist stay that fastens with hooks and holds up the weight of the dress.

My favorite part of this dress is the train. She would have liked it to be even longer but I simply didn't have fabric for longer train. However she did like the fact that she can easily hook her finger through the lace and carry the train when she felt like. I attached the chiffon layer of the skirt to the lace with a tread chain.

And that's it. A wedding dress combined of four very different fabrics. The dress isn't something I would wear, but I still think it's pretty. And the bride was very happy with the result. The train, buttons, slit, bodice, see through bits were everything she wanted. Some brides go for modesty, some for sexy.