Sara commissioned a simple and elegant ruched dress in ivory silk dupion.
Official photographs by www.andygaines.com
The dress has a fitted and boned bodice and a-line skirt. The bodice material is ruched to one side with cross-over detail. The wide neckline opens from a shallow v-neck to off-the-shoulder straps that just sit on the edge of Sara’s shoulders.?The back of Sara’s dress extended into a train and fastened with a concealed zip.
Sara with her lovely bridesmaids who’s gunmetal grey dresses were also hand made (though not by me). Sara did however buy the silk dupion that they are made from through me, choosing from the hundreds of fabrics I have in my sample books.
Sara’s dress came with a hidden ‘something blue’, a pretty ribbon rose sewn on next to the wrist loop used for picking up her train when walking outside. She also had a bustle button for hitching the train up off the floor with no hand needed for dancing.
Here you can see Sara using her wrist loop to keep her train off the ground while they have photos outside
Sara dancing the night way unimpeded by her train which is safely bustled up out
of the way.
Making Sarah’s Dress
Pictures from Sara’s toile fitting
What is a toile??It’s a practice run! After I take your measurements I draft a flat paper pattern for your dress. The pattern is then cut out in a cheap fabric (usually calico) and sewn together for a fitting. Any adjustments needed are pinned on and copied over to the paper pattern ready to be used on the real fabric. The toile stage saves expensive mistakes with your real materials and means you can check the fit and style are perfect with time for a complete change of mind if need be!
Pictures from Sara’s final fitting
Views of the back of the dress showing the train spread out and also bustled up for dancing.
The finished dress on the stand in my work room
The finished dress, steamed, stuffed and ready to be collected
