Wedding dress for mid-size bride with silver lace

light weight ivory silk wedding dress made to measure

I made a beautiful wedding dress for mid-size bride, Claire. She commissioned a light and elegant dress made in layered ivory silk dupion and organza with silver beaded lace applique.

Official photographs by www.rubielovephotography.co.uk

I made the main dress from ivory silk dupion with a fitted and boned bodice and sweetheart neckline. A layer of silk organza over the whole dress extended upwards to a higher round neckline front and back. At the back the organza closed with a single button.

I hand sewed beaded antique-silver lace to the bodice so it crept up onto the sheer organza to create the shape of embellished straps. I added extra hand beading and Swarovski crystals on the bodice area, especially on the neckline and straps.

The dress was cut princess line which means with seams and panels from top to bottom with no break at the waist. This is a flattering cut for a wedding dress for a mid-size bride. The skirt flared gently from the natural waistline supported by a few layers of netting. The lace flowed from the bodice onto the skirt graduating downwards becoming spaced out motifs instead of solid pattern, thinning out towards the hem.

top hat and tails ivory silk and lace wedding dress

The dress was fully lined in a contrast purple lining and closed with a concealed zip at centre back.

full skirt wedding dress no train floor length

wedding dress with silver applique motifs

confetti sunflowers and top hats just married

thank you letter from happy client testimonial

Claire wrote: It’s taken me a while to write this because how do you thank the person who made the wedding dress of your dreams, when you weren’t even sure what you wanted! Well now I have Chiara, and one day I will have her in a frame at the top of the stairs, despite my husband saying look like a ghost in the middle of the night!

Thank you so much

With love from Claire and Daniel

friends and family with the bride getting ready bespoke bridal gown

dressing the bride classic style wedding dress

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purple and ivory wedding colours

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purple lining in ivory wedding dress something secret

Making the wedding dress for mid-size bride, Claire

original design sketch by felicity westmacott princess line wedding dress

Original design sketch and notes

preparing and planning with fabrics

Fabrics on the sewing room table, ready to start work

making a wedding dress sewing room picture

A panel of all the fabric layers, with lace applique work to do

sewing lace to organza panel in the studio applique

Lace work to the back neckline

silk organza hem and button loop detail

Detail of the back neckline, button and loop fastening

pinning the hem of a bridal gown fitting picture

Pictures from Claire’s fittings

fitting pictures with the dressmaker sheer yoke wedding dress

happy bride in her dress final fitting

Final fitting pictures

finished dress fitting picture ivory silk and lace
finished dress on the stand hand applique work silver lace

Details of the lace and beading with the finished dress on the stand

silver beaded lace detail applique motif
antique silver lace and ivory silk wedding dress bespoke

To see another wedding dress made with antique silver lace see this photoshoot dress.

I have made dresses for many mid size brides including this one for beautiful bride Alison

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Felicity Westmacott

I write about all aspects of weddings, dressmaking, fashion history, and the human relation to clothing. I welcome comments and debate.

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I thought it would be fun to see the differences between various bridal petticoats and hoop skirts. Meet the Aurora wedding dress, she's one of my favourites, especially because of the excellent dramatic vibes she gives. So she felt like the perfect dress to experiment with.

The Aurora dress already has some layers of netting built into the dress, so she's already got a bit of volume from the get go. But I wanted to see what difference adding more underlayers would have.

The first addition was a single hoop skirt. Hoop skirts come in all sorts of variations - the single hoop is pretty much what it sounds like. There's a single hoop at the bottom of the skirt, translating into more width at the bottom of the dress.

Then I took off the hoop skirt, and put on a 5-layer petticoat. This thing is a monster! But adds so much more airy, fluffy volume.

The second hoop skirt I tried was a bell hoop skirt. This one has hoops built in all the way up the skirt, creating more of a...you guessed it...bell shape.

And then finally, for the ultimate princess vibes, I tried both the 5-layer petticoat and the bell hoop skirt together. It's giving fairy tale bride, for sure. Perfect for twirling in whilst you dance with your prince, princess or princep.

When ordering a dress from me, talking about what kind of silhouette you want is really useful. And I've got loads of seamstress secrets to achieve pretty much anything you can imagine!

#weddingdress #dipdyeweddingdress #seamstress #pinkweddingdress #princessweddingdress #balloonsleeves
"I cannot begin to put into words how thankful I am that I found you to make my wedding dress of my dreams. The dress was perfect in every way and the colours looked glorious in the Cornish sunshine. Everyone fell in love with the dress and I even got likened to the Porthleven mermaid! It even stood up to rambling down cliffs. You truly are a genius and I can never thank you enough."⁠

Nicola wanted an elegant and figure-hugging mermaid wedding dress made in pale ivory lace. To add colour to her look, she chose a vibrant yellow, orange, red and purple dip dye skirt. 

If you want to see how the dress looked on the day of Nicola's wedding, have a look at my previous post. I love how the colours of the dress really stand out against the dramatic setting of the Cornish coast.⁠
⁠
If you're also looking for a completely unique wedding dress, then you've come to the right place. Starting with your ideas and working together during the entire process, I'll design and make your dream wedding dress. Drop me and DM and let's have a chat!
⁠
~⁠
Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
Part 2!

In Part 1 I spent all day prepping my bridal window display. There was a looot of dismantling and tidying involved before I could even begin to start thinking about which wedding dresses I wanted to include in my Pride themed window. Now that's all done, let's just enjoy all this glorious colour!

Which outfit is your favourite? I would love to see a bride wearing both the skirt and veil in one, fabulous, rainbow look.

And, of course, happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

#pride #bridalboutique #surreybride #sussexbride #altbride #alternativebride #colourfulbride #bespokeweddingdress #weddingdress
I love making wedding dresses, but a highlight of my month is always coming up with a new window display.

For this month, obviously I had to do something for Pride. You probably know by now, but Pride is important to me for lots of reasons. I feel it especially important as an individual, as well as a business, to show my support and my pride openly, so that others know that my shop is a safe space for all.

With that theme in mind for this bridal boutique window display, I chose my Nile Queen wedding dress, complete with golden corset, and this gorgeous gold leaf, dip dye train. For the other three looks, I chose the bases to be relatively simple, so that the pops of colour from the rainbow overskirts and veil could really shine through. 

If you want to see how the window turned out, have a look at for Part 2!
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in
from design to completionbespoke wedding dressesFelicity Westmacott
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in