Bridesmaids for Elsa

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Ellie found bought her bridesmaids dresses from the high street but had the necklines extensively altered to meet the modesty?standards that were important to her. The gorgeous little boleros were actually made by Ellie’s mum using silk sourced from my fabric books for a perfect colour match.

Official Wedding pictures by www.chrislegg.net

I do not normally take on alterations for anything other than bridal wear but as Ellie was having her own wedding dress madeI agreed to help with her bridesmaids too. The work done on them wasn’t just the usual changes for size anyway but much more extensive.

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‘Before picture’

The dresses as bought from the shop were very pretty but not suitable for Ellie’s wedding day. The sweetheart strapless necklines were too revealing and needed building up for modesty. The dresses came with long satin sashes that tied at the back so these were removed and used to create the necklines.

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‘After Pictures’

The satin was ruched to match the underbust sash and then sewn across the neckline to create a higher square neck. More of the sash was then sewn from the underarm up and around the neckline into a pretty halter neck providing more coverage. A ribbon at centre back held the new halter neck in place. Lastly the back waistline was finished with a ruched satin sash so the line.

The short sleeved boleros that Ellie’s mum made finished the new, more modest dresses.
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Ellie also had extensive style alterations to her own wedding dress.

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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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As a wedding dress maker, I would say the fitting process is when I need my brides to trust in me the most. It's all well and good showing them beautiful drawings and fabrics, but when it comes to those first fittings, things can look very different to what you imagined. And that's fine!

All art goes through a process, whether it's layering oil paints on a canvas, or refining the clay of a sculpture...but an artist knows, it will all be worth it in the end.

I think the finished result looks absolutely beautiful, and that’s thanks to those fittings, where I could refine, check and double check, and make sure this bride’s dress fitted her perfectly!

If you want to see photos from Laura's wedding day with this dress in action, on a beautiful, snowy day, then have a look at my earlier post.

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#weddingdress #wedding #bride #bespokeweddingdress #customdress #weddinggown #londonbridaldesigner #surreybridaldesigner #surreydressmaker #londondressmaker
Watch til the end to see this beautifully ethereal dip-dyed wedding dress 👗 

I did 4 rounds of dyeing to get the perfect, dusk to midnight blue ombre, but it was so worth it!

I do a lot of custom dip dying, and I've noticed that blue is really on trend at the moment. But what's wonderful, is that there's still so much variety that can be had. My dip dying service comes entirely customisable, with up to five possible colours in the gradient. Some brides choose blues, but include purples and even black into their colour choices. Other brides stick with paler hues, whilst others go for the deeper, darker shades. It's always exciting to see my brides' imaginations running wild!

What colours would you add to your wedding dress?

If you want to see the bride looking like a fairy getting married in the woods, have a look at the post before this one.
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