Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride

 Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero , with her duaghter the bride, also wearing a Felicity Westmacott creation.

Karen’s dress was made in shot brown/black chiffon layered over a cerise satin lining. The dress has an empire-line waist with cross over v-neck bodice and knee-length a-line skirt. The bodice lines are emphasised with pin tucked chiffon along the neckline and underbust line.

Official Wedding pictures by www.laurencephotography.com

Karen’s daughter’s wedding dress was also made by Felicity, see it’s portfolio entry for more pictures.

 Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero

Karen’s bolero was a cut-away style with long sleeves in earth and pink silk dupion to match the dress. A waterfall collar revealed the pink lining and softened the line of the front.

 Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero

On the stand ready for Karen’s final fitting

 Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero , design sketch

Design sketch for Karen’s outfit Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero , neckline detail

Detail showing the pin-tucked panels on the bodice

 Dress and Bolero for Karen, Mother of the Bride, by Felicity Westmacott. Cerise chocolate silk, v-neck dress and waterfall collar bolero

Picture taken at Karen’s final fitting

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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It's giving bridal Sun Goddess 🌞 Just look at that colour!

One of my favourite bespoke wedding dresses to date. I made this opulent bronze gold look for an equally gorgeous bride who wanted something a little different for her wedding day. 

My favourite features have got to be the statement bow on the shoulder and the cartridge pleats around the waist. This style of pleating helped add volume to this unbelievable iridescent dupion silk. Cartridge pleating was popular in the first Elizabethan era and always gives a touch of the historical to any garment on which it's included.

I also included a bustle hook (you can see what the dress looks like up in the last clip), which totally transforms the dress and makes it much easier to move in when it's time to dance!

This is bride was a dream client - elegant and adventurous, with a touch of the dramatic 😉 drop me a DM if you've got wedding dress dreams that you're dying to bring to life!

#weddingdress #ukbride #bespokeweddingdress #bridetobe
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.⁠
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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!
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Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
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