Illusion back lace wedding dress

Backless illusion bespoke lace wedding dress

I made an illusion back lace wedding dress for Helen. The bodice was a traditional sweetheart shape, lightly boned but totally cut away at the back. A simple straight skirt and train balanced the drama of the sheer tulle and lace applique back and sleeves.

Official photography by Alex Tenters Photography

The lace on Helen’s illusion back lace dress was bought as flat fabric but highly worked into with hand applique work. Cutting out extra motifs to apply to the main bodice so the pattern appears to fade down the dress, as well as on the invisible mesh of the sleeves and back. The main bodice and skirt were made of light weight ivory satin which flowed and hung beautifully. The hem edge was trimmed with a pretty scalloped lace edging on the plain tulle of the main skirt.

Original design sketch by Felicity Westmacott

Original design sketch for the illusion back lace wedding dress

perfectly fitted custom wedding dress
Illusion back detail on Helen's dress

Helen wrote: The day was lovely and the dress was a bit hit, thank you so much! I had so many people asking me where I had got it from and saying it was stunning! It really was! My mum and I got it on without any issues on the day and I didn’t want to take it off again!?

vintage style design with floral detail
Summer modern wedding design make to order low back

A wrist loop was provided so that Helen could keep her train off the grass when she wanted to.

Final fitting picture train loop

A hidden ‘something blue’ sewn next the the wrist loop.

Wrist loop and something blue on bespoke wedding dress

Helen was able to dance the night away in this easy to wear and comfortable bespoke wedding dress.

Making Helen’s Illusion back lace wedding dress

Making Helen’s dress included the making of a ‘toile’ or practice run of the dress in cheap fabrics. As you can see this stage is a world away from the finished product, but without it the fit and finish could never be as good.

First fitting in the real fabrics, mostly still plain.

corded lace bodice panel bespoke dressmaker

Working on the lace panels for the bodice.

second fitting picture bespoke lace wedding dress

Here the lace has been tacked to the illusion tulle, to decide on placement but not yet properly sewn down or the excess mesh cut away.

The finished dress shown with the train spread out and hooked up on the bustle button.

All finished and ready to go.

To see more lace wedding dresses you can head to my lace wedding dress page

To see another illusion back lace wedding dress see the dress I made for Ayesha

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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.⁠
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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
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