Purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress

bride and maid of honour in modern vintage wedding dress purple silk

I made this purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress for Karen. It is a simple modern wedding dress in ivory silk dupion with contrast purple silk detail. I hand embroidered butterflies in silk thread and lace applique complete the picture. Karen also had a bridesmaids dresses made bespoke, see here for more pictures.

Karen’s dress has a boned bodice with sweetheart neckline, trimmed in palest pink and silver floral lace and highlighted with hand sewn Swarovski crystals. The dress has asymmetric ruching and a split at the front to reveal a dramatic ‘Cadbury’ purple silk hand appliquéd with beaded black lace motifs. At the back the dress laces closed with purple ribbon above a long train embellished with hand embroidered butterflies. Each butterfly is finished with more crystals as they fly randomly among symmetrically placed silver and pink lace applique motifs.

lace up back detail on bespoke alternative wedding dress

Lacing the bride into her dress with dramatic purple ribbon lacing.

bespoke couture strapless modern silk dupion ivory and purple wedding dress

Original design sketch

orginal design sketch by Felicity Westmacott for butterfly wedding dress with split and ruching

The placement of the the butterflies and lace applique was done at a fitting with the bride there to help. We cut out and coloured lots of butterfly designs and pinned them to the dress to decide a balanced but natural formation.

butterfly detail on wedding dress train with lace flowers

The train finished on the stand, the butterflies fly at random amongst the symmetrically placed lace motifs.

Each butterfly was hand sewn with traditional Japanese flat silk embroidery thread. Long and short satin stitches combine to give a smooth and soft texture to the wings. We used four shades of purple and lavender and two shades of ivory and cream. Each large butterfly took about 6 or 7 hours to complete, the smaller ones about 3 hours.

hand embroidery ivory lavender and purple butterfly

There were six types of butterfly on her dress, each with at least two of its kind present. I didn’t want any butterflies to feel lonely!

purple butterfly embroidery swarovski crystal hand embellishment

simple modern wedding dress with purple wrap stole

Karen also commissioned a simple purple silk stole to wear in some photos with her purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress.

alternative tattoo bride with her dressmaker

Above: the bride and her dressmaker. Karen’s wedding took place at the beautiful Coltsford Mill in surrey.

Making Karen’s Purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress

embroidery on wedding dress butterflies by hand outline

Stage one of creating a butterfly for this purple butterfly embroidered wedding dress. The outline is drawn onto the reverse of the fabric and then running stitch pushes the design through onto the front. With the fabric in a frame to keep it tight the colours are gradually filled in using a technique called long and short stain stitch.

work in the embroidery hoop silk butterfly detail

More colours are added and at the end the crystal body is sewn down the middle.

lace applique hand beaded lilac, silver and pink swarovski crystals

The lace motifs are also each sewn to the dress by hand. In palest pink and silver they provided somewhere for the butterflies to land.

corded lace detail with scalloped edge swarovksi crystal beading something blue

The lace at the neckline had a pretty scalloped edge to soften the line. Hundreds of Swarovski crystals highlighted the middle of each flower. On one side, I used a few pale blue crystals for a hidden ‘something blue’.

organza embroidered butterfly wings with bustle button

This was the only ‘single’ butterfly, larger than the others and in three dimensions. It is made with organza wings that flutter as Karen moved. The button just below was for her train to hook up onto for later in the day, the organza butterfly hovering just above.

train spread out and hooked up for dancing bustle button
train bustled up bride walking with bridesmaids

Here you can see Karen’s train spread out and hooked up for ease of walking. Her three stunning bridesmaids dresses were also created by me and can be seen in more detail in their own portfolio section.

cadbury purple silk dupion with black beaded lace applique embellishment skirt

Detail of the finished dress showing the black lace applique on the purple silk background.

bespoke dressmaker toile fitting practice run in cheap fabrics

Fitting pictures: Karen in her ‘toile’ (practice run).

 fitting picture bridal gown made to measure lace up back

Fitting pictures: Karen in the nearly finished dress, just the hem to do!

bride and maid of honour modern wedding dress sweetheart neckline ivory silk

To see another statement purple wedding dress design head over to this blog post

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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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Curious about the steps to take towards getting your wedding dress altered? Here are my tips for making your alteration journey a smooth and pleasant one.

1. Finding options
The shop where you find your dress might have a list of recommendations, or have their own in-house seamstress. You can also ask friends who they have used (and more importantly, liked).

2. Choosing a seamstress you can trust
Check online reviews. You can get a good sense of their professionalism from the look of their website or when you visit their work space. Getting undressed and trusting someone with your wedding dress is an intimate process so it’s important to pick someone you feel comfortable with.

3. Book early
Ideally, as soon as you have bought you dress. Seamstresses usually get booked up months ahead, especially in the busy spring and summer months. I normally recommend alterations are started 6-8 weeks before your wedding day.

4. Have realistic budgets expectations
Most wedding dress alterations with me cost between £300-£500 total, though this depends on the work that needs doing. Don't assume that alteration costs will be proportional to the cost of your dress. Buying a cheap dress that needs a lot of work can end up costing as much or more than a more expensive dress that needs very little changing.

6. Buy a dress that is close to your size
Choosing a dress as close as possible to your actual size will give the best result. Making a dress smaller is much easier than expanding one.

If you have any more questions about the altering process, pop them in the comments!
Step 1: meet the bride-to-be, and discuss her vision. Shapes, fabrics, themes, colours, all of it!

Step 2: making! With regular fittings to make sure everything is perfect.

Step 3: the big day 💜

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Photographer - Corina Oghina

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#weddingdress #realbride #bespokeweddingdress #surreyseamstress #sussexbridal
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