Made To Measure Wedding Dress in London

Made To Measure Wedding Dress in London bespoke custom south uk seamstress maker

For this made to measure wedding dress in London, bride Karah approached me looking to commission a layered gown in scrolling ivory floral lace, with a corset inspired by the late (and very great) Vivienne Westwood.⁠

The base layer is a floor length strapless column dress made of champagne-coloured silk dupion. I made the top layer from ivory lace, including the high collared neckline and long, slim fitting sleeves.

There are so many details of this dress I love; the lace up back, the visible boning channels of the corset, the buttons on the sleeves and of course that big, dramatic veil.

How effortlessly gorgeous is Karah? She looks like if Wednesday Adams grew up and decided to wear white to her wedding. And her husband looks like the perfect modern Gomez. This wedding dress is chic and gothic. Whilst taking inspiration from the Victorian era, but also keeping it thoroughly modern.

Photography – Story In Time⁠

“Everything was amazing and I can’t thank you enough.”

– Karah, the bride

Making a Made To Measure Wedding Dress in London

Step 1: Designing the dress (and getting the bride’s approval)

Step 2: Fabric selection (and getting the bride’s approval)

Step 3: The toile – the rough draft of the dress (and getting the bride’s approval)

Step 4: Fitting the toile (and getting the bride’s approval)

Step 5: Cutting into the actual fabric, followed by lots of fittings to perfect the fit of the dress (and, of course, getting the bride’s approval!)

After lots more steps, you can finally bask in the glow of the completed dress and a happy bride!

As you can see, it’s very important to me that the bride involved with every step of the process. Communication is so important in a process like this. It’s why, when Karah said she wanted to change up the design from the initial idea, I was more than happy to come up with new ideas.

If you’re for more inspo, here is another historically inspired wedding dress, this time using Edwardian era details. Or, if you like the classic column shape of this dress, have a look at another one I made, based on the art deco style of the 1920s and 30s.

If you’re looking for a made to measure wedding dress in London, then I might be your perfect solution. My shop is based in Dorking, Surrey, which is a short train ride (or drive) from London. I’ve made wedding outfits for plenty of London brides, as well as mothers of the bride/groom, bridesmaids and guests.

If you want to have a no-obligation chat, just get in touch. I would love to hear your ideas!

Add a comment...

Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

Felicity Westmacott

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

Recent Portfolio entries

Read More
follow me on instagram@felicitywestmacott

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.⁠
⁠
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
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