Making the Phoenix ‘Dip-dye’ dress

My first dip dye dress, called ‘Phoenix’ was designed and made as a romantic ivory silk and tulle wedding dress for another shoot but was perfect to upcycle as a canvas for the colours of autumn. Sustainability and un-needful waste in the fashion world are causes that run deep in my philosophy so recreating a dress into a new incarnation was not a compromise but part of the basic premise.

As a labour of love I spent 7 hours spraying six colours (with the lace trim carefully masked) to produce the final ‘dip-dye’ effect of the finished article.

The sample dress pictured has now been sold but this dress can be made to order from £3300. Please get in touch to discuss your bespoke requirements.

phoenix dip dye wedding dress made to order
november wedding fire and rainbow

Dipdye Trends

‘Dip-dye- has been quite a wedding trend (not to mention for hair styles and home furnishings too) in 2016 and 2017. But in fact a true dip-dye is almost impossible on most wedding dresses. Only natural fibres can be dyed and many dresses, even high priced, high quality ones, are made of man-made fabrics. The tulle of this dress is polyester, though the fabric beneath is silk so dying-proper was not an option.

In fact most ‘dip-dye’ or ‘ombre’ wedding dresses have been sprayed, not dyed and so I followed suit. After some careful research (asking people who might know) I opted for a florists spray called ‘Oasis’. The florist working with us on the photoshoot (Michelle Knibbs of Muscari Whites) kindly donated me the spray cans from her stash.

The original dress

Here is the dress before work began… virgin as from the previous photoshoot and modelled here by yours truly!

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott
Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott

Upcycle design with colour

Here was the design I had in my head, though some of this didn’t come through in the final look. The other creatives on the team were less keen than I to go all the way with large leaf headdresses and curling ivy tendrils. I love flights of fantasy, but a ‘realistic, if unusual wedding’ look was also part of the premise!

Dress Design by Felicity Westmacott 'Helada'

Below an image of the very famous ‘dip-dyed’ (but actually sprayed) wedding dress that went viral in 2016 and was the starting point for all this work. And some lovely autumn coloured leaves, which I loved as my inspiration palette! The dress below dress goes all through to blue at the hem, but ours was not trying to be a copy, the similarity in colours is only co-incidental as our Autumn theme demanded the yellow, orange and red!

Dip Dye inspiration dress

Dress Colouring: www.taylorannart.com

Photo: www.jamestangphotography.com

real leaves in a graduated circle of colour, red, yellow and orange

Starting the colour work

…and here I am all set to go with the dress outside on plastic ready for spraying

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott
Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott

Oasis Floral Spray

First I did a spray test on some fabric samples, using the same silk, tulle and lace.

Autumn colours spray lest on fabric

You can buy this spray, and others similar from most floral wholesalers. I often buy from Trevor Green and direct from the Oasis website too.

Autumn colours spray lest on fabric

I was very lucky with the weather and able to work all day layering up colour with drying periods in between. So next I masked the lace trim with tape and set to work.

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott, dip-dye spraying in progress

Layering from below the lace trim I started with two shades of yellow and then orange and the first shade of red.

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott, dip-dye spraying in progress

I worked outwards towards the hem, the bands of colour widening as I came round the back of the train. Three shades of red were graduated into a touch of purple at the very edge, which makes the yellow at the other end of the rainbow really ‘pop’.

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott, dip-dye spraying in progress

I sprayed and sprayed, not just each colour, but also the same colours again as second and third coats, moving the tulle around as I worked to ensure it was coated evenly and without any bare patches.

Dip-dye Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott, dip-dye spraying in progress

Finishing off

Once I was finished spraying I removed the tape and decided to add one very light layer of yellow over the lace trim and just above. The effect was very subtle, but just enough that the lace did not seem to harsh and sudden a contrast with the colour below.

Dip-dye Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott, dip-dye spraying in progress

The finished dress was not quite as saturated with colour as I would have liked. But I was limited on both time available (with another two dresses still to make for the shoot) and the spray cans ran out! You can see can another coat would have filled those paler areas, but for the shoot we were good to go!

Ivory silk and tulle Wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: Frost on the leaves photoshoot

For many more images from the official photographer on the photoshoot, and the other dresses I designed see the portfolio entry…

felicitywestmacottcouk.wordpress.com/portfolio/photoshoot-frost-on-the-leaves

ombre bridal gown red yellow orange and ivory train

Photography by Jessica Jill Partridge, Modelled by Keely Simeoni

This dress is available to hire for photoshoots, or to buy for a wedding or as costume. Please contact me direct for rates and terms and conditions, pertaining to purchase and hire.

sleeping princess bride ivy autumn flowers
Frost on the leaves photoshoot, can

A shot from behind the scenes creating the image above. So much is in the fantasy!

The plastic cover for the ground in my garden wasn’t perfect but the spray I got on the paving proved very attractive to our photographer who made good use of it in quite a few close up and detail pictures!

gilded bouquet autumn wedding inspiration

Creatives

with thanks to all the other creatives on the photoshoot team!

Photography: Jessica Jill Partridge,
Dresses made & designed by Felicity Westmacott
Styling by Jessica of www.foxandpartridge.com
Models Katja Cemic, Keely Simeoni and Isabella Crighton
Hair styling by Very Bettie
Make up by www.charlottemuapro.com,
Bespoke Shoes by Marsha Hall
Jewellery by Vicky Forrester
Veil and headpieces by Jen Levet
Floristry by Michelle Knibbs of Muscari Whites
Garden wreath byThe Girl who Gardens

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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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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