Organza waterfall fishtail wedding dress

custom wedding dress alteration restyle new skirt

This is Hannah’s organza waterfall fishtail wedding dress which was a ‘restyle’ rather than made from scratch. She found the almost perfect dress in a bridal boutique but brought it to me to have the skirt changed to the organza waterfall loveliness she craved.

Official photography by Adebayo Deru

Whole circles of crisp pale ivory organza were cut and edged with crinoline ribbon and then sewn to the front. The back is all waterfall spirals with the lace from the bodice above fading into the organza in a peplum style.

organza and crinoline mermaid skirt bespoke made to order
bridal gown restyle organza waterfall skirt and lace applique with low back and train

balogun bespoke waterfall skirt design sketch

Original design sketch for the proposed changes to create the organza waterfall fishtail wedding dress. I always create a sketch for my clients. It’s essential to ensure what we are both expecting from the work matches up!

original fishtail dress before custom alterations

Before: Hannah’s dress ‘before’ with the simpler layered tulle skirt, at her fitting in the bridal boutique where she found the dress. I undertook sizing alterations to the base dress before I started work adding the organza skirt.

waterfall organza skirt with lace applique finished on the stand

After: my work on the dress added drama and texture to the lower skirt. We added 7 large organza waterfall frills, each edged with stiffening ‘horsehair braid’ so they spring out and away. I re appliquéd, by hand, lace taken from the original skirt by hand onto the curls of the new skirt.

Details of the work to the organza waterfall fishtail wedding dress

The stiff ribbon you can see sewn along the edge of each waterfall section is called ‘horsehair braid’ or crin/crinoline. It provides a clean finish and a light wieght stiffening to the bouncy organza curls. horsehair braid is so called because before the invention of plastics it was actually made from horse hair. The hair was easily harvested when the manes and tales of horses were groomed. Then it was woven in stiff, light weight ribbons for use in dressmaking.

To see another waterfall organza wedding dress, head over to Richelle’s bespoke wedding dress

To find out more about having your wedding dress restyled or altered see my alterations page.

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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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Here are just some of my creations from the past year! I feel so lucky to get to make such interesting and varied garments as my job 🥰 colourful wedding dresses, unique mother of the bride ensembles, as well as alterations to make a dress feel more like home.

If you used my services (as a bride specifically) between Oct 1st 2024 up until now, I have a little favour to ask...
I've been nominated for the 2026 Wedding Industry Awards, in the "Independent Dressmaker/Designer" category and the people in the time period above are the only ones who are eligible to vote for me. 

So, if you have a spare few minutes, and you enjoyed both working with me and the outcome, then you can vote for me via the link in my bio. There are different voting links depending on whether you were a bespoke or dipdye booking, or an alteration booking. 

Industry recognition is one thing, but recognition from the people I work with is even better 💜
(and if you've already voted for me, thank you!! It means the world!)
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