Phoenix Dipdye Wedding Dress

I made the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress for a photoshoot. I designed a frosty sheer silver lace dress and a rose gold flowergirl dress as well for the same shoot. You can see more pictures from the entire shoot here.

The autumn colour wedding dress was a pet project I’d been keen to try for a while. I had a dress in stock I’d made for a previous photoshoot that was ripe for another outing. Adding the flame colours to the hem created a completely different look. I feel the experiment was incredibly successful and it has led to (so far) 9 years of dipdye wedding dress projects since. Both for other photohoots and for real clients.

This dress is for sale, made to measure for each bride from my Etsy shop, or direct from me for the full bespoke experience.

Phoenix Dipdye Wedding Dress made to order outdoor ceremony
custom dipdye wedding dress tulle and lace

There were quite a few other wedding design professionals involved in the Autumn theme photoshoot. I love the rainbow florals, woodland jewellery and calla lily headdress they designed to compliment my dress.

We also had fun at the end of the shoot day with an alternative make-up design. I wanted to try some a bit fantasy Editorial and not as much realistic bride!

rainbow fairytale princess sleeping with flowers and ivy
autumn wedding red velvet boots with rose

Suppliers for the Frost on the leaves photoshoot 2016

Photography:JessicaJillPartridge.
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 by The Girl who Gardens.

A real wedding with the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress

I have had real brides order made to measure copies of the Phoenix design. Below are pictures from Brianna’s beautiful wedding in Twin Falls, Idaho. Photography by @parker_jones_photography

It’s always interesting to note how much a photographer’s editing style affects the end colours of the dresses I work on. However hard I work to match my client’s colour requests, the photographer often changes the final result with a colour skewed edit! Comparing the wedding pictures above with my own non-professional pictures of the same dress below shows just how much effect this can have.

A few pictures in my studio of Brianna’s dress before it was shipped overseas. Creating dresses for clients who cannot visit for fittings is not the same process as making a fully bespoke dress. But it is a method I have fully mastered and completed to great success many times over. I will usually recommend certain design features that make the fit more likely to be right first time (for example a lace up back or making as separates). And I will make the dress (as I always do anyway) in such a way to make final alteration tweaks easy to accomplish by your local seamstress.

This dress is for sale, made to measure for each bride from my Etsy shop, or direct from me for the full bespoke experience.

Making the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress

The snowflake dress was one of the very first photoshoot dresses I made, way back in 2014. It was used for the Enchantment wedding shoot in 2014. Then was displayed in a local bridal shop (before I had my own display space). Unfortunately a leak from the flat above the shop led to water damage to much of their stock, including this dress. With a discoloured hem area adding the bold autumn dipdye colour was the perfect way to ‘save’ the dress and give it a new life.

lace and tulle wedding dress bodice with straps

I made the snowflake dress from layers of gathered tulle over an ivory silk base. Corded lace trim with pretty scalloped florals highlighted the waistline and softened the sweet heart neckline. Soft tulle straps with more hand lace applique floated over our models’ shoulders

Rising from the ashes: colouring the Phoenix dress

I researched and found suitable method to add this kind of colour gradient to my dress. You can’t use actual wet dye in hot pans. 1. There are too many colours. Dipping into the purple after having already dipped into yellow would make a horrible brown. And 2. The dress was too big to manage for that method. I’d have needed to be able to boil the water in a bath sized dye vat!

So I used oasis floral sprays to colour the dress. I undertook tests first and then started with the real dress.

You can see more about the colouring process for the phoenix dipdye wedding in another blog post or in this youtube video

I started with the linings layers and then worked my way up through the layers of gathered tulle. The lace trims had already been sewn to the dress but I did not want them to be coloured as strongly. I masked the lace with tape to keep it clean.

yellow red purple ombre tulle

If you would like to talk to me about commissioning your own dipdye wedding dress just get in touch.

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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