Lisa wanted an elegant Santorini blue dipdye wedding dress, with hints of Grecian style for her destination wedding in Greece.
After a lot of trial and error, I managed to create what I think is the most perfect, vibrant sky blue. I love how this dress turned out, from the peek-a-boo shoulders, to the floaty skirt. And I love how dramatic these photos are! It was a windy day in Greece courtesy of storm Daniel, but that made for some amazing shots.
Keep scrolling for more photos, as well a little look into how I went about creating the vibrant blue ombre for this wedding dress.
Photography – Photocreations
Hair – Hair Spa Mary
Hair accessory – Glorious by Heidi
Belt – Vintage Adornments
Making A Santorini Blue Dipdye Wedding Dress
As usual, I started with the toile, making sure the fit, shape and overall look was approved by the bride before cutting into the real fabric. The toile might look quite different from the finished dress, but it’s an essential part of the process.
During this fitting, Lisa realised that the original ‘cowl’ part of the design around the neckline felt too bulky, so we changed it to a more simple, sweetheart neckline instead.
The Dyeing Process
The dyeing process for this Santorini blue dipdye wedding dress was quite involved, and was definitely a bit of a learning curve for me. I usually dipdye my dresses and overskirts with spray dye, but due to the limitations of the fabric of this dress, I decided to use wet immersion dyes. This is a very different method to spraying and as a result, things didn’t initially go to plan.
Dyes are made of lots of different pigments mixed together, and on top of that, I mixed various dyes together to make the most perfect cerulean blue. However, the capillary action of dye meant that multiple dyes and pigments spread up the fabric at different rates. This lead to the colours splitting. Does anyone remember that science experiment at school? Whilst most of the fabric was going a beautiful shade of blue, some components of the dye crept up the silk above the blue, creating a yellowish tea stain. It wasn’t very obvious but it wasn’t ideal. I hold myself to a high standard, so it was important to me to solve this issue.
I thought I was burning the fabric to start with, since the yellow looked a bit like singed material. Once I realised what it was, I started from scratch and eventually found a solution I was happy with. It may have taken time, but it was worth it to make sure that the bride was happy.
Beautiful Details
Another thing we added, that wasn’t part of the original design, was a jewelled belt. I actually made it from a vintage hair accessory that I had in my stock. We repurposed it into a pretty belt and sewed it on with gold cord.
I also added some blue glass droplet beads at the ends of sleeves. This gave them a little bit of weight, and echoed the blue in the rest of the dress. It’s little details like this that I love to include, and that make my bespoke dresses completely unique.
The Finished Santorini Blue Dipdye Wedding Dress
Final result was this elegant Santorini blue dipdye wedding made in layered white silk-satin and textured chiffon. I made the dress with a lightly boned bodice, with seams from the wide sweetheart neckline to the waist. The back neckline was a V-shape, with the sheer chiffon extending up to a round neckline with a keyhole opening.
The skirt was layered with satin and chiffon and hung in an A-line silhouette in soft folds, extending into a medium train behind. The waterfall sleeves were attached only at the underarm, allowing the bride’s shoulders to peak through, but still covering her upper arms. Finally, I lined the dress with luxurious silk satin and put a concealed zip at the back.
Looking for More Inspiration?
Do you love the idea of adding some colour to your dress, but you’re more of a ‘fiery’ colour person? Have a look at this sunset dipdye wedding dress. Or head to my dedicated blog post about all my dipdye brides.
If you feel ready to take the next step towards having a wedding dress that’s made to fit your body, your personality and your style, then why not book in a no-obligation consultation with me?
