Sky blue bespoke wedding dress

aqua blue coloured bespoke wedding dress

Ailsa commissioned a sky blue bespoke wedding dress in silk satin. I designed it with proportions to flatter her petite figure.

Official photographs by www.oxford-photography.co.uk

I made the dress with a fitted and boned bodice with gentle sweetheart neckline and integral straps. I added ruching over the bust which is balanced above asymmetric draping on the lower bodice. The skirt hangs straight down from the hip line, flat in front with soft pleats at each side. The dress fastens at centre back with flat lacing in loops above a flared godet train.

sweetheart neckline custom order wedding dress sky blue
country wedding coloured wedding dress
blue wedding dress silk satin bespoke made to measure
 thank you letter

Thank you letter

Ailsa wrote: I was absolutely delighted with my beautiful dress! I really appreciated the time you took to explain the different options and the effort you went to in order to make sure it looked perfect, including an extremely useful set of instructions for my bridesmaid on how to make the dress look its best on the day. Your patience, enthusiasm and skill made the whole process a pleasure!

and later: Thank you once again for producing such a beautiful dress, and the time you took to make it look exactly right (including the veil!)

Ailsa’s mum wrote: Thank you so much for all the work you put into getting the dress just right for Ailsa and the helpful advice with accessories etc. She looked lovely on the day and felt very comfortable and happy with the dress. The dress fittings became a firm part of the wedding preparations and thank you for your welcome when we visited. Ian was especially pleased that he could join us for the final fitting. With best wishes, Christine

ailsa2 long veil with blusher traditional church wedding

Ailsa’s veil was made to order, a simple two tier style in pale ivory tulle to go with her sky blue bespoke wedding dress

bride and maid of honour alternative wedding dress

Ailsa’s sister was a lovely bridesmaid and we made a long blue silk hair ribbon so she would tone-in with Ailsa’s colour scheme.

 original design sketch sweetheart bodice and straps
aqua blue wedding dress made to order
blue wedding dress with straps ruched bodice
something blue bespoke wedding dress petite

Ailsa using her wrist hook-up to hold her train off the floor while walking in her sky blue bespoke wedding dress

printed shoes with ribbons

Ailsa had matching silk ribbons made to tie up her lovely shoes. I loved her shoes so much I got myself a pair too!

walking with her groom bespoke silk tie to match the bride

Making Ailsa’s Sky blue bespoke wedding dress

toile fitting with dressmaker wedding dress

Pictures from the ‘toile fitting’ or practice run in cheap fabrics, and below at her first fitting with the real dress, here just the under layers, boned ready for the silk satin to be ruched on top.

boned bodice duchess satin fitting picture made to measure
ruched bodice on the stand custom made to order

Ruching in progress on the stand

pleated ruched bodice sweetheart sewing
dress fitting blue wedding dress silk satin
 train wrist loop with ribbon roses finished wedding dress fitting

Pictures of the finished dress at her final fitting: Detail of the wrist loop provided so Ailsa could pick up her train from the floor when walking. Usually I sew on a ‘something blue’ here but as Ailsa’s whole dress was her something blue I chose three pretty pastel coloured ribbon roses instead, to match the floral pattern on her shoes.

train spread out and hooked up for dancing

The train bustled up and spread right out. As The train was so long, and Ailsa so petite the bustle up did not get the train right off the floor, as I would usually aim for, but it did make it much smaller and manageable for later in the day.

 lace up corset back wedding dress ribbon and loops

Detail of the back fastening with flat lacing through loops above a modesty panel

finished dress in the mirror fitting room
something blue wedding dress all finished and ready to go

Here is another pale blue bespoke wedding dress, that I made for Isabelle’s wedding

If you would like to know more about commissioning your own wedding dress with me, you can head over to my FAQ page or contact me directly.

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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.⁠
⁠
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
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