Tea length brown wedding dress and bolero

Suzanne commissioned a pretty tea length brown wedding dress and bolero made up in taffeta and chiffon.

I made her knee-length dress with a fitted and boned bodice. She wanted a gentle sweet-heart shaped neckline and slim straps. We chose a beautiful shot taffeta (shot pink/green/ivory) with chocolate chiffon on top and I ‘plaited’ the chiffon down the front of the bodice and opens to reveal the taffeta beneath. I hand beaded the neckline with bronze coloured Swarovski pearls in a ‘floral lace’ pattern.

The bolero has long sleeves, gathered at the shoulder and with a button loop closure at the cuff. I applied matching hand beading all along the bolero edge and the sleeves are finished with matching pearls used as the buttons.

Suzanne wrote: Felicity, I couldn’t decide which shot was best so I’m sending you the whole album. My dress was much admired and I certainly felt wonderful in it. Thank you again so much. Hope you are well! Kind regards, Suzanne

mature bride wedding dress pink and brown taffeta and chiffon
riverboat bride in shot taffeta bolero with bubbles
 custom alternative wedding dress and bolero for older bride

Gifts for a bride

Although I made much more elaborate mother of pearl petal necklace (shown below), as ordered by Suzanne, she had never tried it with the dress. So when her work colleagues contacted me to organise a surprise wedding present I suggested they commission this simple necklace (the string of bronze pearls) as an alternative for Suzanne on her wedding day. This was just in case the petal design turned out to be too much along with the pearl beading on the dress. It seems like we got it just right as Suzanne’s photos show that she did indeed choose to wear the simple necklace her colleagues bought for her. With our clever planning the simple necklace still perfectly matched the earrings and bracelet from the petal set so all was well!

ruched front brown wedding dress with long sleeves

I was also privileged to make a wedding dress for Suzanne’s daughter who was married the same year. You can see pictures of her butterfly themed wedding dress here.

Making Suzanne’s tea length brown wedding dress Dress

original design sketch tea length wedding dress and bolero

Suzanne had seen the plait design on a dress in a perfume advertisement (she brought the torn out page with her to her first consultation). She knew she wanted something similar for her own dress but otherwise had no special preferences for other design details. So I sent her these design sketches showing various different ideas. Suzanne choose to add the dipped cutaway of the chiffon on the back of the dress. And then also the pearl beading in the ‘lace’ design with matching pearls for the bolero cuff buttons.

 fitting picture bespoke dressmaker tea length wedding dress in brown taffeta and chiffon

Pictures from Suzanne’s final fitting, showing the cut away detail on the back of the dress.

hand beading detail swarovski pearl bronze

Detail of the bolero with the beading being applied.

button cuff detail on bespoke bolero

Detail of the finished bolero showing the pearl button and loop cuffs

made to measure wedding bolero occasionwear
hand embellishment beading on custom dress back neckline swarovski pearl
 plait detail front sweetheart neckline bespoke coloured wedding dress
floating mother of pearl petal and bronze necklace

Suzanne commissioned this lovely necklace to match her dress. Made from a mix of pale pink mother-of-pearl petals, Swarovski crystals and bronze pearls the design is feminine and striking. I also made matching earrings each with one petal.

floating pearl and crystal bracelet on tigertail wire

This bracelet was made to match the necklace in the same Swarovski crystal and bronze pearls.

knee length informal wedding dress with shrug made to measure

To see lots more examples of bespoke wedding dresses I have made for mature brides you can head to their dedicated portfolio page.

If you would like to know more about having your own wedding dress made to order you can see my FAQ page or be in touch direct

Or visit my Etsy shop to buy samples of gowns I make for photoshoots

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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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@kathykyle_studio is a local artist who walked into my shop one day and asked me to make her a dress. She's a textile artist, and she was having a launch party for her latest collection, and wanted something extra special for the occasion.

Kathy makes wearable art. She paints beautiful, intricate designs and has her designs printed onto silk scarves. Her pieces are full of meaningful motifs about feminism, life and so much more.

Making this dress was such a wonderful collaboration. Kathy created a new design (5m x 1.5m in size) to be printed onto fabric, and brought me a vintage pattern she wanted to use. The pattern was actually reversable, with options for both a V-neck and boat neck. It was very cool to see Kathy switching her dress round for each part of her launch day.

I love working with fellow artists!

#dorking #surrey #textileart #bespokedress #customdress #printedfabric
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.⁠
⁠
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
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