Photographs with kind permission from Paul Johnson www.pjphoto.co.uk
Simple dress made in pale gold silk satin with an ivory/gold beaded lace top layer. Lightly boned bodice with square neckline and high waistline seam with contrast band. Softly draping skirt spreading to a train at the back. The style is slightly reminiscent of Regency fasion (1810) , though in no way ?trying to be historically accurate.
Amanda changed her mind four times about the sleeves… I made her some sleeve ‘samples’ to choose from in the end. Just one of each sort (short puff, gypsy, cap and longer puff) and then made the pair up for the one she finally chose. The sleeve of choice was a gypsy style in wheat coloured silk tulle with a lace edge to match the rest of the dress. We also used the silk tulle to make the under bust band to help tie all the elements together.
Original design sketch
The sleeves were changed from this design during the making process to off the shoulder short puffs in wheat coloured silk tulle.
Making Amanda’s Dress
Toile Fitting
A ‘toile’ is a practice run of the dress out of cheaper fabrics so adjustments can be made without wasting the expensive lace etc. A toile fitting never looks very exciting, indeed I expect a lot of brides go home a bit worried afterwards but as you can see from the finished pictures, the final dress looks a lot better!
In Amanda’s case the skirt of the toile was cut from the ‘proper’ fabric as a cheaper substitute would not have hung correctly and any adjustments may not have been the same for the real fabric.
Detail of partly made dress on the stand, the lovely beaded lace cost more than ?150/m!
Pictures from the final fitting, front and back.
