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Wedding Dress for Issey

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Caffe-latte coloured silk and black lace wedding dress. Very tight laced corset beneath ruched fishtail dress, button back and hand appliqu? work.

Photography by www.robbinsphotographic.com

Issey’s dress has a sweet heart neckline on her boned bodice. The fit and flare skirt extends into a small train at the back. Black lace creates little cap sleeves, finished with scalloped edging, and covers her shoulders too.

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, original design sketch
The original design sketch, with two different sleeve options, neither of which were used in the end.
Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, detail of the back button fastening

The back featured a cut away lace neckline above the main silk dress. The buttons were covered in black silk and extended up through the cut-away to the high neckline.

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, the train with beaded motifs

The train was embellished with hand appliqu?d black lace motifs.

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, thank you letter from issie

Issey wrote: Dear Felicity,

Thank you so much for making my wedding dress, it is absolutely beautiful and I had great fun swinging the train around with the hand loop! Getting it on was a mission though – you made it look easy! I will send some pictures as soon as we get them back. I might be in touch again to see if you can transform my dress into something I can wear again and again ? it would be such a shame to have it hang up out of sight for the rest of it’s life. Best of luck with baby number 2, I hope everything goes well for you.

?Love from Issey (and the ‘Isabella’ dress)

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, many hands make light work of fastening Issie into her dress

Issey’s dress was created over a tightly lace inner corset, integral to the dress. The silk layer then closed with real buttons and loops.

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, dressing the bride

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, a wrist loop for her train help issie keep her dress out of the dust

The train came with a wrist loop so Issey could hold her dress out of the dust when walking outside. A tiny ‘something blue’ was sewn to be revealed when she lifted her train in this way.

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, beaded motifs on the train

Making Issey’s dress

Silk wedding dress by Felicity Westmacott: caffe coloured silk and black lace applique, fitting picyures

Three pictures from the making process, on the left, the ‘toile’ or practice run in cheap fabrics. The right is an intermediate fitting, with the black lining layers not yet covered with the ruched silk. In the centre Issey is at her second to last fitting with just the hem and black lace embellishment to finish. She was choosing, as well, between short or elbow length sleeves.

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As a wedding dress maker, I would say the fitting process is when I need my brides to trust in me the most. It's all well and good showing them beautiful drawings and fabrics, but when it comes to those first fittings, things can look very different to what you imagined. And that's fine!

All art goes through a process, whether it's layering oil paints on a canvas, or refining the clay of a sculpture...but an artist knows, it will all be worth it in the end.

I think the finished result looks absolutely beautiful, and that’s thanks to those fittings, where I could refine, check and double check, and make sure this bride’s dress fitted her perfectly!

If you want to see photos from Laura's wedding day with this dress in action, on a beautiful, snowy day, then have a look at my earlier post.

~
#weddingdress #wedding #bride #bespokeweddingdress #customdress #weddinggown #londonbridaldesigner #surreybridaldesigner #surreydressmaker #londondressmaker
Watch til the end to see this beautifully ethereal dip-dyed wedding dress 👗 

I did 4 rounds of dyeing to get the perfect, dusk to midnight blue ombre, but it was so worth it!

I do a lot of custom dip dying, and I've noticed that blue is really on trend at the moment. But what's wonderful, is that there's still so much variety that can be had. My dip dying service comes entirely customisable, with up to five possible colours in the gradient. Some brides choose blues, but include purples and even black into their colour choices. Other brides stick with paler hues, whilst others go for the deeper, darker shades. It's always exciting to see my brides' imaginations running wild!

What colours would you add to your wedding dress?

If you want to see the bride looking like a fairy getting married in the woods, have a look at the post before this one.
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