Blog - Musings from the mind of a bespoke dressmaker.

Wedding advice, fashion, history, photoshoots and behind the scenes.

 

See lots of pictures of previous clients on my portfolio pages

Read More

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.

follow me on instagram@felicitywestmacott

Since 1753, when the Marriage Act first came into existence, UK marriage law has come a long way. Some things have taken much longer than they should have (I'm looking at you, 1991 and 2013, 2023). But there's still more than can be done. The association of @independentcelebrants is campaigning for the UK government to follow the recommendations of the 2022 wedding law reform report.

"At least 10,000 wedding ceremonies a year in England and Wales are led by independent celebrants. These ceremonies are perfectly legal to hold, but as it stands a celebrant cannot perform a legally binding marriage – that part must be done separately, meaning added inconvenience and cost for couples."

I'm all about supporting couples to have the wedding day of their dream, and that rarely includes having to find time and money to go to the registry office.

If you want to help with this, then you can spread awareness! Share this post, or make your own. Talk about it with friends and family. And once you've done that, you can always get in touch with your local MP. The Independent Celebrants website has a PDF guide to help you with how to go about doing that.

Is this an issue you're aware of? Is there anything I've missed out?

#ChangeWeddingLaw #SpeakUpForCelebrants #LegaliseCelebrantWeddings
I created this Regency-inspired wedding dress for a Bridgerton themed wedding shoot. I used modern fabrics like tulle, beaded lace and shantung, but with period accurate details like the empire line waist, square neckline and boned stays (corset). ⁠
⁠
I love to work with versality when it comes to my creations, so the dress was designed with multiple layers; the main dress has an embroidered tulle bodice and asymmetric beaded lace skirt. A lilac and pink dip-dyed tulle skirt can be added over the floral train of the main dress for some dreamy ombre magic. A lilac silk dupion 'spencer jacket' with hand appliqued beaded lace completes the ensemble. ⁠

 All these options make it possible to have lots of different looks throughout your wedding day. ⁠

Which Bridgerton character can you imagine wearing this outfit?

~
#regencyweddingdress #bridgerton #historicalweddingdress #periodwedding #colouredweddingdress #dipdyeweddingdress #surreydressmaker #londondressmaker #vintagebride #romanticbride #weddingveil #purpleweddingdress #bespokeweddingdress #fantasyballgown
Now and again I'll take one of the wedding dresses I've made, and break down some of the elements. So, if there's something you love about a dress, but you don't know the 'proper words' to reference them, hopefully this will help you out.⁠
⁠
This beautiful 1950’s style wedding dress with delicate cream lace over golden-orange silk has lots of really scrummy details:⁠
⁠
🧡 the opening at the back of the dress is called a keyhole (or you could call this a slit opening). This one is closed at the top with three covered buttons.⁠
⁠
🧡 the base dress is made of a beautiful russet orange silk dupion, with dark ivory lace layered on top.⁠
⁠
🧡 the base dress is essentially a halter neck, with a turn over collar at the front, with the ivory layer providing semi-sheer, full length sleeves.⁠
⁠
🧡 the edges of the ivory layer are cut along the floral pattern of the lace, making a pretty scalloped edge.⁠
⁠
🧡 this length of skirt is called 'ballet' or 'ballerina'.⁠
⁠
🧡 the front of the dress has a line of false buttons (buttons that are just there for decoration), that match the buttons at the back.⁠
⁠
Those are just some of the details of this dress. If you have any questions about anything else, just leave a comment. I could talk dress making all day!⁠
On my birthday, 43 years ago, I was gifted a beautiful name...does it suit me?

Felicity means "happiness", from the Latin word meaning "good luck" or "fortune". Shortening to Fliss is good, but never Flick!

What about your name? Does it have a meaning?
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