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.

The original design sketch, with two different sleeve options, neither of which were used in the end.

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

Making Issey’s dress

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.