So begin November a got the question if I still make dresses for people, and if I could make a wedding dress. For December. I’m always up for a challenge, but making a wedding dress in under a month might be a bit stretching my own limits. But when we started discussing her wishes and vision of the dress it soon turned out the perfect one month project.
It wouldn’t be a big elaborate gown I would be making, but a short and straight city hall wedding dress. Elegant and polished.
With the cut of the dress being straightforward from the beginning I didn’t anticipated much problem for the pattern drawing. Of course it had to be tailored and fit like a glove. But I had already made a dress for her once before, so I had a basic knowledge of her body and how to approach the fit.
With a pretty simple dress, cut wise, I felt like the fabric should be the main focal point of the dress. Whereas she really knew what she wanted for the cut of the dress, for the fabric she didn’t had one clear vision. So I just started to propose all kinds of fabrics. Some really bold and with a specific look, but I did this mainly to get a strong reaction.
For instance, a harsh ‘no’ to a fully covered sequin fabric probably also meant she preferred no sparkles of any kind. Just like a ‘no’ to a velvet fabric meant I should probably look more into a natural kind of fabric.
Because the dress still had to be tailored, I first made a toile. Because we were heading towards a more natural, slightly heavy fabric with texture, I choose a plain canvas fabric for the toile. This was mainly so she could already get an idea of what the finished dress could like look like, but also maybe rule out some kind of fabrics. Plus, it wouldn’t make much sens to use a light weighted voille, if we would end up choosing a thick wool.
When we did the fitting of the toile I also took her to a fabric store for picking out a fabric. Because choosing the fabric together would be much easier and quicker. So Liesa, her mom, her sister, her fiance and I started on the mission to find the perfect fabric. Would have been an easy challenge if everybody hadn’t had a different opinion about how the dress needed to look. More classic, more romantic, more bohemian, … At one point it even wasn’t white anymore. But I kept my head cool. Tried to listen to everybody’s wishes, but mainly the bride’s. Because that’s what I would’ve wanted. As a bride I do want the opinion and input of the people close to me, but in the end I’m wearing the dress and I need to feel my absolute best.
We ended up leaving the store with two fabrics. One being a nice wool with a diagonal textured line in a slightly off white colour, and one that was plan B. Because the fabric she choose was the last piece that the store had, and I wasn’t really sure whether I could cut all the pieces from it, taking in account the minor defects the fabric had, we also picked out a second fabric to be our plan B. Returning home I immediately put al the pieces onto the fabric, and with no millimeter to spare they all fitted. So to turn the pressure on a bit more this would mean there was also no room for mistakes.
Thankfully making a toile, before making the actual garment, also is a big help in avoiding mistakes. The toile gives me the advantage of already testing out the most efficient order of stitching everything together, so fewer seams to redo, and it gives me a feel of the direction of the seams and darts. This comes in especially handy for curved seams or sensitive fabrics.
When she picked up the dress I couldn’t be more happy with the result. It was the perfect dress for a winter city hall wedding. Elegant, chic, warm and fun.
