Mrs. Michaela’s Blog

Okay…goofy title. But I thought it would be fun for you readers to see a wedding gown progress from beginning to end. I am currently making one that I am totally excited about and can’t wait to see the outcome! I love working with exquisite fabrics and laces and when I get a bride that wants the best she can afford, I get goosebumps. I’ll take a digital photo of the gown each step of the way so you can see just how much work goes into creating each one-of-a-kind gown. (No two are ever alike-even if you copy something. lol.)

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-Stage 1: The Muslin

After taking the bride’s measurements and determining style parameters, I created a pattern for her in the silhouette that the dress will be. I had to drape the bodice and the skirt patterns together to get the right fit between the pieces to achieve the final look of the dress and accommodate the design features.

Many times I often create the patterns directly on the muslin that I will use to fit the dress before cutting the actual fabric. Doing this allows me to to make adjustments directly to the pattern while on the bride’s body. Therefore you will notice directional lines and placement markers for design elements on the muslin. Having a muslin fitting gives me a good idea of the eventual fit of the final dress when the bride tries it on. It also helps give the bride a little picture of what the dress is going to look like, allowing her to make changes before construction begins.

One of the challenges of this dress is that the bride wants an aline fit but with a train as long as the design would allow. Since this dress will also have an overlay, the back skirt of the gown cannot pieced. And when you’re dealing with fabric width limitations, there is only so much a designer can do. Fortunately, I was able to add a decent length train while keeping the flat aline style and the bride is happy. I will begin cutting the fabric and initial construction of the gown now. Stay tuned…

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-Stage 2: The First Gown Fitting

This is actually the first stage of the gown construction. The first gown fitting gives the bride an idea of what the actual dress is going to look like, gives me a pretty good idea of fit of the dress and whether I am on the right track with the design. This is also the stage where the bride is encouraged to make any changes she may want before we go forward. It is much easier to do it this stage than later on.

So, the dress is coming along very nicely. The bride came for her first dress fitting this weekend and was ecstatic (July). This dress had a very interesting construction versus fitting challenge as the skirt of the dress will have a sheer overlay adorned with lace and wide satin bands. Since the bands are shaped, it is much easier to get them on the overlay with the dress skirt off and flat. So I had to put the bands on first, attach the skirt to the bodice for the fitting and will have to take it apart to finish placement.

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-Stage 3: Gown Construction

The bands: Based on the style the bride wants and the shaping required to the bands, I determined that biased cut duchess satin bands would work best. The bands will be four groups of three, spaced out across the dress skirt’s sheer overlay. And with a decent length train, let’s just say I made a ton of bias strips. Then the strip connections had to be strategically placed as to not be too noticeable in the dress’ overall appearance. I temporarily attached the bands to double sided seam product in case of having to change something, which I’m glad I did. My calculations were a bit off and I have to move one set of bands up about one band width for even spacing. It’s a process that’s why you leave everything open until final construction. lol. Even professionals can make a calculation error!

The Lace:

The gown will have a laced-covered bodice and lace in the sections between the bands. The lace has to be hand-dyed to match. The silk fabric used for the bands is not quite white, but not ivory either. So I started with white lace and tea stained it to get the right color. It was quite a challenge to get it just right. I had to find the right tea combination as well as the right soaking time and so forth. I started with just small motifs until I thought it was just right. Then I dyed the bodice section and pin fitted it against the dress to see how the color works. I ended up changing the under fabric (with the bride’s blessing) to a light fabric to play on the two tone effect the lace now has. The pearls don’t change color but the fabric, cording and sequins do to an extent. I must say myself that the lace came out beautifully.
Now I will start to dye the remaining lace and begin pin fitting it in place to prepare for the final construction. I will have to take the dress apart again to hand stitch the bands and lace into position and add the lining. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take it apart just yet because the bride has requested a special fitting for her mom and grandmother to see the dress. I would have rather had the bands in actual final position before adding the lace, but who can resist letting the mom and grandmother, who lives out of town, see the dress? I will just have to keep this in mind while I’m pin fitting, remembering to accommodate for new band positions.

The Understructure:

The gown is strapless and the bride has opted not to wear an upper foundation garment, so I am building in a bustier that will hold the bride in and and hold the dress up. Once all of the lace in on, the dress bodice will need to fit perfectly to support the weight. I opted to make the foundation out cotton voile, backed with silk organza and silk taffeta on skin side. That way it will be strong, but lightweight and easy on the bride’s skin. The bride did loose a little weight since her muslin fitting so I will have to adjust for that. From a construction standpoint, I’ve advised her that once the lace is on and zipper in place, it will difficult to alter the dress. I asked her not to lose anymore weight. Which is another story in itself. The bride is beautiful. She’s tall and nicely proportioned for her height. Her bridal consultant told her that she could stand to lose 10 pounds. But don’t get me started on that.

Here’s what the dress looks like thus far.

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-Final (added October 14, 2007)

Okay, there has actually been a lot of things happening between Stage 3 and the final. There has been a few extra fittings, changes to the dress, including a couple changes two weeks and one week before the wedding, but I finally was able to get it all done. Many late nights and high anxieties later, the dress was finished. I had to change the zipper, add some additional lace pieces, add extra boning to the bodice and an extra band to the bottom hem to make the dress a half inch longer. The bride wanted it touching the floor and to not to get into too much physics here, but the additional “snugness” around the middle necessitating the zipper change caused the dress to pull up a bit on the bottom, changing the length originally measured in the muslin fitting. At any rate, here is the final product:

Dress Front and Side View

Dress Back View

Dress Description: The dress is made from Silk Satin, Silk Organza Mesh and Alencon Lace. For economy without sacrificing style, the underlay is polyester matte satin. The bands are made from bias cut fabric strips hand formed into ribbons. The lace was hand cut, off it’s original backing and sewn directly onto the dress’ mesh overlay. The bands and lace form a chevron shape in the back which leads to a chevron shaped pointed train (my designer’s touch which the bride absolutely loved) giving the gown a very unique back view. The lace was tea-stained in chamomile tea to take it from white to the candlelight color of the natural silk fabric. Little sequin flowers were added throughout for extra sparkle.

Bride’s Shoes

I additionally created the bride’s veil from the same mesh used in the dress and trimmed it with a smaller version satin band. I covered her shoes with cutout lace motifs from the dress and created a bridal pillow for her out of silk satin with a flower motif from the dress as well.

This dress was quite an adventure months in the making, but I’m happy to have had the opportunity to create it and make someone’s day very special.