Wedding Dress: First Draft

One of the most fulfilling classes I ever took was Bridal. I had the opportunity in the Spring of 2013 to sew a wedding dress! Each person in the class (about 12 students) either made a dress for themselves, a friend, or a client. I made mine with the intention of storing it in the back of my closet until my wedding. I began dating Jesse half way through that semester, and he probably thought it was a little strange that I was already making my wedding dress...

My inspiration:

The Inspiration! Source

I love this dress! The lace is gorgeous and the silhouette is to die for! I wanted to look as amazing in my dress as Eva Herzigova looks in this dress.

I came up with a sketch.

Looking at Eva's dress, i's' hard to tell where the seam lines and darts are, but I was able to come up with a pattern that closely matched. 

Instead of making the dress out of very expensive silk, I made a mock up dress out of old sheets I found at Deseret Industries!

The hideous sheets...

Some shoulder and sleeve design detail. 

I have a silk blouse with 3/4 length sleeves with beautiful pleated detail. I wanted to do the same thing on these sleeves. I also added a bit of fullness to the shoulder.



I lined it up so that the skirt seams and the bodice darts matched up at the waist.

I was eager to get started on the real deal! I used an ivory raw silk fabric (love the sheen) that I got in Los Angeles at the fabric district with my mom.
There were a few things I new I wanted in my wedding dress fabric: something with texture, something natural (no synthetic fabrics), and I didn't care for lace. 

The neck edge, sleeve edges, and hem all had a thin chiffon border (inspired by Eva's dress). I love the way it finished the edges!

After twelve weeks of work, it was finally done!

To be honest, I don't love this dress nearly as much as I love the recreation I did later that year. However, I was really proud of myself for making a wedding dress!

As soon as I finished, I already knew what I would change about it: I wanted a more subtle skirt shape, I wanted the bodice to fit my body better, and I wanted to add lace somehow. 

I even had the opportunity to model my dress in a fashion show at the end of the semester!

Ready to go on..

On the runway!

About a year later, I took the dress completely apart, removed most of the underlining layers, shortened the sleeves, refit the bodice, reshaped the skirt, added tons of lace and got married!