I Made my Dress.

From Our Wedding Part 1

From Our Wedding Part 1

From Our Wedding Part 1

From Our Wedding part 2

From Our Wedding part 2

Yup.
And I love it. Why haven't we started a tradition that requires you to wear your dress every other week after you are married???
I started it in January after meeting with a talented cutter who's words of wisdom were to start immediately and get a mock up done by the end of the month.
I tried. It proved to be far more difficult then I had thought. Said cutter also told me not to make a bustier style top as the cups would be difficult. She was right, they were extraordinarily difficult. I made 14 of them. Big, small, crooked, flat, etc etc etc.
Meanwhile the skirt was no easy feat either. I knew I wanted silk tulle before I had even decided what the final style would be and when I saw Vera Wang's (insert name I can't remember here) dress and tried it on I was in love. I almost bought it. But the top wasn't flattering on me and it didn't have any leopard print! As subtly as I could I examined the layers in it the second time I tried it on.
Layer 1 - silk charmeuse with a crin around the hem
Layers 2 & 3 - silk organza
Layers 4 & 5 - silk chiffon
Layer 6 - silk tulle
Layer 7 - silk tulle cut in narrow strips
Mine didn't end up being identical but it did exactly what I had hoped in the wind on the beach and looked so like and airy. And the grosgrain belt was to DIE for.
I was worried the whole time I was making it that it wasn't going to turn out - it would be to wacky, or inappropriate. Part of me wished I had started it sooner so I could still buy one f I had too.
My amazing friend Ellie dyed the belt grosgrain for me and my amazing friends Petra and Cathy were always available to help with fittings and phone calls.
At the beginning of April I finally finished it. That included the embroidery I put on the inside. Right on my tummy. I didn't hem it though. I thought I could treat myself and pay someone to do that for me. I'm so glad I did - what a nightmare it would have been. I also discovered I had to quit dieting as it was starting to get too big and I did not want to deal with the cups again if I got any smaller. (I had to sacrifice a favourite bra that wasn't easily replaceable as it was to make them work hence the weirdness on the inside view in that area - it is my bra that I covered in matching fabric and sewed in by hand)
I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Sorry to go on and on about it but it really was a dream come true. And the fact that I can say it was all me - no one else has ever had that dress - makes me even happier......

A few little facts about it:
cost - who the crap knows! If I included labour it would easily have cost more then the Vera Wang dress, just materials maybe around $2000. There was a few 'miss-purchases' shall we call them.
amount of fabric in dress - well for just the top two layers there was 21 yards of tulle.
hem width - the bottom of each layer was about 8 yards around making it more then a full circle skirt
ivory or white? - both! I would buy the wrong shade and say screw it and use it, it's all mixed up
the leopard print - it came from a local fabric store and was a cheap acetate fabric. I actually used the wrong side of the fabric because it was a little softer then the right side
grosgrain - was hard to find a 3", ended up ordering online from a new york company and had to buy the whole roll, and as I said my friend dyed it for me
something old - my grandmother's sewing label sent to me from my sister, and hiding in the hem is a doily she crocheted.

Now I have plans to make a shorter sleeker version of the skirt so I could possibly wear it again one day, maybe as a guest at someone else's wedding??? I still have lots of the leopard print for a matching pencil skirt as well... In the meantime it hangs in my closet. There are still bits of sticks and plants in it from Mexico that I don't want to remove.....