Wedding!

Years ago, when I used to be a fulltime craftsperson in Belfast, sewing wedding dresses was one of my favourite kinds of work. After a long break from it I was asked to make a dress for a daughter's friend.  She was very specific in what she wanted and couldn't find it ready-made: 50's style, knee length with accents in coral colour.

The wedding was on a hot weekend on a small island outside Turku.

The dress is thick ivory satin. The bodice is partly covered by lace. The bride bought it in Stockholm. There is 10 metres of tulle netting under the skirt.

 

 

I'm used to doing most of my sewing by making big alterations to patterns or completely without patterns, just drawing the shape directly on the material. There was a pattern for the bodice but after alterations it ended up quite different. I drew the full circle skirt on the fabric with a pen, using a builder's measure. I don't sew much now so my tools aren't up to date!

There is boning at the back of the bodice. The plastic boning wasn't of great quality because bits started sticking at the bride just before the first dance! We had to get the ends cut off in a rush. Need to find out where to get boning that stays the way it should be!

A detail of the belt: 

 The bride's lovely shoes came from an American online store:

It was a great day, apart from being too hot!