Making this wedding dress was a real adventure. I learned a lot during the process.
I started with cutting out all the fabric using a rotary cutter. I bought two large cutting mats and covered my dining room table. I still had more fabric than could fit on the table so I had to cut out one section and then move the fabric. I cut all pieces out of the silk charmeuse and the lining fabric. I also cut the bodice pieces out of silk organza and then basted the silk pieces to the organza pieces.
The lace was cut differently. I put the pattern piece down and hand basted around the pattern piece. I was then able to remove the pattern piece and cut a few inches from the edges (the only seam allowance added to the pattern piece was at the side and shoulders). I then hand basted the lace to silk organza and the silk was cut larger than the lace.
Next I started sewing. I sewed all the lining pieces together first to do another fitting. The lining fit fine and no changes were needed. I can’t post pics of that fitting, the lining was too sheer. We realized that the silk and lining together was not opaque enough. So we had to add an underlining. My sister wanted me to use the lining of my aunt’s wedding dress but that dress had more seams making it hard to do so. I underlined the bodice with the used wedding dress and bought similar lining fabric for underlining the skirts.
I started with the bodice. I started with sewing the darts and adding bust support to the underlining. I then basted the underlining to the silk and sewed up the side seams. I tried sewing thin tube straps with the silk but I just couldn’t do it with my sewing machine. So I opted for a fancy elastic as a strap. Last of all I sewed the lining to the silk (not shown in the pictures below).
The skirt was easier in technique but they took a lot more time to sew up. I assembled all three layers. I then added some boning to the underlining. I used a lightweight nylon boning. Next I basted the silk to the underlining. I sewed the bodice to the to the silk/underlining layer of the bodice and then hand sewed the skirt lining to the lining of the bodice.
Normally the zipper would be the hardest part of sewing a dress, but I got the zipper in perfectly on the first try! Now the dress was ready for the last fitting.
For the lace, I started with hand sewing invisible seams for the dart, shoulder and side seams. For the neckline and bottom, I basted around the design of the lace and then zigzag stitched over the basting. I then trimmed the extra lace away. I only pinned the lace to the dress for the fitting. I would hand sew it on after I fitted it to my sister.
