Evolution of a Wedding Dress

Since I was away for so long all busy getting married, I figure it's only fair to show you what I was doing that whole time. I pretty much made almost everything I could for our wedding. The biggest task of all though, was the dress!

In this post, I'll show you the evolution of my dress, from start to finish. Granted, I missed a few photos in between, but you get the general idea!


This is a scan of one of my original sketches for the dress and ensemble. The final product is *almost* like the sketch, but I found myself making a few changes along the way. Sometimes, you're not quite sure how an idea will work until you actually do it.


This is the floor of my work space as I worked out the pattern for the dress. I referred to my sketches and marked up cheap muslin fabric with dressmaker's chalk to come up with a pattern.


This is the muslin fabric draped over my dress form as I mark up where I think the seams should lay.


Here, I finally come up with a pattern that seems to work. It took me several tries and several times of poking myself with pins to get it right. This is the basic bodice and skirt mock-up in muslin, shown on the dress form with the petticoat under it.


Now, skip several steps of cutting fabric, sewing together fabric, etc... and here you see the outside shell of the dress, before adding the lining and extra trimmings.


Here is the dress with the lining now inserted. It is not hemmed yet and the trim on the neck is only partially secured.


This is the back of the wedding dress, almost complete. The trim is now sewn on and the lacing is put through the eyelets on the back. The only thing left from this point was the hemming.


And here is the final product! This is me with my husband, David. I made my dress, my head circlet, my veil, my jewelry and David's jacket as well. Phew! That was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. The dress and jacket are made with matching velvet and brocade fabrics, just in different colorways. Our color theme was purple, black, silver and green. This beautiful photo was taken by our friend, Steve Friedman.

I hope you enjoyed the evolution of a wedding dress!