Sunday, October 9, 2011

The making of the White Flowers tea dress

The White Flowers dress commenced with truly beautiful fabric - a black cotton embroidered thickly with off-white flowers. I bought it at Tessuti a couple of summers ago and I knew it would be a dress - I just had to find the right dress pattern.

Sewing it, however, proved to be a problem. The fabric, while soft, is densely woven. Pinning the pattern to it was impossible. Machine sewing it produced a popping sound when a needle went through it. I started with a denim needle, but the resulting big holes were unappealing so I switched to a sharper universal needle.

The bodice came together easily on the first day, but by then my fingers were toast from pushing all the pins into the fabric and so I was done.

Making of the Brisbane wedding dress

I started the skirt the next day. I cut the full width of the fabric (as the embroidery was along the selvedge) which was 2.5 metres. The skirt is 27 inches long.

When I wore the Not Sorbetto wearable muslin dress for the first time I had a chance to assess what worked and what didn't. The top was great - I couldn't fault it except it could be a little shorter at the waist. But the skirt, as lovely as those four pleats are, tended to grab knickers and tights at the internal part of the pleat.

So a rethink of the pleating of the skirt was required. I decided to make knife pleats and have them directing away from the centre back and centre front. I spent an hour pinning, measuring, re-pinning and finally, basting the pleated skirt to the bodice. Then I tried it on for size.

Making of the Brisbane wedding dress

My mum always told me to wear the shoes you were going to wear with the dress or skirt before determining the correct length and working out the fit. She was right.

Making of the Brisbane wedding dress

I'm glad the length was perfect, because I didn't fancy taking the length from the top of the skirt after all that bloody pleating. So I finished off the waist, and turned to the side zipper because, let's face it. The hem was already done.

Making of the Brisbane wedding dress

Experienced sewers will know what I'm about to undertake here. I did question my nuttiness at attempting a hand-picked zipper, I must admit. But this was a special dress, and I thought it would be worth it.

Making of the Brisbane wedding dress

And oh - was it ever.

Dress for Brisbane wedding

These photos were taken at my brother's wedding in Brisbane yesterday. It was a truly wonderful day. There was a massive thunderstorm in the morning, but by lunchtime it was clear and even a little sunny.

Dress for Brisbane wedding

My mum loved my dress. My husband loved my dress. I loved my dress. No one else noticed my dress even though I'd told my aunties I'd made it myself.And that was OK because all eyes were on the bride. Her outfit was stunning. She was stunning!

Bride, cropped

I was cool, and very comfortable. The flowers on the dress kept my baby nephew distracted as I held him while his parents were busy getting married. And when I crashed from exhaustion in the hotel room hours later, the dress was extremely comfortable to pass out in until I had the energy to shower and go to bed properly.

Dress for Brisbane wedding

And that adds up to a winning dress in my book.

29 comments:

  1. Congratulations on a piece of work you will wear again and again! I love the detail on the hemline - what gorgeous fabric!!

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  2. Gorgeous! I love the fabric. The dress looks stunning on you. Nice job! I love the brides little bolero too. Very cute!

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  3. It looks amazing on you and it is absolutely the perfect black dress for wearing to a wedding! (Which can be a tricky thing)

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  4. Beautiful fabric WOW! The dress is absolutely fabulous on you - a definite winner there!

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  5. I have been lurking here for some time, but today I must comment and tell you that you have done an amazing job, you look beautiful, your dress is stunning - great work.

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  6. Its divine - I bet you will feel special every time you step out in it. I am VERY impressed with the hand-picked zipper!!

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  7. Looking fabulous! Think we need to think of more events to let that dress step out. The bride's outfit- amazing! Glad you had a great day.

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  8. The dress is stunning. You did a fabulous job. Glad the wedding was lovely.

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  9. The dress is gorgeous! You are gorgeous! I adore that hand-picked zip (I've never done one) and I'm glad that you clearly had such a wonderful time.

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  10. Looks like it was worth all the hard work! You look amazing! What a beautiful dress!

    Love the brides bolero too, very sweet!

    Congratulations on a wonderful dress! Now, where will you wear it next?

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  11. Gorgeous! Such a stunning dress and equally beautiful wearer! The bride did look amazing (but was it handmade? haha)

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  12. You look fabulous. I love it! It reminds me of my Last Gasp of Summer skirt with the border trim. What a lovely dress and accessorised so well - I love the shoes and necklace. Wow, that wedding dress looks like something else. Divine!

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  13. Oh, and the handpicked zipper - hoorah!

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  14. I have no idea what is an entailed with a handpicked zipper. A zip, obviously, stitches made by fairies, patently. Regardless, I'm drop-dead impressed. And you look every kind of fabulous.

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  15. What a difference the shoes make!
    Looking at that zipper makes me want to unpick the ones that I sewed today and start again - they're terrible.
    I love love love the bottom of the dress - gorgeous!

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  16. A winning dress indeed. Well done it is gorgeous :-)

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  17. Wowee!! You look fantastic. The dress is perfect for that fabric, beautiful border scallops on the hem. Interesting sewing such a bumpy fabric and needle choice , and hand picking zipper- i am impressed ( not having done anything like that myself) So you're not planning on wearing your yellow shoes with it then? !!

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  18. My oh my. That is truly gorgeous. I was feeling sorry for your sore fingers and audibly gasped as I realised, on reading, that you were about to show us your hand-picked zip. You super sewist, you. Lovely.

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  19. Gorgeous dress Michelle - it looks lovely on you.
    I am very glad those firs shoes are not the ones you were planning on wearing with the dress!!
    (and pfft to your aunts!)

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  20. Oh great job! What's not to love about a dress that is hand-made, one of a kind, looks great and is comfortable! Huzzah!

    (and oh my, the bride's dress is just divine!)

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  21. That dress is a stunner. Go you!

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  22. So gorgeous. You look terrific. I love the dress. I love your choice of the aqua blue necklace too. Fantastic.

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  23. I'm sorry I scrolled down first to check things out before I started to read and then giggled over the dress with the sneakers - very becoming ...ahahaha. They would have been a great look for the wedding, your mum was right about the shoes and your right about the bride she looked lovely. So glad your husband noticed you that's all that matters in the end ;D

    You look great Mchelle ! :)

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  24. Gorgeous dress!! So nice having made a special dress for a special occasion!

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  25. Beautiful! What a job well done, and congrats to your brother and his new wife :)

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  26. I love it!!! Perfect fabric for that dress for sure (even if it was hard on the hands).
    Brides dress is lovely too!!! What a lovely reason to wear a new dress.

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  27. Bloody gorgeous frock. And you did so very well with the handpicked zip (actually much easier than sewing 'em in by machine I reckon...). Lovely to find you again wearing a green gingham thing on DYMT. Send it down to me so I can wear it after my belly surgery. I was feeling quite confident about it all till I read about how awful you felt after your choly. And forgetting how ghastly I felt after I had my gall bladder out (1996), and this one will prob be worse cos all the surgeons talk about is the scar tissue which will be in the way from then... Urk. And I was expecting to be back boogying and partying by the beginning of December...
    Hugs and love, Jasmine

    November 10, 2011 9:09 PM

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