Upcycled Wedding Dress

I don't know where the time has gone !!!! I have not blogged  for so long. 
I have been working, being a Mum, taking trips to visit family, trying to sort out my son with a college and generally just busy .


I had a bride, who had bought her dress 2 years ago, at a charity shop.  However, when she got it out again, had changed her mind about the bodice design.  The bodice had lace and beads along the bodice top and around the bottom edge too.  I removed the lace and beads and we sent it off to be dry cleaned. 

My bride wanted a more traditional floral design so I used organza  and pearls  and created this design instead

This is the dress afterwards, although  we did pull the centre flower down a bit lower before she took it away. As an older bride she was a bit conscious of showing any cleavage, but was happy that the design was fine as I had said it would be.

Luckily the dress did not need any other alterations.  It was perfect and she was more than happy .

Just what I like to hear xx

Wedding Fayre

Uploaded some photos of the dresses , jacket and bag I took to the wedding fayre.

I made this dress before , in a pale peach chiffon and really liked the style of it, so I decided to do my own take on the original and create it in ivory, as a wedding dress.

However I did have to alter the original pattern by a considerable amount, to get it like this.  I also lengthened it from the original .  I added some lace, with beading and sequins.

The full length photo is a bit hazy as I left my camera in the car, where it was cold, and in Leigh park Hotel, it was humid, so that is actually mist on the photo and no amount of editing will sort that out !!

I also took some items I have shown before , except I have now made a clutch bag to go with the red jacket .  It really was a lovely day, even though outside it was a different story.  I don't think the rain stopped the whole time we were there. There were no cars or horses and carriages at this one !!!

Love Getting Pictures x

I love getting pictures of dresses I have created.

 I have just received some lovely photos. The photographer, whom I  do not know, seems to have captured the group really well.

The bride came to me because, although they had found some lovely childrens dresses, there was not an adult dress in the same colour and also one of the young bridesmaids had measurements that were not standard for her age.
She wanted all three to match in colour, but have their own choice of style.

The bridesmaid, pictured next to the bride, wanted a long dress with a swag front and, at the time of the visit, I had a small dress out that had a ruffle on the strap and she liked it and wanted it on her dress.

The next bridesmaid wanted thicker straps and a shorter style with the swag front.

I did not meet with the adult bridesmaid until a later date and she was thinking of not having the swag front, just a princess line dress with a band under the bust and spaghetti straps, however, when I showed her how slimming the swag would be if it were added, she decided to have the swag too.

And to finish off I made three stoles , because the wedding was in October.  I think it was actually the hottest day I have ever known in Britain in October !! It was perfect.

It is lovely to get emails with pics xx

Beautiful Bride xx

Today I received an email with these gorgeous pictures. This is my bride that I have written about in two previous posts and I couldn't be prouder of the how lovely she looks when all dressed up . 

Buyer Beware

When making a dress in ivory only, you do always need to make sure that you use good quality fabrics, or you run the risk of being able to see through the dress !!!

However, I had a lady ring me up with a bit of an emegency. The bride had bought a bridesmaids dress from Debenhams and considered that it was rather indecent for the bridesmaid as you could see right through !!. The dress itself is lovely, however the skirt was made up of 2 layers of low cost lining fabric and 1 layer of tulle.

So I took the skirt away from the bodice, removed the tulle layer, inserted another lining and added 2 more layers of tulle , just to add a bit more body to the skirt.

I had a look on the Debenhams website and it has actually had nothing but good reviews.  One of them even said the quality of the fabric was good !!  Still, managed to improve it for my customer

Cant Wait Any Longer !!

This post is connected to the previous post, which shows ideas and information I was given.

I do not have any official photographs because Emily only got married yesterday, but I do have some that we took on completion. I look forward to seeing some when she is all dressed up properly.

After our first talk, I knew she did not want anything too fussy. The main focus was to be the lace.
I ordered this from www.bridallaceandfabric.co.uk  They very kindly sent me a sample and , after looking at several different types of laces we decided on the best one.

Here is the final dress.

I love this dress, and most importantly, the Bride and her Mum do too .

It was a pleasure to create Emily her dream dress .

The main body of the skirt is Satin, with a Chiffon overlay.

The buttons down the back are covered in the lace, because, for me , the back of a wedding dress is just as important as the front as this is what people are looking at throughout the ceremony.

  

Ooooh Excited !!

Cant wait !! Cant show you the proper dress yet, the bride is getting married tomorrow but I love the dress I have recently finished.  As a bit of a pre-lim to the actual pictures I thought I would write a post on the ideas that she came to me with. 
I often get people come to me with some pictures of dresses which the person likes a bit of one and some of another but has had no luck finding the RIGHT one .
My bride to be came to me with some pictures, and she had also been to see another dressmaker too, who had created a drawing for her based on what she thought the dress would look like. Our 2 ideas were totally different even though we had been told the same things.
So, the Bride to be went off and considered, and came back to me because she liked my idea.  Which I consider very lucky, because my drawing is not especially good !!!! Something I really need to work on .
Here are some of the comments and pictures that I had to work with

I dont know if the writing might be a bit small to read, but it basically says everything I needed to know about the style she wanted. Top part of lace, with an asymmetrical ruched part, Aline skirt with a bit of volume and train.  Quite simple but elegant , no jewels or crystals .

I just hope the weather is kind tomorrow !! I have been telling her it is always nice in September , its my birthday tomorrow and it usually is a nice day !!!  I have a new rule now, never talk about the English weather !! Really, nothing is a given anymore !! The weather forecast is not too great !!

I just hope she has a lovely day.

Bride who Twirled x

Earlier in the year I had a Bride-to-be come to me with some pictures of styles and her only other requirement was that the skirt should swirl as she was dancing .

We chose a Champagne satin and burnt orange as an accent colour. I made waistcoats and ties, small bridesmaid dress to go with it. And it looks great when she twirls x

Wedding Dress pictures

I have not written for a while, I just don't know where the time goes.


Although , these days I have a job to get my hands on the laptop !!!

Earlier on in the year I was working on a wedding dress that meant I had to keep moving the furniture round. The skirt part was so long.

My customer based her idea on the Wedding Dress worn by Princess Margaret, designed by Norman Hartnell, in 1960.

However, she wanted tulle to be used , instead of organza. We had to change the style of the collar because the fabric was just too flimsy to stand up as high. It was quite a challenge but this is the result.

The tulle jacket was edged in ribbon , as was the skirt. I also had to make a cathedral length veil which was again, edged in ribbon. I bought some diamante buttons which were sewn on the front, the cuff and there were six at the back of the neck ( three on each side for decoration, it had hooks and eyes to fasten at the top)

The bodice underneath was ivory satin.

I still hope to receive some official photos, I dont know why I dont take more myself , but I just can't take good photos. I hope you like it xx

Back View

Hi, hope everyone who reads this is well. Just thought I would show the back of the wedding dress sash from a previous blog showing the front of it.

I like to do my bows in seperate pieces, because I like them to stay in place exactly as I make them, I do not think a sash that you tie into a bow looks as nice on a wedding dress.

First I made the pieces that hang down the back. I used chiffon and bound the top edge with some satin because its firmer, and I was stitching this to the dress on one side of the zip. Then I put a popper on the dress and the bound edge. This means it will not hang off anywhere.

Then I made my bow pieces in chiffon, with a satin in the middle bit. I did start to bead this but found that because of the design on the front being wavy, it did not look right with similar beads on the bow. I had to unpick all my hard work !!!!!!

Being a perfectionist is a blessing and a curse xxx

(he he he )

So I opted for the gorgeous sew on Swarovski and used the philosophy , less is more.

The dress is gone now, I am working on other projects at the moment . I hope you have enjoyed looking at my creation x

Wedding Dress Sash

Amongst other things, I have been working on creating a new sash for a wedding dress.

The dress started off fairly plain and my customer wanted something with a bit of sparkle.

This is what I started off with.

I had a bit of muslim, cut in a strip, so that she could give me the correct width of what she wanted. She also wanted a bow at the back.

I started off with a piece of organza that was the correct width ( + small top seam) and used some chiffon behind and over the top of it and pinned it into place (as picture).

There was a small strip of fabric on the dress and a bow that needed removing so I had to undo the stitching that held this in place, cut and remove it. I had to undo an area along the zip edge and open up the sides to put the sash into it!!!!

I find it difficult to 'create' beaded areas, purely on a design level. What one person would like is not necessarily the same as you might create and because it takes a long time to hand sew beads into place, I must admit to being a little nervous !! I showed her some beads that I was going to consider and she liked them, Swarovski crystals, whats not to like, truly my favourites, plus a few others. Bit too extravagant a budget would have been needed for it all to be Swarovski .

I also got sew on ones (because I like them and did not want to risk burning the chiffon with some hotfix ones) which I got from http://www.cheapfabrics.co.uk/

She came around the other day to check out the beading, just to make sure she was happy before I continued with the back and the bow, and she was really pleased.

So, thought I would show you it so far.

Medieval Dress

One of my ladies has sent me pictures for you to see.

I made this Medieval dress for August this year. Its my first one of this type, but it is a style I have always wanted to do.

She brought me a pattern for a costume dress because it was most similar to what she wanted. She had also bought the silk. I changed the neckline because I thought it would make it look nice, as its in a block of colour, it would be just a bit more interesting. I loved the sleeve design and it looks fabulous in the picture. She loved it and I was very pleased myself.

Hope you like

Well, its been quite a while since my last posting. I have been working on a couple of my own designs, trying to get people to send me pictures of some of the dresses I have made, and I actually knitted myself a cardigan.

My own designs are not quite completed but as soon as they are I will post some pictures. The customers pictures I have requested still have not materialised. My cardigan is lovely and I will also take a picture of that .

I had a stall at a prom fair in Devizes at the beginning of November, it was not very busy, but I handed out plenty of information and had quite a bit of interest. It was nice to meet some lovely stall holders. One was from Devizes, she has a shop and she sources her items from Italy. Gorgeous bags. Another lady was from Pewsey, tiaras and hair decoration was her forte. I have tried to encourage her to visit www.misi.co.uk and get herself a shop.

I went to The Paintworks, Bristol , to visit the Misi Craft fair. Some lovely items on sale. I went to try and get some Xmas pressies, but came out with a bracelet for myself from Tollykit (on Misi) she also has a website on http://www.elainehillson.co.uk . I have not dared look at that yet, there is bound to be something else I want !!!

Finally, I am pleased to say, I have got around to having a new website done . I am so pleased with it. Feel free to look and leave me any comments that you might have, I love to hear what other people think. www.inspired-brides.co.uk It has taken me a while, and will hopefully be available on search engines soon, its only just gone live.

Bridesmaids summer 2009

I got an email this morning from a bride. She looks lovely, but I did not make her dress. She had already sorted out her dress, however, she did keep telling me that she had wished she met me first.

I made her bridesmaid dresses for her though. Black and ivory satin. Made from a picture of something similar. Very pleased with the outcome, as was she . Always nice to receive pictures.

Photo of Bridesmaids

I did some alterations on the bridal gown and older bridesmaids. The 4 young bridesmaid dresses are made completely by me.

The wedding dress was white and gold, so we had a gold satin bodice and white tulle skirt.
The older bridesmaid dresses came with stoles, I used these to make the sashes for the little dresses.

I think they look very complimentary.

Wedding Dress 2009

This wedding dress is made of silk tafetta.
A lot of input came from the lady herself.
We started off with wedding dress pictures , and the dress evolved from there.

Because this was to be a non church wedding, the lady wanted a shorter, straight dress than the pictures that she brought, but the top part was similar to one of the pictures.
In order that we were both on the same wave-length , a sample dress was created and we went from there.

She sent me this photo and a lovely email to say how pleased she was , also that she had lovely comments from her guests.

Schools Out !!

Well, first day of the holidays is nearly over.

Disrupted day, got hardly anything done.

Had to do housework because I had a customer coming over to try on her sample dress.

I have a small house so that involves cleaning virtually all rooms before any visit!!!

The sample is made in calico, she was pleased. A few changes are needed, but that is mostly style rather than fit, so I too, am pleased. Not a completely wasted day then.

I thought I would show some pics of some embellishment that I have just done.

The bride bought her dress, however she got some bargain party dresses for her bridesmaids and wanted a bit of sparkle added.

Basically I just used some beads I had and created something that looked similar around the top of the neck. Also a few large glass beads on the skirt.

INSPIRED BRIDES

Evening, hope everyone is not suffering tooo much with the weather.

My son tried to blag another day off school. Its only been raining !!!! But it has been continual, all day in fact, so there has been flooding in the area.

Still, I have retired to my blissful world of weddings and proms. No real world business for me. Weather , what weather !!!

Thought I would share with you some more photos of projects that I have done before.

I decided to call my business INSPIRED BRIDES .I wanted to work with people who wanted that something a little bit different. This one certainly fitted the bill. Although I do love all wedding related things, everyone is just so happy.

The lady in question had found her fabric in a curtain/cushion type fabric shop. She bought some and came to me with one metre of it, enough to make a bodice. Then wanted to know how we could incorporate this into her wedding. She just loved the colours.

After leaving it with me for a while, my brain ticked over , then I got back to her with some ideas.

We ended up putting a bronze silk with it , the colour was in the fabric, used it as a skirt colour.

The bridesmaids were all in different colours of silk, but they were all contained in the fabric also.

The young girl was lucky. She was a Liverpool supporter so I was told that red was a definate must for her. Thank goodness that it was the right red !!!!

My first little bridesmaid pic

One of the first projects I did was for a friend of mine.

I cant seem to find the computer programme for most of the wedding party , but whilst going through a memory stick, I found this picture of her daughter who was aged one, at the time.