Finishing touches on the wedding dress (picture heavy!)

After finally completing the lining of the dress, I was able to start with the hemming and embellishing.

After the last fitting with the wedding shoes I shortened the dress 6cm, thenI cut out the lining 8cm shorter and without seam allowence in the hem. When I turned the hem two times 1cm, I encased the lining in the main fabric.

 

 

Now it was time to handstitch an invisible hem. I didn´t want the seam to be visible on the outside, even though there´s a layer of lace over it. It just looks tidier and more exquisite this way.

 

Next on was the lace. I  sewed it on with tiny hand stitches, hidden in the floral pattern of the lace. With the 6m of (6,6 yards) hem circumference it took forever. Yesterday I just could´nt stop myself. With every inch carefully pinned and sewed on the silk I was getting more excited. So I finished the whole lace trim until it was well past my regular bedtime.

 

So, now the dress itself is finished! I can honestly say, it´s the most beautiful thing I´ve ever sewn. But see for yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope I can add bride-in-gown pictures after the wedding 🙂

 

 

More on the wedding dress

Today I was able to get in a lot of wedding dress sewing time.

I had to baste together the underlining with the silk crepe de chine. This was about 21 yards of handbasting. Oh yes, my fingers are still red.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sewing together the front and side front skirt pieces I had to carfully leave out everything over the circle marking, so it´ll form a nice point after sewing it to the band.

 

While sewing up the skirt I went through a pack of needles and every single one of them broke. I used the thinnest once availible, Nr. 60. No matter how I adjusted the tension, All of the broke. So I went one size up and used the Nr.70 needles and they worked perfectly! I was afraid to use the before, because at a test piece they pulled a lot of threads from the silk. Together with the underlining it was okay.

 

I basted in the invisible zipper  with zigzag handstitches before putting in under the machine.

 

Then I sewed the dress together with the band and the bodice and here we are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wedding dress progress

Oh, it´s been quite a while since my last post. I´ve been very busy with my wedding dress project. It requires a great deal of hand stitching on slippery fabric, so it consumes almost all of my sewing time. The dress is so fun to make, with every little step it get´s more beautiful.

The main part of the bodice is made out of sheer silk mousseline. While sewing I had to run a tissue paper under the seam, otherwise the machine would have swallowed up the fabric.

 

On the back I hand sewed a lace applique with tiny stitches:

 

 

The front inserts and they´re lining are made out of silk crepe de chine:

At this state I had another fitting with the bride. The bodice fits perfectly and she´s very happy with it. I can´t wait to see the finished dress on her, she already looked so beautiful in just the top part 🙂

Next comes a lot of hand sewing – I need to hand baste the crepe de chine to the venezia underlining for the skirt parts.