I spent a couple days this past week drafting the pattern and sewing up the muslin for a bridal gown I’ll be making in the near future. I thought I’d share the experience with my readers!
I pretty much always begin by sizing my dressform to my client’s measurements. This particular gown will be made for a plus sized gal with an hourglass figure, whose measurements were a bit larger than my adjustable dressform adjusts. I needed a good representation of her figure to be able to drape the bodice, and I didn’t want to swing for one of those deluxe uber adjustable dressforms just for the muslin. So, I cut 4″ wide strips of quilt batting and wrapped them around the form to pad it. I had lots of control over *where* the extra padding went, and the batting is just fuzzy enough to sort of stick to itself which made it easy to put it on. Right after taking this snapshot, I took a roll of masking tape to it so I wouldn’t have to deal with the batting shifting each time I put the muslin onto and off of the dress form.
Once I was sure I had a good size and shape, I drew up the pattern for the bodice lining. For the lining I used a simple princess seamed strapless pattern, converted it to a sweetheart neckline, shortened and tapered the skirt. I left it a little longer than the final bodice would be, so I could draw out the asymmetrical line where the bodice attaches to the skirt in 3D, right up on my dress form. (It doesn’t show terribly well in the picture, but I drew my line straight on the muslin with a ballpoint pen). I also adjusted the back of the bodice, to allow for corset style lacing in the back. I drafted the skirt pieces and matched them up to the bodice to mark out the same angled lines for that seam.
Having removed the skirt pattern from the bodice lining, I moved on to draping the bodice itself. This was by far the most time consuming part of the process. I pinned muslin fabric straight onto the bodice lining, taking up small, irregular pintucks. I didn’t want the dress to look pleated, but rather to have a slightly random, organic look to the ruching, so I spent a lot of time undoing and redoing the pinning, twisting and stretching the fabric, until I had everything in place. Then after a strong blast of steam from my iron to set the wrinkles (and make them a tad less poofy), I had to carefully remove the pins from the lining, and replace them in the outer fabric, so I could take it over to my machine and stitch it down. Had to do this four times for the different sections of ruched fabric, then sew them together.
Once the bodice fabric was sewn together I attached it to the lining, and then sewed the skirt onto the bodice. Added the laces in the back, and there you have it, a muslin that gives a really good feel for what the final product will be!
The bride presented this photo to me as an inspiration picture. She loved the lower portion of this bridal gown, and wanted a skirt made to look like that, from the piece of silk dupioni she had remaining after her corset had been made and chiffon fabric purchased to match. I could see that we needed to take great care for this; there was exactly 44″ by 100″ of the fabric remaining and it would take all of it to be able to make a skirt with the trumpet shape and train in the inspiration picture. I drafted the pattern carefully, and double and triple checked my pattern pieces to be sure they would fit within the available fabric piece. When she let me know her muslin needed a few adjustments to fit, I offered to create a second muslin before working with the silk – an extra step I don’t often take – because we wouldn’t have a second chance once I cut the silk. And I’m glad we did this – the final version of the pattern left less than a 1/4″ of allowance from the edge of the silk fabric. Absolutely all of it was needed!
Previously, I posted pictures from our bridal photo shoot showing off the two
I’m really intrigued by some of the smaller, less extensive options that have been popping up for brides to wear on their wedding day. Options that compliment an updo and allow a bride to show off the detail work on the back of her dress. Others that have strong vintage influences, like birdcage veils with fascinators or even pill caps that look like they’re straight from the 40’s or 50’s. Veils that are lovely but understated, flattering the bride without stealing the show.
Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, a beautiful young maiden was preparing for her upcoming wedding day. The maiden had sent word to a tailor requesting a stunning non traditional gown, and paid her gold to him for the gown. When a time came only a fortnight before her wedding day and the tailor had neither sent her gown nor responded to the many messangers she’d sent to him, the maiden grew worried. With so little time remaining, what should she do? Would some hero come to her rescue?
Through the days and nights Sarah worked, cutting, shaping, stitching, draping. The maiden traveled many hours, and Sarah did as well, so the two could meet at an inn and test the gown to the maiden’s form, to be sure that Sarah’s pattern was good and true.
