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| The newly married Mr & Mrs Todd - Photo by Allison Davies |
Well it's been a manic weekend, but I can finally share Elaine's wedding dress with you. - whoo hoo.
While the rest of the country is in Jubilee madness, we celebrated the marriage of Elaine and Alan, and the 50th Birthday of John's sister, Ann. - 180 miles apart - on the same day. So it was off to Morpeth Town Hall for the ceremony and then to a sit down reception, before driving the 180 miles to Nottinghamshire and the BBQ for the Birthday celebrations. Sunday was filled with visiting John's parents and my Mum while we were in the area and then the long drive home. Lie in this morning and waking up to the glorious Northumberland sunshine and the keen coastal breeze.
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| posing for photographs |
Anyway back to the dress!
I've been posting little snippets over the last few weeks as I've been making it. There was a lot of time consuming hand sewing in this dress as the fabric was very fine.
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| the bodice in early stages of creation |
I began by drafting the dress using cotton and draping on a dress form. Then, when Elaine had chosen her fabric the stitching began. it was a combination of drafting and draping, often being pinned and stitched on the dress form to keep the shape.
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| Adding buttons and button loops |
The Fabric was a fine turquoise polyester georgette, with a top layer of viscose silk - devore style pattern, although there was a lot of backing fabric and only a sparse design. the overall effect was to create a baby blue colour. Exactly what Elaine wanted.
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| Back view |
I made a fitted inner bodice on which the rest of the dress was supported. this had to be quite substantial as the fabric was surprisingly weighty.
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| Elaine and her brother |
The outer bodice was added then the dropped waist and finally the skirt - which was draped into place first and pinned before the final stitching took place. The Zip was hidden by a row of pearl buttons and covered pieces of boning which hooked into the bra at the back prevented the dress from slipping and revealing Elaine's bra. I used the same technique on the halterneck dress that I made (and wore) for the wedding.
Elaine loved it and I'm so glad I could have a special part in her day.
