Wedding Dress Part 1

I've decided to keep an update of the making of the wedding dress

So the dress pattern is as above and is linked here (Butterick B5325)

This is to try and make it match the dress below, which my mum and I saw and I tried on, in a boutique, but couldn't stretch to the £2000-odd quid it would have cost. The dress is much more a-line than this - the model has it pinned in a fishtail for some reason.

It has an add-on one-shoulder lace bolero, but I think I'll handsew this to the dress itself, for some extra 'hold', as I don't have much on top, so the teeny bodice already has its work cut out holding up all that skirt fabric. It is a delicate chantilly lace with added appliques in ivory over an ivory satin.

And so far I've done the following:

1. Laid out the practice fabric in the corridor at work - all 9 metres of it!

2. Ordered some expensive lace, waited a month for it, only to have the supplier sell it to Australia and tell me that there won't be more until May ... my wedding is in June! Due to a breakdown in communication that meant they felt I hadn't placed an official order, and I felt I had. Anyhoo, quick cry and called them back - lace is now due to arrive on March 13th. Until it is in my hands, I remain anxious about this, but it's out of my control. I have to order this specific lace because it is a) gorgeous, and b) available from the wholesalers for £33.65 a metre. You can see it here where it is selling for a totally reasonable (!) £185 a metre...The lace comes with a bazillion beads and sequins, which I'm going to be taking off.

3. Ordered some ivory matt satin swatches .. which reminds me - I'm still waiting for some of them to arrive.

4. Measured out and cut out all the pieces of practice fabric, sewed them together in a rough approximation of my body shape - size 6/8 bodice, size 12 waist, size 14/16 hips (yes, an actual triangle!). Went home for the weekend to get a fitting with my mum.

I've left the pieces with my mum to try and make something closer fitting my body shape, and she'll be visiting Glasgow at the beginning of March to do another fitting and we go from there!

So for this weekend I'm going to try and source and hopefully buy all the 'bits and pieces' - zips, buttons, boning, underlining, lining etc. etc. And research research research, which will be my next blog post.