| At the end of last year an acquaintance asked if I'd be interested in recreating a dress her friend had bought from eBay to get married in as the original dress was not in as good a condition as she had hoped and the synthetic satin wasn't as lovely as she'd hoped for either. It came with sleeves but they'd been hacked off and she preferred it without but the armhole was a bit of a mess. My kind of dream job really as I love making bias dresses and this would be a enjoyable challenge. I began before Christmas but it wasn't finished until a couple of weeks before the wedding. After removing and washing the rouleaux leaf-motif collar it fortunately was good enough to re-use and I found a silk that colour matched really well. Working from a bias block pattern I'd made for something else I drafted a pattern following the lines of the original dress and made a toile in a thin cheap crepe. After that was fitted and adjusted I re-cut the dress in the new silk satin and refitted it. Of course it fitted a bit differently than the toile- it made up bigger and anyway we decided on a more Jean Harlow snug-fit than the original so took in the hips a lot. The bodice is mounted on a silk georgette and the seams and hems were all finished with bias georgette bindings.There are only 2 side back seams in the skirt (I never took pictures of them) but they angled in towards the centre back at hip level and then flared out forming the 6 foot train. Because of the angles I had to use tiny snaps and hooks on a placket to close the dress down the left bodice side seam and over the hip…not the flattest way to do it but a zip was impossible. I made a little cape which she wore on the way to the wedding and a silk tulle veil finished the look. The wedding was this May but I've only just received the gorgeous photos from the day so thought I'd make a post about it here. This is the original post on my blog with just another photo or two.  |
| The original 1930's acetate satin wedding dress bought from eBay |
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| My recreation of it in a heavy French silk satin |
