Wedding Dress and Veil for Angie

Angie wanted something really different for her wedding: as an older bride she wanted to feel extravagant special without wearing a long white dress. Together we created the design for this dress all in torn layers with a mix of all the fabrics from my sample books that Angie liked. Angie wanted it to look like a fairytale-attic’ dress, cobwebbed and tatty edged but with delicate lace and a bit of sparkle.

Fitted dress made in palest blue silk satin, fully lined in ivory silk. The dress has a shaped underbust seam with a halter neck bodice and slight collar on neck piece. The boned bodice is covered with beaded blue lace with the scalloped edging used to trim the neckline and underbust seam. The dress then cascades in layers of blue, pink and silver which graduate to show off all the different fabrics with uneven torn edges. The skirt layers are made from specially dyed silk georgette, silk tulle, muslin and delicate silver lace with diamante highlights over gathered netting to create the skirt’s shape.

The back of the dress laces closed with pink organza-ribbon. Below the lacing a peplum made from beautiful two tone blue/gold shot-taffeta graduates into a double waterfall frill. A concealed zip closed the skirt hidden by the frills.

Original design sketch

With a dress that revealed her shoes Angie asked me to decorate her shop-bought silver shoes so they would match the rest of her outfit.

Angie told me that she wanted something to wear in her hair to complete the ‘look’. She wanted a small veil, with beads that dangled from its edges and some sort of ‘interest’ with some sparkle in her hair. So I design this with silver french veiling in a ‘bird-cage’ style, Swarovski crystal highlights and a seed-bead fringe along the edge. The veil pushes into the hair on a comb which is also decorated with lace flowers and twisted wire stamens and with more crystals in colours to compliment the lace.

Although self-conscious and daring as mature brides go Angie did not want to have completely bare arms. So, to compliment her fantasy-style dress we made these beautiful gloves.

We used the same pale blue satin as the bodice with torn silk tulle and georgette in layers cascading from the elbow. They finish in a medieval-style point over the hand with a loop for your finger. Layers of georgette and tulle cascade from the elbow with torn edges. The gauntlets lace closed over the back of the arm with silver elastic lacing, which meant they could simply be slipped on and off with no ‘doing up’. And it meant Angie could bend and move her arms unimpeded!

First fitting pictures: Here just the shell of the dress has been made up to check for fit before all the layers are added.

Showing how much progress one might expect between two fittings. Here the back fastenings have been finished, a few more layers of skirt added and the taffeta waterfall sewn onto the back. Some lace edging has been sewn to the halter-neck edge and one of the gauntlets was partly made to check for fit.

Finished and ready to go!

Angie originally wanted to have her adult bridesmaid and little girl in dresses very like her own. In the end budget constraints meant Angie made other arrangements for her attendants but these are the design sketches I drew up for her.

Close up details of the lace and layering on bodice and skirt.

Angie wanted something to wear round her shoulders in case the weather was not kind and for the evening. I created a shawl/stole using the same layered fabrics adding a few lace motifs from her scraps to complete the look.