Rachel's Wedding Dress - Part 4

In my last post about Rachel's dress, we got the fit of the bodice correct.  After I came back from Korea, we went to pick out the fabric for the bodice, choosing a slightly creamy white silk stretch charmeuse.  We also bought matching silk charmeuse fabric to replace the skirt lining.

As a reminder, the dress originally looked like this:


Rachel had taken the dress apart for me, including the lace bits, which I recut into sleeves and the top layer of the side panels for the bodice.  There was a good amount of the lace, but they weren't really as big as I would have liked.  Rachel has a long torso, so the side panels were quite long.  Therefore, I needed to stretch the lace in different directions to fit the pattern I would cut.  This caused a few problems later in the construction process, but mostly worked because the lace was pretty stretchy and was supposed to be taut on the bodice. 

Here is the only process shot I took:


You can see the pins holding the lace in place on the edges. 

After cutting the silk panels of the bodice, I painstakingly cut the different lace pieces: the sleeves (including a cuff for each sleeve), the front side panels, and the back side panels.  I then put together the inner layer, which had some stretchy fusible attached to the self to provide stability and boning to provide structure.  Then I put together the outer layer, including the sleeves.  Those two layers were attached together.

Rachel had cut the skirt lining for me, so I shirred the edges slightly and attached it to the lace skirt.  Then those were attached to the bodice.  Finally, the zipper was attached to the dress.  I also sewed a hook and eye at the top of the zipper and snaps on the sleeve cuffs.

Along the way, I had Rachel come over and try on the bodice after the first couple of steps, to make sure that the fit hadn't changed dramatically using this fabric.  It turned out to be more stretchy than I anticipated so we had to take it in in the back.  We didn't want the bodice to be too tight but it also would have looked bad if it were too loose.

I finished the dress a couple of weeks ago and took it to Rachel's place to take some preview shots.  Her wedding is in January, in about a week, and I'm excited to attend.  I'll be playing violin before and during the ceremony as well. I'll post professional and more detailed shots once she gives them to me after the wedding, but here are some taken from my iPhone and camera.

In the first few shots, she's wearing a hat she bought for one of her bachelorette parties or something.  She will be wearing a short veil for the ceremony though.  In all the shots she's wearing costume jewelry she purchased for the wedding, as well as a belt she made herself, which is Swarovsky crystals sewn onto a long gros grain ribbon.  She hasn't decided if the ribbon will be tied in a bow as shown or with a closure at the back.