Couture? Oooo, You Must Be Good!

Ever since Mary asked me if I'd like to help with the construction of Stephanie's wedding dress, I've been haunting fabric stores in my town. My town has two. No worries, I can travel, and I've set a limit of a 50 mile radius for fabric store hauntings - no need to overdo it and get burned out right away. Of course, if I happen to be somewhere much farther away, say, the Twin Cities, all bets are off. I'm in a fabric mecca and who knows when I'll be back again?

Actually, I do know when I'll be back again - the first weekend of June, so I can relax on the fabric store envy for now.

Back to the haunting. Since Mary lives in the Twin Cities area, and Stephanie lives in the Los Angeles area, and I live far from civilization in the Central Wisconsin area, we're doing a good bit of texting, e-mailing, actual chatting, and picture sharing.

Typically I'll proceed after such an exchange in the firm belief that I can find the exact material in the exact shade that's just been described verbally or pictorially, and I'll hie myself to a corresponding fabric store and ... wander around, looking at all the gorgeous fabrics - bridal silks of course, and tulles, certainly, but also decorator fabric such as would be suitable for curtains or upholstery, and jaquards that would be perfect for a kimono or a special occasion skirt or jacket ... and then I find the book section of the store and look through several of my fondest desires, and then remember that I'm there for fabric for flowers to embellish Stephanie's wedding dress, and wander around for another 30 minutes or so, trying to find the bridal silks again, all the while keeping up a brave front, acting like I know exactly what I'm doing and that I have every right to be there and I've done this so many times that frankly, I'm a little bored with it by now.

Except that this is my first time working on an actual couture dress. And this first dress is a really big deal. Big important day. Wedding dress for one of my most favorite people in the whole world. I want this to be beautiful. I want her to look like a princess on her wedding day. I want her to be pleased with our efforts. No, I want her to LOVE what we've done! And I really, really don't want to disappoint her.

So, I find some suitable fabric for wedding dress flowers, and go up to the counter to have pieces cut.

"I'd like 1/3 yard each of the dupioni and the crushed tulle. And 1/4 yard of the polyester lining material, please."

"Oh, these are gorgeous fabrics! What are you planning to do with them?"

"I'm helping my sister make a couture wedding dress for her daughter. I'm making flowers to embellish her dress with this fabric. Well, this fabric is a prototype. I'll be sending the flowers on to my sister to see what she thinks, and my niece will have to approve them as well."

"Oooo. You must be good!"

They're right, you know. I must be good. We all must be good, to pull this off! And we're going to do a beautiful job of it! Stephanie's going to look beautiful! We are going to be so proud of the dress we create, we may even go into business!

I can see it now....

How a Wedding Dress Is Like a Dissertation

While working toward my dissertation, I've found there are very many similarities between the wedding dress project and my dissertation.

What I've learned so far in each case....
1. There will be set backs. This could come in the form of sewing machine issues, sew a little, rip a little, sew a little rip a little... or in the form of required revisions in the writing process.
2. There is a trick to combining all the elements effectively.
Four patterns to combine in the dress? We'll make it work.
Qualitative and quantitative elements in the study? It's called mixed methods for a reason.

3. There will be times when no one can tell you what to do, you just have to try, and see what works. See number 1.


4. There is no class in the world you can take to prepare you, find a book and figure it out.




5. This is going to take a lot of time.
6. It's going to feel really good when it's done.

The Fake Dress

Before embarking on this journey, I decided to be uncharacteristic, and take things slowly. We bought some material to practice the pattern on before getting too far.  The pattern books call this a muslin, but our fake dress wasn't made of muslin, but cheap polyester dress fabric.

The tricks we needed to solve were how to put all four patterns together into one workable dress.

The fake dress back

Close up of back with ribbon tie

Close up of top

The fake dress top

The straps need tweaking.
The dress isn't lined, so it's pretty see-through. We don't intend a risque wedding!

This dress looks nothing like the actual dress. The fabric is so different, the lack of lining, and the back are all very different.

What we have so far is the possible top, and the length of the train.

Sent pictures to Stephanie and she didn't burst into tears, so that was a good sign.

The Design Phase One

We began working off of sketches Stephanie drew for which pieces of the patterns to combine.  Her sketches led us to look for fabric and embellishments.

A little pick up in the front

Buttons down the back

 

 

 

 

 But this is just a working sketch. Many changes will follow...

The Pattern

Once we knew we were making the dress, the next step was finding patterns. We began with photos from magazines of dresses Stephanie liked. Elements of one dress here, elements of another dress there. Then we set off to the fabric store to find patterns that might work.

We ended up with four.

The Top

The pick-up

The back (sort of

The Train

The trick will be combining them in a wearable manner!

In the beginning...

Our wedding dress project began last fall with Stephanie and Thomas' engagement. We didn't plan to make the dress at first, but after shopping around and looking at countless styles, Stephanie decided that she wanted me to make the dress.

When she came home for Christmas, we began the project in earnest. First step: making a dress form of Stephanie to keep with us once she returned to California.

We got the idea for making a dress form from Jenny who emailed us the link on how-to. An old t-shirt and paper tape from Staples, a couple pairs of scissors, a sponge and some water and we were on our way! We followed the instructions from a post on Jejune.net on making a paper tape dress form.

Here is a picture of the dress form. 

Step one in the project was complete. And now we can take Stephanie with us anywhere!