Royal Wedding Dress in Detail...

Being seamstresses, I couldn't help but look at many pictures of the wedding dress of Kate Middleton, now Duchess of Cambridge. It was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. I loved all the detail. The intricate lace handwork on the bodice and sleeves gave the dress a traditional feminine look.
 
The Design:
The lace appliqué for the bodice and skirt was hand-made by the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace.  The lace design was hand-engineered (appliquéd) using the Carrickmacross lace-making technique, which originated in Ireland in the 1820s.  Individual flowers have been hand-cut from lace and hand-engineered onto ivory silk tulle to create a unique and organic design, which incorporates the rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock.
Hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace has been used throughout the bodice and skirt, and has been used for the underskirt trim.  With laces coming from different sources, much care was taken to ensure that each flower was the same colour.  The whole process was overseen and put together by hand by Ms Burton and her team.
The dress is made with ivory and white satin gazar.  The skirt echoes an opening flower, with white satin gazar arches and pleats.  The train measures two metres 70 centimetres.  The ivory satin bodice, which is narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, draws on the Victorian tradition of corsetry and is a hallmark of Alexander McQueen’s designs.  The back is finished with 58 gazar and organza covered buttons fastened by Rouleau loops.  The underskirt is made of silk tulle trimmed with Cluny lace.

Click here to find out more about the dress.

I was very inspired to make a dress with some of the different details that I saw. If you are a bride who is looking for a wedding dress that has any of these different details, let us know and we would be happy to create your dream...

Check out the lace detail!

Also the little girl bridesmaids dresses were very cute! I loved the how the little girls dresses were pleated on the skirt and had a trim at the bottom. The puff sleeves were adorable! The sashes were also pleated along the length...very nice detail!

What Was Accomplished Yesterday...

Yesterday was a full day from start to finish! It started with getting some "beginnings" of 2 dresses put together for my cousin. When those were finished I started an alteration on a wedding dress.

This time we are adding a panel in the back to make the dress a little bigger.

Here's my pattern piece I made

After those were finished we got to babysite Eloise in the shop for about an hour. This was so much fun. She loved playing with the balls and just laying on her blanket. She would talk and laugh and it was so cute!

Remember this jumper? I made it from one that Eloise had when she was that size. Look how much she has grown?

For the next couple hours we had sewing classes. Later in the evening we wanted to get some painting done in the shop extension so we painted the ceiling. We also when to Home Depot and got a couple more sample paints to try on the wall. Which one do you like?

Painting the ceiling

These are the two we are deciding between. What do you think?

Custom Wedding Dress Alterations

We at Bella Jean specialize in custom alterations. In this case, we had a customer come to us needing their wedding dress made 2 sizes smaller, as well as hemmed and a bustle added. During this process we had fittings to ensure exact size. We also took pictures of the wedding dress before we did anything so we could have them for references along the way. For the bustle we looked at a few other wedding dresses for ideas on how to put it up.

The customer also wanted her mothers veil customized for herself. Because her dress had lace, as well as her mothers veil, we just replace the original lace with lace from her dress. In the end the customer was very pleased and we enjoyed sewing this for her!

Making a Perfect Fit with Custom Clothing Alterations

One of the foremost parts of our business is alterations. Recently we have been altering a wedding dress. First we take pictures of every detail needing altered so we can have a reference to continually go back to. This is one of the most important things I've learned in performing alterations. Please feel free to email me for more tips on the best process for altering clothing.

 We do hemming for all styles of pants.

We can replace zippers in coats, vests, dresses, cushions and more. Replacing zippers is very enjoyable for me.

Thank you, Veronica