Sunday, February 14, 2010

Jennifer's wedding dress and the 1930's heirloom lace


When Jennifer and I had our first meeting, all was going well. Jennifer wanted a 'non-wedding dress' made from 100% Silk Dupion using a 1950's inspired pattern. "And I would like to incorporate this piece of lace that belonged to my great grandmother, it's been in our family for years and it's very, very old".

I instantly got stage fright and I must admit, went into a little panic. As I composed Jen's quote I worked out the best way that we could get the most out of the piece and after the quote was approved, Jen set out to have the lace professionally cleaned and dated.

The National Gallery dated the lace as early 1930's, which made me feel a little more relaxed as I would have felt a little nervous cutting anything that was from the year 18-something.

We agreed to a simple design and let the lace be the main focus of the dress. The silk was purchased at Tessuti in Melbourne and I wish that you could see the true colour of it in the photo, it is divine! I bought the 100% Viscose lining from Harvey's in the Nicolas building and used a heavier lightweight woven interfacing (that sounds strange, I know) for the bodice.

I gathered a rectangle piece of the lace onto the midriff to ensure that we got the maximum use of the piece, the invisible zip was inserted into the side seam.

Jen wore a very cool pair of black and gold metallic snakeskin stilettos and accessorised the dress with an antique brooch.

To see the backview of the dress click here.

Thank you so much for making me a part of your special day Jen! x

7 comments:

Bec said...

OH wow, this is just so amazingly divine!!! I really can't express how much I adore this dress. What a lucky lucky bride!

petapledger said...

Thanks Bec!

Anonymous said...

That is one stunning dress, absolutely gorgeous!

Miss Anne said...

No, thank you, gorgeous! I felt so pretty without being a wedding-magazine-clone. Honestly - you're a genius!

Chrisy said...

This is a beautiful wedding dress...what a divine pattern...and the way you've used the old lace is perfect. The pearls and those shoes just add the final touch.

harbourmaster said...

I waitressed at this wedding and can attest that the dress was stunning! Jennifer looked absolutely gorgeous.

petapledger said...

Thank you so much!

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