Non-wedding dress looks charming

When Sally and I sat down for our first consultation, the first thing she said was something like, "I know you don't make wedding dresses but...". As I generally don't make wedding or bridesmaid dresses, I was hesitant at first, but in the end was really glad that I took on this project.

Sally chose an existing design from my online folio and I have to say, this was one of the most stress free and delightful projects I have ever worked on.

Throughout the construction of the dress, we nicknamed it the "non-wedding dress" as I know that I would have suffered from anxiety if I attached the word "wedding" to it.

We chose 100% Polyester Cream coloured Shantung and used 100% Viscose lining. We decided against 100% Silk as Sally wanted to keep creasing to a minimum. A white petticoat was worn underneath and our original idea of a sash, ribbon or self covered belt was discarded on the wedding day, which I think worked well.

Sally's sister Claire accompanied Sally to all of her fittings which was great as it was good to have a third person to help with fitting and styling decisions.

Red shoes and her mothers re-worked wedding veil completed the outfit beautifully.

Sally, thank you so much for choosing me to make your "non-wedding dress", you looked as perfect as I imagined on your wedding day and I look forward to seeing more photos soon!

Natasha's Early 1960's inspired dress

I made this dress for Natasha with the late 1950's/early 1960's in mind. Many people assume that once 1960 ticked over, people stoppped wearing fuller skirts, which is not so.

This dress is made from Black 100% Polyester Shantung. Some of you may shrudder at the fact that the fabric is Polyester, but I find that this particular make is not the yucky-feeling kind. I half lined the dress in 100% Viscose to try and offset the Polyesterness of the fabric.

Boat neck and princess seams allowed me to have a firm bustline and a little room in the waist for sitting and dancing. The centre back has an invisible zip closure.

Tash and I wanted to create a full looking skirt without it being too big, so I made an a-line skirt and included a separate petticoat/underskirt with the design. This gives Tash the option to 'dress down' her dress if the occasion comes up.

A 1 1/2" wide self covered belt finishes off the dress perfectly.

Thank you to Al and Natasha for supplying me with this beautiful photo.