Designing & Sewing My Wedding Dress

Over the years, as I have improved my sewing skills, I have wondered if I could pull off making my own wedding dress.

It is perhaps the most important dress I would wear. Could I design and sew something that did justice to the occasion and to the vision I had. And was the idea in my head even one that would suit me. These were the doubts.

With only five months of preparation before our wedding, I wondered if my dream was a practical one. It probably wasn't, but I decided to go for it anyway.

Dress Supplies:

A simple white dress for underneath

Several meters of white chiffon fabric (make sure your 'whites' match)

One meter of lace fabric

One meter of lace trim

Matching white thread

An invisible zipper

Transparent snap buttons

Hooks and eyes

Basic Sewing Supplies:

Machine, scissors, measuring tape, pins, iron, pattern paper, scrap material.

I began by making a pinterest board of dresses that I liked and then grouped those pictures into sections to figure out what similarities of each dress I liked. I already had a strong idea in my head of what I wanted to design but it is always helpful to study existing garments when making final decisions.

I decided on an a-line gown, with a small train, a flowing skirt, and a long-sleeved lace top that was v necked at the back and high at the front.

I then formed a plan on how to best achieve my design taking budget, sewing skills, and time into account. Instead of sewing the entire thing from scratch I decided to buy a simple white dress for underneath, and add to it. That way I still had a dress to wear irregardless of whether my sewing endeavor succeeded or failed. I found one online that only needed a few small adjustments to suit my plan. For the flowing skirt and train I decided to sew a chiffon skirt separate to the dress that was simply hooked on at the waist and could be removed for dancing. The lace top would also be separate and worn over top of the dress.

The first thing I did was make alterations to the dress that I had brought.

It had a scoop in the back so the first thing I did was seam rip a short way down the zip. I then cut away the excess, folded the seam allowance under and hand stitched it back in place to form a V.

The straps on the dress were adjustable but fitted only when tightened almost all the way. This created bulk so I measured the length that was right when on and then seam ripped the straps open, cut them to length, and hand stitched them back together.

I am reasonably long in the waist so the dress (like many others) did not follow the curves of my hips quite right and it was a bit loose around the waist. I turned it inside out, pinned in the excess material while wearing the dress and then sewed following my pin lines.

I used a slight zig zag stitch to prevent breaking the stitching during wear as the material had a stretch to it.

I laid the chiffon fabric as square to the weave lines as possible and used some jars to keep it from moving around.

I measured and made a curved line of pins to the length of circle skirt I needed. I had the material folded to cut the two back pieces which gradually curved longer to make the train.

For the front section I only used one quarter circle as I didn't want a line down the center front. (I only used three quarter circles to make up the skirt).

Then I sewed up the side seams with a narrow tight zigzag stitch.

As is common with circle skirts when hanging the hem gets longer where the fabric is hanging down the bias (on the diagonal to the weave). I trued up the length by hanging the skirt from my diy dress form and measuring up from the ground with pins. I had to eye it towards the back to get a symmetrical train.

I left a section at the top of the center back seam open to insert an invisible zipper.

I pinned and carefully stitched it in place and then finished the waist off by sewing a ribbon around the top, pressing it in half and then sewing it down again to encase all the raw edges.

For the hem I rolled the material under once being careful not to apply any tension as I sewed. I did this around the entire hemline before repeating by rolling it under a second time.

I find this to be the best method for a neat and tiny hem when dealing with chiffon as it moves and stretches easily.

Using some scrap material I made a rough mock up of the shape I wanted to create. I made sure to leave lots of extra seam allowance to tweak and change the lines to get it the shape I wanted.

When I was happy with the design I cut the seam allowance down to 1cm and seam ripped the mock up apart. I then copied the pieces onto paper and trued up any crooked looking lines.

I laid out the lace and positioned my pattern pieces over the parts of the pattern I wanted to use making sure that I was consistent with the direction of lay.

With the pieces cut I began sewing the front and back pieces together at the shoulders and then side seams. I used a french seam for this as any raw edges would be seen through the material.

The sleeves were sewn similarly by doing the under arms first and then inserting them into the armholes.

The ends of the sleeves and bottom of the top were finished with a lace trim that was hand sewn on and the neckline was folded under twice and stitched down.

Lastly I sewed a short seam to join the back together.

To help keep the lace top in place when wearing it with the dress I sewed some transparent snap buttons to a short piece of white webbing tape and made two little loops on either shoulder to pass around the shoulder straps of the dress.

I also attached some hooks to the inside of the skirt waistband and hand sewed little loops to the dress so that I could keep the skirt in place.

The last step was to chain stitch some bra cups to the inside of the dress.

The last step was to put it on to get married!

I really loved wearing something that I had created for such a special occasion. It fitted me perfectly and I felt so comfortable wearing it because it reflected my style.

Another bonus was to be able to remove the train for the reception as it got reasonably wet and heavy during the rainy photo-shoot and would have been impossible to dance in.

Looking back I am really glad that I chose to design and make my dress. I definitely had my struggles and doubts during the process particularly with the tight time frame, but I believe that I never would have found something that was so perfect for me in a store.

In total my dress cost under $250NZD ($163USD) including the extra small sewing supplies and took me approximately five days of actual sewing from start to finish.

A few last thoughts for if you are considering making your own wedding dress:

• be realistic about your skills and limitations (don't try and learn a lot of new sewing techniques on this project/simple sewing done well will look far better than something more complicated done poorly)
• cheap fabric can look just as amazing as something more expensive
• have a back up to limit the stress factor
• prioritize the fit
• take your time when planning and ask people close to you what they think of your design (and try on dresses)
• plan to finish it at least a month before
• back yourself, go for it, and don't forget to enjoy the process! :)