We got the photos from our amazing wedding photographer, Amy Kiel, so I can finally share my wedding dress with you guys! The first few photos I took in my studio on my dress form, but the rest are by Amy. There are posts about the planning and fitting (here and here) of this dress, if you want to read about that, but this post is mostly just pictures, and some details about the construction, of the dress.

The Details-

Pattern- Victory Patterns Ava

Main Fabric- Silk Shantung from Pacific Fabrics

Upper Dress Fabric- White Crafter’s Lace form Joann Fabrics

Underlining Fabric- Silk Organza from Pacific Fabrics

Started- 4/19/14

Completed- 8/31/14

Practice dress- 28 hrs.

Final Dress- 47 hrs.

Total time- 75 hrs.

I’ll start by saying that making my own wedding dress was such a great experience for me and has to be my greatest sewing achievement so far. I learned so much. This dress was totally the style of wedding dress I wanted, and luckily it also happened to be within my skill level as well, so it worked out.

There was a lot of hand sewing involved that was time-consuming, but it was worth it for what it added to the final construction of the dress. I underlined the silk shantung with silk organza by hand basting them together, which helped the opacity of the dress and also added a heft and crispness to it. I then took each underlined piece and surged the edges I could and used fray check on the rest. Between the underlining and the fray check, the silk wasn’t too bad to sew at all!

I’m really proud of the way I finished the hem and the front and back necklines. I hand sewed the bias binding to the lining and also the hem to the underlining, so the thread would not show on the front. I’m also especially proud of my invisible zipper. I think it’s the best one I have ever done!

I enjoyed seeing all three versions of this dress (the muslin, wearable muslin and final dress) hanging together.

Now on to Amy’s photos of me actually wearing my wedding dress on my wedding day!

Flower who was my maid of honor extraordinaire, and was a huge part of part of planning our wedding, (as you will read in future posts about the party favors, decorations and desserts), had the foresight to thrift lovely fur stoles for me and the rest of the bridesmaids. She also made all of our amazing headpieces, but more on that later as well. I think the furs totally made the styling of the whole bridal party and they kept us toasty and warm all day, as it was chilly and rainy most of the day.

I won’t lie, this dress had some fit issues, but I am not going to point them out to you this time. Once again, this dress is “happily imperfect” (just like life), but I had a blast at my wedding, felt beautiful all day and danced the night away, which is exactly what I wanted to do. That’s all that matters, right?