Reddit reviews Bridal Couture: Fine Sewing Techniques for Wedding Gowns and Evening Wear

I have dreamed about making my own wedding dress for a long time and the day finally came! I had so much fun in the process and learned a lot of new techniques.

Pattern - McCall's M7050Drop-Waist Dress

Around the point where it transitions into the secondary fabric, I altered the pattern to flow into an A-line shape continuously. I also merged the two front panels.

Petticoat - Petticoat Tutorial from This Blog is Not for You


Fabric

Fashion fabric - silk crêpe de chine

Interlining - cotton batiste (2 layers on the bust)

Lining - silk crêpe at the bust, poly blend at the skirt

Petticoat - about 70 yds of tulle

Leaves - silk organza

Lace - lace patches from Couture Lace + beaded trim from Lace Fun (for veil)

Veil - Illusion net tulle

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Resources

I had made several dresses before but never anything "fancy" and I didn't have a great grasp of skills like fitting, finishing details, etc. I thought Susan Khalje's Couture Dress course was amazing! I seriously watched it over and over before and as I worked on the dress to learn all the parts that go into the process. I also bought her Bridal Couture book, which I thought was helpful as well.

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Process

This dress took me about a year and a half, although there were definitely a lot of other projects going on at the time. I finished with two months to spare! I spent about 150 hours on the dress and another 150 embroidering all of the leaves. I'm not really sure the leaves add much and they look kind of messy, but I decided to leave them in.

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Thanks to everyone who has left such kind words and given me confidence about wearing my dress in front of friends, family, and strangers on my wedding day! And thank you for the gold and silver!

Gown sewing has a lot of internal stuff going on that is really important to the finished project, like how the weight of this will be carried at the waist, so you have incorporate a waist stay along with the boning. Plus the various technigues needed for various laces. I recommend you get yourself a copy of Bridal Couture by Susan Khajle. The styles are extremely dated but the info is great. It's how I learned to sew gowns. It was a great experience and with 18 months you should have time.

Secondly, if you have an independent fabric store in your area (not just quilting) they often have people on staff who are very experienced and can teach you loads of what you need. Many even over classes (Joann's sometimes has these people so you can ask there too). Makerspaces are also good for that and often offer "come and work" times, even if you aren't a member. I know a woman who did an entire replica of this gown at the local maker space because it was the only place big enough. :)

I ordered Bridal Couture: Fine Sewing Techniques for Wedding Gowns and Evening Wear, Bridal Gowns: How to Make the Weddings Dress of Your Dreams, and Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book. The two wedding ones have been the most useful but they're very similar and tend to run together in my head. One goes really into muslins and the other doesn't care about muslins and is all about tissue fitting which is so weird to me. I'm sticking with the muslins. I think Couture does muslins and Gowns does tissue fitting. If I had to pick just one I'd go with Couture.

This book by Susan Khalje has been recommended in the past. Maybe you could borrow it from the library.

I'm not sure which view is B, and I've never sewn anything like that, so I don't have much to say. I know that people keep the sewing room extra clean with paper or sheets, wash their hands every hour, and sometimes use a special marker that can be seen only under ultraviolet light.

If you are cutting slippery fabric like satin, I recommend buying a pair of Gingher microserrated shears. They grip the fabric.