Lilac Love Wedding Party Dress - WIP1

I am lucky enough to have a week at the moment so I have been working on my party dress as the weeding is this Saturday!  EEK I am excited!  Pattern cutting took a long while compared to normal as I had to cut the lilac fabric on the grain and then try and line up the heart tulle so that it was straight on the grianline and would match at the side seams.  I only achieved minimal success but I don't think it looks too bad and the all important front panel is pretty perfect.

Pattern matching

Nice straight front lines

Just pinned here but the seams are not exactly matched though they are straight

I think my pattern matching went a bit awol as I forgot I couldn't just line the hearts up as it has the dots in between and I didn't allow enough room for the repeat.  Oh and my dress form is smaller than me, hence the overlap.

After the outer bodice fabric was sewn I started on the lining.  I am using the same lilac for the lining and instead of making boning channels as the pattern stated I used some matching grosgrain ribbon which I actually bought for another little project.  The bodice has plastic bones on each of the seams which will help to keep its shape and hopefully prevent wrinkles in the fabric and make it stay up better.

Lining with bones

Ribbon boning channels

Next I made up the halter straps for the bodice which I have made pretty wide as I prefer the look of wider straps and it will give me more support and less worry of my dress falling down while dancing!

Halter straps, not tied

I am pretty happy with how it is looking so far.  My boyfriend keeps telling me it looks too modest, he thinks the neckline comes up too high but I keep telling him I haven't done the top seam yet.  I am wondering whether to take a bit extra out at the front to make it lower or perhaps make the V a bit deeper?   Any suggestions?

Lilac Love Wedding Party Dress Planning

This September is the wedding of my lovely friend Emma which I am so excited for.  Her very talented mother is making her wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses so I thought it was only right that I make my own dress for the wedding and evening shindig.

I wanted something summery that would work for the church service and stand up to A LOT of dancing in the evening.  She is the first of my uni friends to get married and her wedding is going to be like a huge reunion and knowing how much dancing went on at the hen weekend the reception is set to be rather active!  I had a look through my saved inspiration photos and found myself often coming back to this really cute dress from Modcloth.

Modcloth Walk with Me Dress

Sweet, no?  Then up popped this McCall's M5849 pattern on ebay which I had saved a search for as it was so highly recommended by Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking here, here and here and the similarity hit me right away.  I won the auction for no less than 99p, (!) after being prepared for a fight, and I am using it for the base of my dress.  The Modcloth version has the dotted lace making a sort of illusion neckline (which is hard to see on the form) but I am doing mine a little differently.  I decided to make it as a halter neck dress using the strapless dress pattern and adding straps as strapless dresses don't look very balanced on me as I have a bigger bust.  I really love the colours though so I found some cheap polycotton on ebay in a slightly pinker lilac but I had a bit of a nightmare trying to find some similar white spot tulle.

McCall's 5849 and lilac polycotton

The only ones I could find that looked right were on Etsy and were just too expensive for me.  So I widened my search a little and found this adorable heart print on Cheap Fabrics.   I couldn't resist it, plus it has glitter!  You can't really see the glitter in the picture but it is there and is just sprinkled over the tulle.  The problem with this is that it is quite a stiff tulle, more like netting really and is meant to be used for petticoats or tutus so it won't be the nice drapy tulle of the Modcloth version.  (I might not be using the correct terms but I think you know what sort of thing I mean!)

Heart flock tulle over the lilac

The polycotton is pretty thin though so the net might give it a little strength anyway.  I am not sure about the waistband bow yet, as my tulle is less white so I won't need to break up the white and it may be a little bulky at the waist anyway.  I am planning on making the straps in just the lilac (so it won't be scratchy) and the bodice will be lilac with the heart net sewn to it like an underlining.  The bodice will be fully lined and will have plastic boning to help it stay up and the net piece will be loose over the lilac layer of the skirt.  I am hoping to have the net shorten than the cotton like the original inspiration.  I have even had a bra fitting and got myself a new strapless bra to wear under it and to withstand the dancing!  heehee!  Plus it will help to fit it exactly to my shape and stop any over-spillage.  It will be interesting to see if this pattern would work as a strapless dress on me too but the halter will help if it is a little loose.