All posts filed under: Admire

A wedding dress of 1911

Tara wrote me last week with a fascinating query.  She’s trying to recreate her great-grandmother’s wedding dress, but all she has is a tantalizingly brief  description: the bride looked charming in a gown of silk marquisette trimmed with Oriental lace and Irish crochet buttons over cream satin with lace coat to match.  She wore the bridal veil and orange blossoms and carried pink carnations. As Tara says, not a lot to go on.  She want to know what the dress might have looked like, patterns that could use as a guide to making it, and what silk marquisette and Oriental lace (or their modern equivalent) are.  I thought this would make fun series of posts, so over the next week I’ll try to answer, with lots of pretty pictures! For starters, let’s do what all brides do when they plan their wedding: look at inspiration images in wedding magazines! There weren’t any proper wedding magazines in 1911, but the Women’s Own Magazine did do ‘A Page for Brides.’  I’ve already blogged about the bridal headpieces …

Bridal headpieces of 1911

I’m currently working on a wedding dress, so I’m a little wedding mad this week (not that this is particularly unusual for me!). To inspire you, and me, here are some gorgeous images of bridal headdresses from 1912. The veils themselves might not have aged that well, but the models sure are timeless beauties. Sigh.  Aren’t they gorgeous.  The models.  Still not sure about the headdresses.

Finished project: Ninon’s dress!

I teased Chiara at the Grandeur & Frivolity talk that I should never let her wear my dresses as every time she puts on one, I love the way it looks on her so much that I never feel I look right in it again! She looked especially amazing in Ninon’s 1660s dress at the Grandeur & Frivolity talk.  So amazing I almost don’t want to add any more trimming to the dress.  Or that might just be the minimalist in me talking 😉 The trim is on hold anyway while I find the perfect ribbon or lace. I’m so in love with this dress.  It’s everything I hoped it would be, and then some.  The colour is perfect, the fabric sublime.  The skirt pleats, the smooth bodice, the sleeves, the laced bodice.  It all worked perfectly. The fichu/wrap thing is just pinned on with a fabulous brooch courtesy of Madame O.  I’m working on a way to attach it which is both practical and historical. We took a few photos of Chiara and I …