As much as I love the design of Shell’s dress, and all I have put into it, the most special touch, and the one that takes it from a gorgeous dress, to a spectacular, absolutely one-of-a-kind gown, isn’t my work. It was my idea though. Madame Ornata is a mutual friend of Shell’s and mine, and was very involved with the wedding.  She’s an incredibly talented seamstress and a truly gifted embroiderer, but was very busy in the run-up to the wedding, and with such a short timeframe it wasn’t practical for her to be part of the dressmaking, and the simple silhouette didn’t suit embroidered embellishments. When native birds became the loose theme for the wedding, I had a brainstorm.  Maybe Madame O would be willing to embroider simple little bird motifs on the buttons up the back of the dress! Now the buttons are very small – 9/16″ – so I really thought that if she could do anything more elaborate than the little double curves that kids draw to represent birds in …

I’m almost done telling you about Shell’s dress; I just need to parse out the last few posts so that I can show you finished wedding photos on the very first day I’m allowed to! That day is the day of Shell’s second wedding.  As an American bride and a Kiwi groom, they are having the official wedding here in NZ first, and then a second reception in the States so that family and friends there can be part of it. As it will be winter, and cold, for the second wedding I made Shell an extra petticoat that can be worn under the dress for another layer of warmth. It was the perfect thing to make out of that stretch cotton that we bought with all the other wedding dress fabric  just because it was so cheap, and the perfect colour. I cut the petticoat as a restrained version of the dress skirt: two less front panels, two less back panels, and narrower panels all round. The petticoat is still very sumptuous: I wanted …

In case it wasn’t obvious from the skirt panels I cut, Shell’s wedding dress has a whole lot of hem. Metres and metres of it in fact, on both the crepe chiffon overskirt and the dotted swiss lining. Even once Shell stood in my living room for an hour while I carefully measured and cut and took off quite a bit of length and width from the skirt and train, there was a lot of hem left to do. I hand hemmed my own wedding dress, but I didn’t have the time or inclination to do that for Shell. My solution?  A rolled hem, using my rolled hem foot. And I was slow, and careful, and it came out perfectly. I stretched the hem just a tiny bit as I sewed it, so that it ruffles ever so slightly The whole thing drapes beautifully, and just hits the ground, so it doesn’t show Shell’s shoes unless she wants it too, and won’t get dirty on the grass.