Tien Chiu

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June 26, 2009 by Tien Chiu

Dress muslin

I woke up this morning feeling much less stressed (amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for you), and immediately dove into the dress muslin.  It took a fair amount of sewing, since I had to put in boning, do a lining, make a casing for elastic in the sleeves, etc.  but I managed to get it done, complete with overskirt, today:

Muslin for wedding-dress
Muslin for wedding-dress

I like it!  It needs significant fitting (it’s waaaaay too big at the waist, for one thing), and I think I will put a little more fullness back into the skirt at the waist, but I like the lines.  It is perhaps a trifle low-cut, but that just means I need to wear some pearls or something similar to balance things out – I have a pearl necklace that my mother gave me, which would probably do nicely.

And, it adds just enough floof to the coat!  Behold:

Coat over the dress
Coat over the dress

The coat actually has slightly less floof than it appears to in the photo (the grass is fluffing it out a bit), but the dress gives it just a bit of extra fullness, which I really like.  And I like the lines of the dress.

So, I think we have a winner!!  Now it’s just a question of getting it fitted correctly, and then making a practice dress so I can master couture techniques.  Probably from heavy silk crepe, I think I have a few yards of it lying around.  Then, about six months before the wedding (so in a couple of months), I’ll do the final fitting and sew the actual dress.

I’m approaching the six-yard mark on the silk.  Because I reduced the fullness of the skirt by about 50% in the course of my draconian pattern alterations, it seems likely that I’ll only need about fifteen yards.  So if I weave twenty yards, I  should be able to cut around the worst flaws, so only you and I will know about my weaving woes!

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, sewing Tagged With: wedding dress

Previous post: Sizing the warp
Next post: Looking for a job

Comments

  1. Sharon says

    June 27, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    It’s a lovely dress. The whole bodice looks a little lower than it should be. When its fitted right, it won’t look quite so low cut. It might actually need a corset, for the right fit. The sleeves are a little long, they should end above your elbows, but thats part of the fitting. It looks good with the coat too. It’s going to look beautiful in your handwoven silk!

  2. Lisa J says

    June 28, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    Gorgeous choices…. It will be stunning.

  3. Jody says

    June 28, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    It’s just amazing! You look wonderful!

  4. Sue Seymour says

    June 30, 2009 at 8:36 am

    Oh, lovely. I agree with all that Sharon says. I just knew those princess lines were best for you (perhaps for the coat, too, eh?).

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