Old is New - Butterick 5710

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while (hi mum!) you may be feeling a case of dejavu!

That's right, this little number was made by me just a short five years ago!

2012 saw William and Kate get married and we were treated to some fashion inspiration. At the time I was pregnant with my first born and so I made this dress and got my sister Angeline to model it for me.

Flash to five years later, and I decided to try it on; it fits!

In honour of Pippa Middleton's recent wedding I thought I would share the NEW pics with ME wearing the dress and give a quick recap for those who are interested. You can find the original review here.

DETAILS

The Pattern

A Butterick Pattern #5710 that comes with two skirt variations; full length and knee length.

I cut this dress in a straight size 8 and it is form fitting but not tight.

Fabric

3 metres of the most stunning ivory wool crepe; seriously this fabric is just heaven!

The dress is fully lined and has hand-dyed lace trim along the neck and sleeve hems.

Features

This dress is free of darts and is cut on the bias for a close fitting, flattering silhouette. Wool crepe has just such a lovely weight and when cut on the bias it drapes so beautifully.

The dress is shaped at the waist and has a self-faced cowl for an elegant, romantic neckline.

The subtle train on the full length skirt adds to the dreamy, sophistication of the garment. I styled the dress with a gold leaf crown, which gives off more of a grecian vibe than perhaps an English sophisticate but I think it works either way!

Changes

Instead of closing the dress with an invisible zipper, I used elastic looping trim and 36 wool crepe covered buttons to close. This. Took. Forever. 

I'm glad I took the time to add the buttons as it is such a nice touch and is so visually pleasing.

yes I know, the lining begs to be pulled down on the right #annoying

I also added the lace trim to the edging before attaching the lining, exactly as you would with piping. The pattern has you add it after the lining is attached, which would mean a line of top stitching along the edge. I think it looks a lot cleaner without.

Conclusion

The drafting of this dress is really fantastic and when paired with luscious fabric such as wool crepe, the effect is one of subtle elegance and luxury.

The dress took around 14 hours and a lot of love to make and not once had an outing. Off to my lil' etsy store it goes in the hopes that someone else might be able to get as much joy wearing it as I had making it.

Also a big congratulations to Pippa Middleton on her recent nuptials; she looked the perfect bride :)

The Redemption Wedding Dress

Last year the lovely Leisl from Jorth and Nichola from Handmaker's Factory put on a special night called 'The Dressmaker's Ball'.

The evening was a fabulous get-together for seamstresses alike to wine, dine and make merry while wearing beautiful frocks that they had made themselves.

Of course I used the opportunity to get dramatic ... and make what is basically a wedding dress.

#divaforlife

THE DETAILS

Fabric

The bodice is made up of the most beautiful guipure lace that I purchased from Tessuti Fabric years ago and had saved for something special.

It has such a beautiful pattern that is a little different to the typical 'floral' pattern that a lot of laces feature. But the best part is the selvages! It has two different finishes; a beautiful scallop on one side, and a delicate fringe of lace on the other.

The skirt and the underlining of the bodice is made from a drape-y polyester/wool that I purchased from The Fabric Store which just seemed to match the style and the colour of the lace perfectly.

Racer back tan for life

The Pattern

The bodice is one of my own designs, with a lace back, and an underlined lace bodice front.

The skirt is Vogue 2931 from the waist down and fully lined. I've used the pattern before for the skirt of this dress:

The princess seams of the skirt add a flattering silhouette, while the low lace back and front adds drama and a little bit of sexiness.

Oh hey sports bra tan!

Construction
The seams of the bodice and lace are finished with bias binding. The dress is closed down the centre back with an invisible zipper
I added the long delicate fringe edge of the fabric along the waistline for a soft, dreamy look, which helps create a flow from the bodice to the skirt.

Conclusion
This dress turned out just how I hoped and I love the dreamy, bohemian feel of it.

I got married back in 2011 just after my two year sewing anniversary. At the time my sewing was still pretty green so I purchased a wedding dress and made a dress for dancing in at the reception. Our wedding dance was a salsa routine so there was no dancing in a full length wedding gown!

Though I loved my wedding dress, there was a little part of me that was sad that it wasn't made by me.  It's like a rite of passage for seamstresses and usually the most special dress you get to make. I was still pretty new to sewing then and hadn't yet developed my style, so it was probably a good thing I didn't make my dress!  This dress is in a way my redemption wedding dress, five years later.

A wedding dress of sorts

Robin liked it, so he put a ring on it.

Yes it's true ladies and gents, Miss JuliaBobbin officially became a Mrs. RobinBobbin when she said 'Heck yes' on October 15, 2011.

We got married at the beautiful Werribee Park Mansion in front of our wonderful family and friends ... and a few random passer-bys (bless their curious eyes).

Robin and I first locket eyes and limbs (not in a scandalous way I assure you!) in a Salsa dance class at the Night Cat 3 years ago. Robin was basically Patrick Swayze with an Australian accent and I was 'baby in the corner' ... but right at the start of the movie when she can't dance... Needless to say after a lot of excessive eye-lid fluttering and spins on the dance floor, we fell (triple spun) in love and made our sacred vows.

So as you can imagine, it's common knowledge amongst our friends and family that we dance salsa and so guess what dance they expected us to do for our wedding dance ... salsa (regardless of how totally ACE we are dancing to MC Hammer, it just wasn't wedding appropriate). Ok Salsa it is.
One problem. My wedding dress was big enough to fit a medium size family under and was not in any way Salsa friendly.
Solution: make me a dress for the salsa dance!

This actually ended up being a blessing. I had purchased my wedding dress back in January 2011 when I had really only been sewing for just over a year and was not up to the epic task of sewing my own wedding dress. By the time we had decided to do a salsa dance I had had a bit more experience and wanted to make a separate dress for the dance. This would feel in some way that I'd made a wedding dress of sorts for my wedding day, just without the 'vomit-every-morning' sort of pressure. Just to wedding it up, I made it in white silk dupion, french lace and lace motifs.

The dress was easy to put together, seeing as I imitated my previous design with the Tessuti Awards dress so I'd already had practice.

I made a half circle skirt for twirling comfort and added three flat folds of silk dupion on the hem to give the skirt a bit of detail without overbalancing the lace bodice. I cut these strips on the bias to give extra flexibility.

I used for the bodice beautiful French Chantilly lace that I bought on sale from Clegs a few moons ago. I interlined the front of the bodice with dupion to stop it from being see-through.

The style of this dress with the full loose skirt made for very comfortable dancing. I ended up keeping this dress on for the rest of the reception after our dance. We had an amazing band who played old-school RNB, funk and reggae with some latin grooves, so there was no way I was sitting like a doily all night while people danced away! Even though I do love my wedding dress!

I teamed the dress with a stunning hand-made floral head piece made of silk and feathers from the ridiculously talented Twigs and Honey Seriously, I start hyperventilating every time I go onto their site; their stuff is painfully beautiful!

I hand stitched lace motifs onto the skirt of the dress and blended them into the bodice. This took a million freaking years. I wanted to make sure you couldn't see any of the hand stitching. I did however find this process quite relaxing; the repitition and back-to-basic-ness of it all.

Can you see the stitching? No? Exactly.

I was very happy how this dress turned out and that I got to wear something on the day that I had made. There won't be too many occasions in the future where I will have the chance to wear a white dupion and lace dress again (wedding vow renewals perhaps?!) but I love it just the same.

Our first dance was a traditional slow dance in my actual wedding dress. We danced to the song that my husband wrote, recorded and proposed to me with. It is such an amazing song and I still get goosebumps when I hear it. It has to be one of the most romantic things I have ever experienced.

For our choreographed salsa dance we rocked out to a Michael Jackson Latin remix of 'Rock my world' and once the music started my nerves went away and we had an absolute blast!

Here's a few pictures of me in my actual wedding dress if you're curious ...

Very simple and clean. My salsa dress had all the bling on it! We haven't got our professional shots back yet so these ones are curtesy of my wonderful dad and a few friends on facebook! (God bless facebook).

 Me and my ridiculously handsome husband. Isn't he dreamy?!

Me wearing my dress with my two good friends Teuila and Bryce 

 From left: Cousin Josh, Brothers Daniel and Genaaron and cousin Elizabeth. Did I mention that my family is full of talented musicians?! I was so lucky to have my family play at our wedding ceremony.

Me and the first man I ever loved (and still do) my wonderful dad; Michelangelo (no he is not a ninja turtle).

We had such an amazing night and my dress was a success. But the best part? I got to marry me the love of my life. I know I sound cheesy, but I finally found a man who is my sort of crazy and gives me the warm and fuzzies.