Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Anniversary: what I was making last year


Okay, so our anniversary was May 17th, I'm a little late. But I thought it would be fun to post my wedding dress pictures here. I spent an insane amount of time on this in the winter of 2007/2008. I actually made 2 other dresses before this one (I hated how those came out and they don't even exist anymore.)
The fabric is white linen and the neckline and belt I wove. The dress pattern is Butterick 4827, but I altered it a lot for a different neckline and added very large gores on both sides to make the skirt extremely full.


The belt and neck trim I wove on a 4-shaft floor loom in a pattern called "Murphy's Diaper Weave" (not a cool name)--it's supposed to look like an 8-petaled flower. The warp is white cottolin with green perle-cotton edges. The weft is grey perle-cotton. I think I wove at least 5 yards of the stuff over Christmas break. I had pictures of it on the loom, but I can't find them!


Inspiration:

This was my original inspiration for the dress. The poor picture quality is because it's a picture taken of a photocopy. I found it in a book from the library, Martha Stewart Weddings, that had a lot of cool old dresses in it. This one was from around 1920, when it was in style to mimick medieval type stuff.

This is where I got the idea for the pattern and adding the gores for fullness (Susan's dress from Lion, Witch, Wardrobe.) I think the princess seams are much more flattering than a full/gathered bodice like in the 1920's dress.

This photo is a small section of a Holbein painting. I came across it just before I started making the dress. I just love the detailed pattern on the bands.

I also embroidered my initials on an old handkerchief to put around my bouquet. It belonged to my great-grandmother, and she did the tatting around the outside.

So now I have a dilemma. I have this awesome dress that I spent a billion hours making, that fits me perfectly--and it's white. I really want to dye it so that it won't look like a wedding dress and I could wear it again. But I'm really afraid of wrecking it. Any ideas?

4 comments:

craftivore said...

What a lovely dress, and your weaving is stunning. It was nice to see the pictures that inspired you. I would be hesitant to over dye it.

Gracie G. said...

Christy! That dress is gorgeous! I'm sure I would be very attached to something I worked so hard on for such a special occasion.

It's lovely. :)

Anonymous said...

My random anonymous reaction is don't touch that beautiful thing, it's perfect!

I am AMAZED by the research and history that went into the dress!

WOW! you go girl! I don't know you but I love to check back sometimes and see what you are creating! Really, I don't know where I have seen such attention to detail and thought and meaning put into much of anything these days.

thanks for showing the pictures and ideas that went into your creation--it is truly fascinating and inspiring

Christy said...

Thanks for the compliments, it makes a girl feel good!