Bridesmaid dress with a difference

Today I've got a bridesmaid's dress with a difference to show you. This is one of two dresses that I'm making for a wedding in June which are completely different styles from each other, chosen to suit the girls who are wearing them. Both dresses use the same soft Italian lace fabric as the top layer of the dress, which ties them together beautifully.

This dress is in a 50s style, with a fitted waist and flared skirt. The neckline is high at the front but a very deep 'v' on the back which will look stunning as she walks up the aisle after her sister (in fact, her sister has threatened to send her up first so she can see it too, although I'm not sure if she'll go through with that one the day...)

The top fabric is beautiful soft Italian lace in a colour best described as mushroom with gold threads running through it, which has been set over an iridescent chiffon underlay and lining, and the whole combination is beautifully floaty when it's being worn!

 

Handmade retirement gift

Today I've got a really pretty commission to share with you that was a real pleasure to make. Some of you may know that I finished my previous full-time office job in November 2010 (which seems like it was yesterday and ages ago at the same time). This week a longstanding member of the team I led retired, and I was approached to make the jewellery that was to be given as part of her retirement gift. 

The designs chosen are part of my standard range of fine silver wirework, but the amethyst beads we decided on were a stone I didn't have anything made up in so this set of a bracelet, earrings and necklace was made specifically for her:

I know she's already got any number of plans lined up for activities to fill her day, so I hope she enjoys her retirement! (& her gift, of course)

Second prom dress of the year

My second prom dress of the year is also in cotton jersey fabric but that's where the comparison with the red dress in previous posts stops. It's just as gorgeous but completely different.

This dress is floor length, with a deep 'v' neckline front and back, individually applied Swarovski crystal stars on the under-bust band both front and back and a leg-split topped with a crystal star.

Full-length shot:

Showing the front and back together (you can just see the star at the top of the leg split):

The star at the top of the split:

The girl this is made for is really thrilled with it, which is always gratifying, and it does look absolutely stunning on her (I know, I'm slightly biased, but it really does!)   
 

On the person it was made for...

Just a brief post this time! Our local paper, The Press, send a photographer to most of the local school proms so I was thrilled to receive an excited phone call from a customer yesterday to say that not only had her daughter been photographed in the dress I'd made for her but they'd put her right at the front of one of the photos. I knew she was going to look gorgeous in it on the night as she had in all the fittings, but it's lovely to be able to see that other people thought so too!

I don't have a copy of the actual photo as it's (quite rightly) copyrighted to The Press - they make them available for parents to buy as a momento so they're not going to give me a free copy, but it's available to view at the link below:

http://thepress.newsprints.co.uk/view/21031999/050520127219_jpg