Beautiful satin wedding gown!

I've been quite shamefully lapse in blogging about my creations for a little while now but I have been rather busy of late! One of my main projects that was occupying a lot of my attention up until a month ago was a wedding gown commission that came with matching cravats, flower-girl's dress and tiara. It was lovely making something so special and it's been quite hard keeping it all under wraps but she got married yesterday so I can finally share some pics of my work with you! As it's likely to be quite picture heavy I'll put the gown itself in this post and then all the other bits in one to follow tomorrow.

The gown: an a-line dress with a structured, boned bodice and chapel train in a beautiful red duchess satin, covered in over 2000 beads and Swarovski crystals (all individually applied) with tiny covered buttons running down the back. While the front was beautiful it was the back where the real 'Wow' was, with over 1500 of the beads/crystals on the train itself and a diamond cut-out detail from the nape of her neck to the waist.

From the front:

Detail of the skirt beading:

More skirt beading:

The back cut-out and chiffon section (unfortunately the dress was slightly to small for my mannequin to I had to photograph this part on the hanger): 

The train:

The bride was absolutely thrilled with it, which is the most important thing, hopefully everyone else on the day loved it too!

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!)   
 

Prom dress season...the first one done

I know I've not blogged for a while, but April's been a bit of a strange month. I've been mad busy, with lots of things on the go at once, but I've not actually got to the end of any projects and had a finished object to show off (and the one I have, I haven't photographed yet).

But today that changed as I finished the first of two prom dresses that I've been working on. This one is made in red cotton jersey, which is a fabric which gives a lovely drape and fit to a dress (jersey seems to be a trend in prom / evening style dresses this year):

The asymmetrical strap is positioned so as to serve the purpose of holding the dress up properly as well as looking good. The 4 flowers each have 3 Swarovski crsytal beads in the centre, and are all detachable so that they can be repositioned to suit the wearer's fancy on the day.

This has been a lovely dress to work on, and it was really satisfying this afternoon to sit down to make the flowers and be able to take the final pictures!

Another step further on...(with some delays)

Ok, so the application of the crystals didn't go so smoothly yesterday. For some reason, despite my test section working perfectly, about 40% dropped off when I moved the pieces of fabric after the cooling period. Further attempts to iron those that didn't fix first time on again didn't work either, so I collected up all those that had fallen off and put them carefully in a pot and then sewed the pieces of fabric in to the dress. I then collected up the other 20% that fell off during the sewing process and put them in the same pot.

They're not still in that pot though, I don't give up that easily. Once I'd done all the sewing that I could on the dress (it needs hemming and some internal tidying yet but I need the customer in her shoes before I can do that) I sat down with a pair of tweezers and my trusty fabric glue. 1500 little spots of glue and several hours later, the score is Sonia 1 - Crystals 0.

It does look quite spectacular, but I have to confess to being quite glad (at this moment in time at least) that the next commission on my list doesn't involve any crystals!

And the back...

If I had to say why the crystals didn't all fix my first suggestion would be the coating of the satin, although that doesn't fully explain why the test worked, or why some are firmly stuck down. I don't think it's an issue with the iron, as I haven't had any problems with ironing interfacing with it (famous last words!). Maybe just one of those things that are sent to try us...

[p.s. thanks are due to my boyfriend for putting up with the cursing, muttering and general stress grumps last night, and for making tea/fetching drinks - he had the misfortune to arrive home from work just as the second lot of crystals fell off the fabric!]

The difference small things make

I spent a large part of yesterday arranging two sizes of Swarovski crystal on to some satin dupion for a dress commission, and it struck me while doing so how the smaller crystals actually seemed to make more of a difference than the larger ones, so I thought I'd share this thought with you.

First I scattered the larger (5mm) crystals liberally over the area being covered - in this case a downward pointing triangle on the back of the dress, with the point finishing just above the hips.

So far, OK, but even with more of the 5mm crystals added it was still missing something. Then I added the smaller (3mm) crystals and voila, suddenly it came to life!

Oh, and it wasn't just that one piece that took so long - there's also a large quantity of crystals arranged over the bust as well, and carefully graduated in density for added effect. All in all, going on for 2000 crystals!!

Now to iron them all in place...