I thought it would be fun to have an update on how I make my bespoke wedding dresses, so here’s a post about a bespoke wedding dress for a dancing bride. This is a post where we follow bride Anna from initial fittings through to the end result. I didn’t plan to write this post when I was making Anna’s dress, but we took a lot of random pictures through the process, so I hope you find this useful.
Anna contacted me specifically for a dress that she could dance in at her wedding in France this year. As a dancer, and naturally already having planned her first dance, she knew that certain details were essential for her in order to move freely in her dress.
These details were freedom to move her arms and legs however she liked! To include some embellishment with feathers and to have a layered skirt that was light and had enough volume to survive high kicks!
Here we go from beginning through to the end.
1st Fitting
Above we see Anna in her first toile fitting. Early fitting toiles are always made in calico fabric or something something similarly cheap, in order to check the fit and details. You will see that the left side of the toile has been fitted while I’ve left the right side with far fewer alterations, so I can see where I’ve come from in terms of initial fit.
Middle Fittings
In the 2nd and 3rd fittings I have attached the skirt layers in a light weight calico and draped the sleeve, which flows into a cape at the back of the dress. The bodice has also been altered to fit.
At this point we decide to cut out the dress in the real fabric. Very exciting for the next fitting! Here it is on the stand minus embellishment, although you can see I’ve started to place some of the feathery lace:
Next Fitting
Anna’s dress is cut and sewn at this stage, and we move onto the embellishment. She chose an embroidered tulle lace embellished with feathers. I appliquéd the feathers onto her dress according to the placement we decided in her fittings.
The wedding dress created for ballet dancing is almost finished! Anna enjoyed twirling in her dress at every opportunity!
The First Dance!
I was so excited when Anna kindly sent me a phone video of her entire first dance! Taken by a wedding guest, here’s just a segment of it for you to see. (Please excuse quality.)
The music is Home by Vanessa Carlton.
Image: Ronan Jegaden
And here are Anna and Nicolas strutting their stuff! Don’t they look amazing?
I hope you found it useful to see how I went about creating a bespoke wedding dress for a ballet dancing bride! If you are interested in having a wedding dress created for your special day, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I am booking up nicely for 2025, so please don’t delay if you want to find out more.
