Here is just one story of a handmade dress for our Handmade Wedding Series. Mosey, who also makes fuzzy and wooly warm things, has made a truly personal and summer dress for her friend Aline.

Making a custom wedding dress can be a great collaboration. I love to involve the bride-to-be. I start with a sketch getting her feedback and going from there.

I also always want to make sure I take her to the fabric store and have her feel some of the possibilities. For someone who doesn’t craft, explaining the weight of raw silk or how layers of tulle will affect the final garment can never do as much justice as letting her get her hand on the raw materials.

That being said, I love keeping a few things secret as a little treats for the bride. In the wedding dress pictured I snuck the ‘something old’ into the design (got them from the brides mother)...

...as well as the ‘something blue’ bit of ribbon in the underslip.

They were all little finishing touches I made just after the last fitting.

For such a delicate garment the fit has to be just right. So the fitting become a very important part of the final dress. You can take measurements and work from those all day, but when the real girl tries on her dress there are always slight adjustments that need to be made. I need to make sure it fits and feels just right.

I especially never want the bride to feel stuffy, but do want her to feel elegant and wrapped in something that was stitched with care, just for her...(and in the case of pin tucking,handstitches, many tiny ones).

It’s very special seeing the final project in motion. Almost like putting on a play, the dress rehearsal is never as magical as the real thing.

And in the end I’m very glad to have played my own small part.

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