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This post is the third in a series I’m doing on how I created my wedding dress. To see part 1 go to Wedding Dress Part 1: Trying on Dresses, and for part two Wedding Dress Part 2: Concepts, Inspiration and Designing.
Armed with a sketchbook full of hastily scribbled drawings and notes, I gathered my draping materials and set up my dress form. The fun was just about to begin.
There really isn’t one specific part of creating a garment that I like better than another. Each stage is unique and has its own points of enjoyment. The draping process is a very satisfying process for me because I get to manipulate fabric and play around with taking what I’ve put on paper out of my brain, and making it happen on the dress form. Just like a sculptor removes and adds clay to their piece I get to add and take away fabric, create a fold or a pleat in one place and add a gather in another.
I began by draping the foundation pieces of the bodice using a simple princess seam process.
I took these draped pieces and used them as a pattern to create a sample. I cut out and sewed a muslin version of the foundation bodice to establish the correct fit and decide on changes I needed to make. I did some of the fittings on my custom dress form so that I could see the entire thing. I also fit it on myself enlisting the help of family members to pin me in and help adjust any necessary fixes. The great thing about having a custom dress form was that these adjustments were minimal since the dress form was already so close to my own body specifications.
Even though the fitting went fairly smoothly I ended up making around four different sample bodices trying to create the neckline I wanted, adjust the swoop in the back, get the bust to lay smoothly, and create the shoulder straps so that they didn’t pucker.
When I thought I had the bodice to the fit I wanted I draped the skirt. This was a lot quicker process because I only had two pieces to drape and fit, the front and the back.
I created a sample combining the skirt and the bodice which I did my final fitting on before transferring the new fitting adjustments to my pattern and moving on.
I used the sample as my pattern. I jotted down some notes directly onto the sample where I needed to make the final adjustments. Then I took it apart using my seam ripper.
Once the foundation was draped I began working on the actual bodice. This was a long and detailed process. I wanted to have layers of tucks over the whole bodice which I created by gently folding and pinning the fabric down. I was using a crepe chiffon fabric in off-white. The material draped very well and the light character of the fabric made it easy to fold and pin down and manipulate to where and how I wanted.
I worked from the front to the back creating the neckline shape I wanted as I went by extending or shortening where the tucks ended. My plan was to create a textured fabric which I would then stabilize using muslin and then line with a good supportive lining fabric.
The tucks started in the front and wrapped all the way around to the back where the closure would be. Because I was draping the bodice in a single piece (two pieces joined together at the front to create the cross-front look) there were no side seams and the tucks created the contour to the body. This created a sweet form fitted bodice.
Once the bodice was completely draped I had to tack down each tuck in place so that I could remove the pins and take it off of the dress form. I had stitched each row down using a ladder stitch. This process took hours and hours.
I would not suggest using this method. As I discovered later, I ended up having to machine sew most of the rows down anyway because my hand stitching was too loose to hold up to the stress of being a bodice. In hindsight, I could have pinned each row down and machine sewn them from the start. As it was I removed it from the dress form with the hand stitching holding it together and then the machine stitched the rows down for extra strength.
Once I was able to remove the bodice from the dress form I cut off the excess fabric from the front where the two pieces met and stitched one piece onto the other to create the cross front. Before I did this though I wanted to make sure I placed it where I wanted it without cutting off the fabric and messing up my whole project. I did this by folding the excess material behind where I thought I wanted the angle of the cross over to be. I pinned this in place until I had an angle I liked.
Once the bodice was all tacked down I serged the edges to get a clean finish and then sewed on a muslin support piece using the bodice pattern I had earlier finalized.
And that was it, I was ready to move on to the cutting and construction of the rest of the dress. Getting the bodice draped and ready to finish was a huge process that I was relieved to have accomplished and put behind me. Creating custom designed fabric is an exciting process, very detailed, and intense.
What I learned while draping the bodice:
1- Always be sure to have the right amount of fabric length and width before starting. Luckily I had given myself plenty to work with. I could just imagine the stress of getting to the last few tucks and running out of fabric, just to have to start all over again with longer or wider material.
2- Plan out how you are going to drape before starting, but allow yourself to experiment and stray from that plan as you go through the process. It’s through experimenting and trying things that you didn’t expect to try that you learn something new. I did! I had the opportunity to play around and so I did. This lead to creating the entire bodice in a single draped piece of material, not what I had originally intended, but it turned out great!
3- Taking the time to pin everything into place so that you can remove it from the dress form before taking the time to hand stitch everything down is way worth it.
4- Stay relaxed. Manipulating fabric takes a gentle touch and a relaxed attitude. If I was stressed I quickly became frustrated with the whole process. Frustration quickly leads to mistakes and the potential loss of a perfectly good process and project.
5- Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
6- Plan plenty of time to create your piece before needing to move on to other steps in the making. I was pushing hard to get mine put together so that I could get my dress done before the wedding. (I did finish in plenty of time, thanks to motivation to get it done early).
And that was the draping process. It took the longest to accomplish this part because I was particular about the fit and the exactness of how the pattern worked.
Next up: Constructing my wedding dress, and then the final reveal!
If you haven’t read the previous posts in this series go to Wedding Dress Part 1: Trying on Dresses and Wedding Dress Part 2: Concepts, Inspiration, and Designing.