Making my wedding dress: the final dress (part one - the detachable skirt)

Welcome back to my wedding dress series, where I walk you through every step of making my own wedding dress, so that you can recreate it. In the last post, we discussed making the test dress and the struggles I had with it, all with the goal of smooth sailing once I made the final dress. The time has finally come and we’re putting all of our knowledge together to make the final dress!

Materials

You can find a full materials list for this project here.

Take your time

We’ve made it this far together, and the last thing we want is to make a hasty mistake because we were too excited or careless. Take your time when cutting and pinning your silk, because it is extremely sensitive. Always press your seams, back stitch when you start sewing, and snip the ends of your thread. This dress is a literally a labor of love, and the time and attention you spend here will really pay off in the end.

Preparing your fabric

Steam your fabric and cut all of your pattern pieces out of the silk charmeuse and silk chiffon, except the bodice lining, the detachable skirt, and the puff sleeves. Also cut your bodice pieces out of fusible interfacing. Using an iron and a press cloth, attach the silk charmeuse bodice pieces to the fusible interfacing.

Using a basting stitch (for me, it was stitch length “4” on my sewing machine), secure the chiffon and charmeuse pieces together. This will make it easier to attach the pieces together when assembling the dress. Keep in mind that the chiffon will stretch a bit, so be wary when basting them together. If you have the time, I recommend hand basting.

Ok, here we go! Time to make the dress

First, cut out all of your pattern pieces from both the silk charmeuse, and the silk chiffon, except for the bodice lining. Also cut out the foam for your bra cups. I went ahead and made the detachable skirt first, because it was the item that gave me the most fear. I knew that if I ruined the skirt, the entire look would be ruined. Thankfully, I didn’t have any issues!

Sewing the detachable skirt

Using this tutorial, cut and sew the panels of your detachable skirt. You are basically making a giant circle skirt. For the train, I used this guide, and I added 1 foot to the back center of the back panels. Feel free to add a longer train, but keep in mind that you will need to buy more of the silk organza to accomplish this.

To create a finished seam, I used my overlock machine on all of the panel seams. You could also do a zig zag stitch, or even a french seam, which is what I recommend for a clean finish.

Use the same waistband pattern piece we made in the last post . Cut this piece out of the silk organza, and the fusible interfacing. Using a press cloth and a warm iron, attach the interfacing. Then, fold the waistband in half (hotdog style) and press.

On the top of your skirt, and on your waistband piece, using either tailor’s chalk or a heat-erasing pen, mark your back center, front center, and sides. The markings should all be equidistant from each other. Please note that there are not side seams on the skirt, just side panels, so you won’t be able to use the seams as a guide.

Next, we want to gather the top edge of the skirt. Sew a basting stitch on the top edge of the skirt. I did this in four parts to make the skirt easier to gather - both back panels, the sides, and the front. Gather the skirt, matching the front center marking and side seams markings to those on the waist band.

Fold open the waistband and pin the skirt to only one long edge of the waistband, right sides together. Sew together, and press the raw edge towards the center of the waistband. Then, press the remaining long end of the waistband under by 1/2cm.

Fold the waistband back in half, and pin the pressed long edge to the rest of the skirt - it should match up with the seam you just made between the skirt and the waistband. Stitch in the seam between the skirt and the waistband, attaching the folded edge of the waistband to the skirt. This way, your raw edges are hidden inside the waistband.

Finally, we are going to add the horsehair trim to the bottom hem. First, pin the trim to the right side of the bottom of the skirt and sew together. Then, fold the trim under, so that it is now on the wrong side, creating the hem hem of the skirt. Sew the top edge of the trim to the skirt.

In the next part, we will be sewing the bodice, slip skirt, and puff sleeves.