Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dress Sketches






As I mentioned in my previous post, I am making my sister's wedding dress.  My process for designing and making a wedding dress is essentially the same for each client--the bride and I talk a lot about what she wants in a dress, we pass pictures back and forth, she goes and tries on some dresses to solidify her likes and dislikes, and I make a sketch or sketches of possible dresses, she chooses one or elements from many, I revise the sketch if needed, I find a base pattern to work from, make a muslin of her dress, fit it, make changes, fit it again, buy the dress fabirc and trim, cut out the dress using the muslin, construct the gown and petticoats, and do two or three more fittings. 
I made several sketches for my sister's dress.  She had some things she was definite about--she wanted a shorter skirt (tea or ankle length) and some color, but other things were less clear.  Out of the set of seven sketches I did, she picked her favorite and we have happily gone from there.  I've included a few of the sketches above.  In my next post, I'll show you the muslin of her dress.