Kent Corley Photo Shoot of Lila Rose’s Custom Wedding Dress
I had an fantastic photo shoot with Kent Corley Photography! Kent Corley is an amazingly talented product photographer right here in Hillsborough, NC. He’s shot all of my dresses for my portfolio! I shoot each dress on its custom dress form after it is completed, but before it is sent off to the bride. Although […]
Using “wiggle bones” in Lila Rose’s stand-up pleated collar
As you may recall from the mockup and sketches, Lila Rose’s dress will have a pleated stand-up collar. Our original inspiration photo had a very deep V neck with the collar folding in a bit, but for Lila Rose’s eighties-inspired wedding dress, we needed the collar to take on pretty much a 90º angle from […]
Neon Pink Wedding Dress Under Construction!
100+ hours into the process, I am finally taking Lila Rose’s actual wedding dress to the sewing machine! Out of the 170 hours projected for this project, I probably spend no more than 10 of them at the sewing machine. The majority of the time is spent designing, patterning, mockups, fittings, shopping, pressing, cutting and […]
Underlining: The Couturier’s Friend
Underlining! If there is one step that takes a garment from homemade to couture, it is underlining. If you sew and don’t know about underlining, once you try it you’ll see that it makes all the difference in the world in your quality. Underlining is often also known as flat lining, interlining, or innerlining. Not […]
Fit Week pt.3 – Mockup Fitting #2
Lila Rose came to my studio one last time before heading back to Boston. This was for our second mockup fitting and she brought along her two best friends!
Fit Week pt. 1 – First Mockup Fitting
As you may remember, Lila Rose is from Boston and I am located in North Carolina. When I have an out-of-town bride, I do my best to work around her schedule and to make the most of visits in order to keep them to a minimum. My dresses ain’t cheap and when you add the […]
Creating a Body Double
Have I mentioned that I love pattern drafting? The first thing that a patternmaker needs to do after taking a full set of measurements is to use them to create a body double. There are two ways to pattern: draping and flat pattern. In draping, you are physically manipulating fabrics in three dimensions on a […]
And the winning design is…
Finally, THIS is the pencil sketch that will become Lila Rose’s custom wedding dress! This design features a removable train, a pencil mini-skirt, a “bustle”, 3/4 skinny sleeves with fancy sleeve heads, a V-neck with a pleated stand-up collar, an invisible zipper front closure, brightly colored fabrics and a few “wild” details. There will still […]
The Design Consultation
A few months ago, Lila Rose flew in from Boston for her Design Consultation. I picked her up from the airport early in the morning and we got straight to work! The Design Consultation is the meeting where we share all of our favorite design ideas, and then edit them down into what works best […]