Deb - New South Wales, Australia
Elvish Wedding
The dress is made from the infamous Simplicity 9891 with a lot of
modifications to suit what I wanted the dress to look like. I
created my own sleeves by cutting a huge U-shape. The beading is a
design taken from a Maori pattern called "koiri" which means "to
flourish" - (I am a kiwi by birth, now an aussie by marriage.)
The beading was hand-sewn bead-by-bead onto a metallic ribbon
base, and I used a silver braid for the border. The dress is Winston
Satin, and the sleeves from a light-weight rayon/lycra type fabric
which was hideously expensive!
I cut the fabric to form a short train, so the dress had to be bustled to
prevent it from dragging in the mud (it was a rainy day). The dress was
also lined with standard lining. The top of the sleeves were made from
satin with a silver and white lace over the top, and tiny glass beads sewn
onto the lace by hand.
The headpiece is 6 gauge fencing wire with beading wire and glass beads
all intricately woven and hammered, with a beautiful store-bought crystal
and pewter butterfly wired on the back. The wire and butterfly were
painted with silver craft paint.
The headpiece was modified once because it sat too low on my head, and the
dress had to be altered a couple of times because the fabric got damaged
and I lost weight!
The whole thing took me about 4 months to make late at night and on the
weekends, with a huge period where I just gave up because the beading was
so intricate!
I wore ballet slippers with sewn on ribbon and beading since the wedding
was on the beach.
