Thursday, June 14, 2012

Train Roots: 2 to 1

Corey passed my studio on a Saturday in November of 2010.  She excitedly came in with her fiancés to find out more about what Twice Blushed had to offer.  Her eyes started to light up with excitement, as she told me about her mother’s wedding dress from 1968. Typical 60’s style dress but contained beautiful lace, unfortunately like most dresses passed on from mother to daughter, the dress would not fit Corey.  As I was telling Corey about possible directions we could go with her mother’s dress she confessed that she made the mistake of shopping to quickly and purchased a dress at a sample sale while visiting friends back home in Cali.  She realized to late it’s not really what she wanted, since all sales were final, she was stuck with it.  Ladies, let this be a reminder, don’t drink and shop!  If the bridal boutique offers you champagne only drink one glass or you are likely to make a bad choice, forget to ask pertinent Q’s, and often over spend.  Lucky for Corey, she found me.
Corey and I met a few weeks later for her consult appointment, both dresses in tow and prepared with photos of design details she determined liking after her quick dress splurge.  (Thank you Corey for being wonderfully prepared!)  She wasn’t kidding, the lace on her mother’s dress was stunning!  I had never seen lace like this. It looked like hand crocheted flowers blended with hand embroidery on silk organza, lots of creative potential to work with.  Then we looked at the dress Corey had already purchased, plain, typical strapless mermaid with a train.  The only intriguing thing about this dress, also the reason Corey was interested in it, was the unusual color sort of a lavender undertone to a deep ivory almost champagne.

Before of Mothers dress left, sample gown right.
We began to widdle through photos setting aside the ones that were consistent in design and theme leading us to the lace pattern we created.  To my surprise Corey asked if it was possible to dye to the lace.  (In my mind I was excited about the possibility of dying fabric; however the risk factor is always there especially when you’re dealing with unknown fabric that can’t be replaced.)  Expressing the caution I explained that we could but we would have to sacrifice some lace for color testing, and once I cut apart your mothers dress there is no going back.  Without hesitation Corey said let’s try it! We talked lace color options and finished walking through the design changes. In all the combined reconstruction consisted of: remove gathered bust line pattern to a smooth standard bust, side seams and bum shaping alterations,  deconstruct mother’s dress, test lace pieces, actual dyeing of lace, cut apart and create the appliqué lay-out then sew on, and finish with a bustle. 

A week later, as requested, Corey dropped of paint chips as a guide for dye test. The colors ranging from milky tea to latte…fitting for a Seattleite.

swatches of dye test samples
Meanwhile, I started talking to a friend of mine Kelly, who does the costume crafts Seattle Repertory theatre, about some dye techniques we could try on the fabric.  The good old way of throwing fabric into a pot of color wouldn’t work.   The lace would come out a different color from the organza.  Not good. The organza needed to stay the sheer color it was, so it would not show in the areas that stayed in tack.  Kelly tried variations of fully tea dipped which had minor changes to the organza to painting the lace by hand.   After seeing the swatches Corey was set on the coloring of the hand painted technique.
Lace appliques cut away from organaza

While Kelly painted, I began the dress modifications, allowing me to focus on the lace as soon as it was finished.  Seven hours spent just cutting the organza away from the embroidered lace.  Next is pining the lace on in different configurations to the dress to determine the most attractive pattern that flatters the curves of the gown.  To give you a sense of how much work goes into a custom gown, from testing the lace dye colors, cutting out the lace, to finished sewn on appliqués, the lace portion of the dress took 34 hours.  It was lovely and so personalized. 
Reworking the bust and creating lay-out of lace appliques.

As the big day crept closer, the stress of planning an out of state wedding paired with final exams caused Corey to shed a few pounds.  That perfect fitting garment had to undergo some quick alterations.  Sadly, all of that beautiful lace work transferred flawlessly a month earlier would have to be somehow adjusted with a center back alteration.   Unfortunately, given the short time frame, the only way to make this dress fit was taking it in through the back.  Regardless Corey, made it through finals, looked lovely, and even though her dress started out as mistake purchase it was beautifully sentimental and truly one of a kind. 

Happy 1st anniversary you June birds!


Happy 1st anniversary you June birds!