Train Roots: Dream dress from Grandma - Part 1

August 2010, a darling young woman with a huge smile wondered in on a Saturday during open hours to begin gathering information about the custom dress process. She was hoping to use her grandmother’s dress from 1951 and had a photo collection of a ruched and pleated dress with various gathered details that she was hoping to transform her grandmother’s into. Despite the classic full skirt and train that made up her grandmother’s dress, I was afraid there would not be enough fabric to indulge all gathers and full skirt she was dreaming off. As I was measuring the fabric yardage in the grandmother’s dress I remembered a vintage dress I had purchased a year ago. Hidden in my armoires’ I revealed the dress that was exactly the same silhouette of her grandmother’s, merely two shades different in color and made from the same satin. Combining the two dresses would give Kelly the dress of her wedding dreams!

Before Reconstruction - stock dress left, Granmothers right

Ecolavish winnings

A few months later in November, Twice Blushed would be participating in the Ecolavaish fashion show.  Throughout the show many items were given away to the audience, one of which was a gift certificate to put towards a custom reconstructed Twice Blushed gown.  Kelly attended the show and was the lucky winner of a Twice Blushed Gift certificate! 

After the New Year I begin creating the mock-up of Kelly’s dress.  As I was working on the pattern I decided it best to make an entire full functioning dress instead of just the cotton mock up to test the pattern.  This way I could nail the execution of the pleats and make sure I had thought through all of the sewing and construction techniques in the proper order.  Kelly was quite surprised when she came for her first fitting and saw the full dress.  She first thought it was the real deal!  While moving through the fitting Kelly mentioned that she was going home to visit her grandmother who was not doing well and may not be able to attend the wedding.   We took a few photos of the full practice mock-up dress which allowed Gran to see what her 1950’s wedding dress would be transformed into for Kelly.   That full mock–up served more than just the purpose of a fitting.

Mock up gown

 In February 2011, Photographer Jason Fukura and I were planning a play day photo shoot.  I invited a few of my photogenic friends and current brides to play dress up.  This is a great practice session for the brides to get dressed up, trial run their hair and determine their best side and smile before the big day.  Kelly joined us and wore her full mock up dress for the photos.  The photos turned out wonderfully and I began constructing her real gown the next week.  (Mock-up made of cotton- silk satin blend and is available for purchase.)

I spent approximately 10 hours on the following; separating the bodice from the skirt of the 2 vintage dresses, taking out the skirt seams and pressing out my stock dress to determining grain lines, assessing stained areas along both hems, determining the best way to lay-out the pattern pieces to have any left-over fabric (just in case), finally cutting out the dress.  After roughly 30 hours of sewing the dress was complete.   The entire ruched and pleated top half of Kelly’s dress was constructed from my stock vintage dress and the skirt of her grandmother’s dress minus the train was kept mostly intact but shifted to hang on the bias and transplanted to the new dress.   Of course the buttons from her grandmother dress were set onto her new dress.  It was a perfect marriage of dresses. 

 

After two fittings of nips, tucks and setting the hemline with the petticoat, Kelly’s dress was embellished with rhinestone broaches and finished. Her dress was a wonderful labor of love for all involved. Best of all her grandmother was able to attend! …Kelly believed that having the mock-up photos to show her Gran was an additional motivator to make the trip, another happy ending.

 

Grandma and Kelly sharing a photo of Gran from her wedding.

Train Roots: Dream Dress from Grandma – part 2 photo

I couln't leave you hanging with out a final photo!

Train Roots: 70’s polyester to country whimsical chic

Who would have thought that a polyester dress from the 70’s would have reusable materials?

Andrea came to me and said “I have no creative ability, here is a
picture of a dress I love, (Simple, strapless, sweetheart bodice with
a full skirt made with layers of different stripped fabrics gathered
and pleated in variations creating a whimsical playful dress) and this
is my mom’s wedding dress.” The next question is always the same; can
you do anything with it? Her mom’s dress was tiny. The bodice had
beaded lace that was glued on so that was a negative. The skirt had a
great deal of lace trim and a double ruffle of chiffon along the hem which had potential.

Fabric combinations started darting about in my head and I pulled out my bins

of fabric scraps and parts. Andrea, her mother and I began to select textured

fabrics, and trims that would blend with her mother’s dress creating the textured

strips that would become Andrea’s skirt. The bodice would definitely be made from new materials.

A design of this nature is a lot of fun as it allows the designer to
be completely creative throughout the construction. It’s the fabric
form of painting. You create a rough outline of the strips details
based on the amounts of fabric, pleats and treatment to the strips and
number of desired strips. You have the freedom to change the lay-out
as you go if you are sparked with a fresh idea. From start to finish
Andrea’s patched skirt took 35 hours, almost a full work week. The
best part of Andrea’s creation is that her dress is the only one. Of
course the design could be replicated but the layers of fabric would
never be exactly the same.

On the flip side, the scary part about designing a dress like this is
that you get one chance and hope that the bride was able to visualize
as you had described and loves the end result when they see it. It’s
not easy to work a dress like this in segments to allow the bride or
client to see it while it’s in process. They often are confused
because they cannot visualize the end result or get worried when they
see their dress in pieces.

When Andrea came to pick up her dress it was a perfect fit. Exactly
what she had imagined, elegant, playful, sentimental and one of a
kind.

Train Roots - Intro

For those of you that know me, follow my work, or have had a dress rebuilt by me you understand the labor of customized love goes into every gown. Throughout the designing and building process of every dress I strive to document the gown in its various stages. The most important part is the “before photo” of the dress. Unfortunately with the accelerated speed of Bridal season, including 12 hour work days at an extremely fast pace in order to accommodate all of my customers’ needs, I forget to stop and photograph. Never mind having time to think about journaling my thoughts from start to finish. Thus I have a huge log of past gowns not yet shared.

In addition to the fast pace of wedding season, the reason I have not shown documentation earlier is that the gowns are for the big day! I cannot reveal info about the most important garment prior to the event! The other part of the delay is waiting to get photos. After the wedding day most Brides need time to relax and adjust as a newlywed. Photographers also have many clients and each wedding day contains hundreds of photographs that must be edited before being released. Photos have slowly trickled in over the last year and I have been able to start completing the stories. I release to you Train Roots, in no particular order or time frame, just as I have them completed. I hope you enjoy this back log off some of my designs. It will continue as long as Twice Blushed is creating custom gowns.

Catch up

Since October Twice Blushed, rather I have taken some much needed time off. In view of the fact that from Twice Blushed’s inception in 2009 through the sudden, untimely move last October I have run at full speed. The past few months have allowed me to pause and refresh so I can plan ahead, without making rushed decisions as I determine the best way to move Twice Blushed forward. I am so grateful to my friends that have offered support and sewing work space through this transition and to Blue Sky Bridal for allowing me to use their location to meet with clients and brides while I slowly look for a new studio work space.

The month of January has been a flurry with wedding shows, (yes, the snow too) and consultations with marvelous new brides! There are a few custom gowns that I am itching to get started on. I have also been planning upcoming events, photo shoots for 2012 and finally putting together documentary notes and photos of the custom gowns that I created for brides over the past two years. The arresting delay in documentary photo release of past work is that I cannot reveal details about the dress before the big day! Did we know what Kate Middleton would be wearing? The second reason is the bride needs to decompress post-wedding stress and enjoy being newlywed. It’s often 4-6 months post wedding before the photos trickle in. I can’t tease you with a before photo, process shots and not show a beautiful end result. Thus, we wait…until now. The documenting will be shared through this blog under the title “Train Roots”, keep your eyes peeled once or twice a month.

Fremont Abbey hosts sustainable wedding fair Jan 14

Dont forget the wedding show for the creative, green, non-traditional bride on January 14. If you have ever peeked at offbeat bride this is for you. Please do your best to RSVP so vendors can plan accordingly for this free event.

sustainablewedding.tumblr.com

January – custom order sale

Place an order for a custom reconstructed bridal gown or custom design and receive a discount of 15% off the total price. (Custom orders start at $800.00.)

Gather your ideas, photos, and family member or friends dress, and schedule your complimentary consultation! www.twiceblushed.com/SalesNews.html

Before snapshot of two 1950’s wedding dresses (left) combined to make the above custom bridal gown(right).