Dress Developments X: Muslin Tuesday, March 9, 2010

So this evening I had my dress mockup with my wonderful seamstress. She's great and I already love working with her.

For tonight, I brought all my "bridal accoutrèments:" shoes, waist-cincher and bra. I wore my hair down, since that's how I plan to wear it for the wedding.

For the uninitiated, the custom dress process begins with extensive measurements, followed by a mock-up of the dress in a cheap fabric (like muslin). The muslin is fitted & adjusted, and then it's taken apart and used as a pattern for the "real" dress.

So in my previous dress post, I was torn between three sketches. Here's the one we picked:

The A-line/trumpet shaped dress with a wrap-style top, beaded trim at the neckline and in the back, and a beaded train.

Unfortunately, the design will have one major change; instead of cool beading at the bottom of the dress like I'd envisioned, we will have it showcased on the back center panel of the dress. I'm not sure why we made this change. I think it would have been too hard to have the beading on just the bottom, since the lace would have to be taken apart and applied by hand. Too expensive!

Anyway, here's the muslin:

Hmm.

There are a few things that will be different from the dress as shown:
- The bodice will have the wrap-style fabric attached to it. This is like, an "underbodice."
- The straps on top will be thinner more of a "sweetheart shape" in front.
- The V-neck will be an inch lower.
- The waistband will be wider, and beaded.
- The dress is supposed to flare out towards the bottom with the slip and petticoats under it, etc.
- The part of the back that is colored (see picture #3) will be beaded lace. 

Is this really my dress? I am not all that thrilled about it. It just looks like a big sack! A big, exceptionally-fitting-on-top sack! A sack of two colors!

I think it's interesting to see how I look in a long white dress. Also, I have heels on in this picture. I'm short waisted, so when I elongate my legs with heels and wear a natural waist, the dress looks empire-waisted! It just shows you how misleading it is to see these dresses on models and mannequins, when all of us are so different.

I guess it is starting to look like my drawing. However, I really want to change the back. I'm not sure how, but I think I'd like more drama & creativity than a big panel of beaded lace, however easy it might be to make. And I think the rounded train shape looks hopelessly dated. Back to the drawing board, sort of.