Once the fabrics were bought it was all systems go to get the dress cut and sewn together. Again the time for this varies depending on the level of complexity of the dress. In Becky's case the dress was constructed in three sections: the skirt, the boned bodice and the bust. The construction of the satin pieces was relatively simple but the lace overlay and cover buttons were time consuming. By the time I was ready for the second fitting I had logged somewhere in the region of 150 hours on Becky's dress, including fittings, shopping and labour.
The second fitting is in the final fabric, as close to finished as I can manage whilst still leaving it available to changes in fit. For the final fitting it is important to have the shoes and underwear you intend to wear on the wedding day. This is because the underwear will change the shape of the dress, and heels alter the hemline. Both of these must be finalised during this fitting.
Becky had very unhelpfully lost weight so at this point, so I had to take the dress in as well as pinning the hem in place. We also decided to add more netting into the lower skirt just to give the dress a little kick out.
As we had added so much black onto the bodice we had already decided against the ribbon at the under bust seam, but we kept the continued line of buttons down the train. And I promise, despite the look on her face in the photo, Becky was very pleased.
The dress then took it's last trip to my dress stand to have the fastenings, hem and final finishings completed, as well adding in the extra layers to the petticoat. And so the dress was ready for it's big day.
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