Hannah's dress

A few months ago, I posted a teaser pic of Hannah's dress on the facebook group. As with most pictures taken by me (instead of my incredibly skilled partner) it was a mostly blurry and grossly unflattering i-phone snapshot. But still everyone wanted to know more! Here's the story.

When Hannah, a talented musician, and her mum walked into my shop and told me the concept, I was spellbound.  Every now and then something so different and romantic walks into a person's life that it is impossible to let go of and as cheezy and cloying as it sounds, that is really how I felt about it.

Simply put, what Hannah wanted was for her wedding dress to be made from her grandmother's tablecloth. This was an idea that she had had since she was 13! Once the romance of the concept had worn off, I was left with the reality of creating an empire-line draped dress out of half the amount of fabric I would usually need, and a treasured heirloom piece at that. No room for error. But part of what I love so much about this dress is the challenge.

The real challenge came in that due to the heavy embroidery and scalloped edges, the dress needed to have as few seams as possible. In the end, the skirt had no seams whatsoever. It is it's drape that creates the shape. Cutting the skirt, which had to be cut before any of the other pieces was truly one of the most terrifying things that I have ever done. It actually took me over a week to build up the courage to take up the scissors. In the end, the cutting was so carefully worked out that there were only two pieces of fabric left over and they were so tiny that it would barely be possible to cut handkerchiefs out of them!

The dress was lined in Egyptian Cotton and Rayon voile which peeks out the back and creates the train creating a cleanness and simple texture contrast which the dress needed.

The end result remains one of my top 5 and most importantly is very very Hannah.