Prior to wedding dress shopping I actually purchased a bunch of fabric online during black friday sales and I realize now how foolish I was ordering fabric before I even knew what kind of dress I was going to try to duplicate, considering that would have helped me determine what kind of fabric I should get and how many yards of it. Online fabric shopping is risky in itself if you don’t order swatches. And did I order swatches for my main silk fabric? No, of course not…
When I first opened the boxes of fabric I purchased from Denver Fabrics and Fabric Wholesale, I felt a degree of disappointment in the color accuracy. My main silk ended up being very warm ivory, not pure white. Then my silver voile ended up light blue. I am not in love with my fabric but I’m going make it work by taking advantage of the sheerness of my main silk georgette, and having the blue/gray beneath it neutralize the warm tones.
Months after my first fabric order and when I decided on my dream dress I ended up ordering some silver gray soft tulle to stitch my beaded appliqués onto. Then when I looked closely at photos of my dream dress did I realize it had a fine floral lace over the entire dress. I decided to change that element and go with the hollow lace as overall texture for the gown and I absolutely love it. Doesn’t it help tie every layer together and really make it bridal? Now the overall appearance should be a very light gray and that is good enough for me.
One thing I quickly began to realize is, sewing your own wedding dress does not necessarily save you money. With the glass beads, silk and fashion fabrics and sewing supplies like thread and boning I have already reached a little over $400 dollars. But it is important to me to have real silk in my dress for comfort, something I could not afford if I tried to purchase a wedding dress in store with my $400-$500 budget. Now the real investment will be the many many hours I am going to dedicate to this project over the next 9 months.
