It’s wet and cold here in Tassie in winter and I have been spending a lot of time indoors in my sewing room or by the lovely woodstove eating lots of wholesome hearty home cooked winter foods and doing some long over due sewing projects which I have had on my mind for sometime.
A while back I managed to acquire a very old fashioned 1970’s wedding dress. I brought it with every intention of reusing the copious amounts of lace from it. But like a lot of things it got put in an old suitcase and stored in our shipping container with all the other really good useful things that we don’t seem to use that often.
Then in February a friend was getting married and she didn’t have a wedding dress to wear and I remembered this dress and thought maybe, just maybe I could fix it up and she could get married in it. Well as it turns out; yes she did get married but no; she didn’t wear the dress. Somehow I don’t think she could see past the ruffles and lace and puff sleeves and high neckline to what I have since created.
Revamping a wedding dress takes many hours to complete and surprisingly enough when I first start the process I have no idea in mind where it will go, interestingly enough it just evolves.
First of all I removed all the excess lace off the hem as it had rows and rows of frills and ruffles around it. Then I removed the massive puff sleeves and the high neck line and then I completely undid the bodice from the skirt, took the zip out, mended two small holes in the underskirt and then reshaped the bodice and fitted it with new short sleeves.
And lastly once sewing the bodice and skirt back together and replacing the zip I finished it off with a lovely vintage beaded lacework piece which I spent many hours hand stitching beads back onto with invisisble thread.
The final overall look is very graceful and elegant and the dress looks heavenly on.
This is the transformation. I have used different filters in the photography but the actual wedding dress is ivory in colour.
Thanks for stopping by, I am not sure what my next project will be but no doubt something lovely will turn up.
In the meantime I am making lots of day dresses for a fashion parade on August the 4th here in our local hometown, here are a few I have made so far.
Now I might get comfy and await our kiwi visitors, our home is nice and warm and ready for them.
Seeya next time
X
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Love the story and adore the wedding dress. I have two wedding dresses I’d love to gift to you, if you can remodel them. Mine from 1970, you can view that in my albums on my FB page. The other is my daughters and you can view that at tamika lee Photography – weddings – Kate and CJ. The material in Kate’s dress is silk and made in 2 pieces, bodice and shirt. I’m not sure how I would get them to you, but you might have some good ideas. I have contacted you before… I’m from Mt. Gambier
Hi Lyn that would be lovely as I am always on the lookout for old wedding dresses as I love refashioning them. I will send a message to you privately and we can work out a way to send them. Thank you for the offer it is very much appreciated. Warm regards Sandra
Every time I come here I just love what I see. That remodeled dress is just divine – total wow factor while still having the timeless elegance that a wedding dress ought (in my opinion) to have. You have a gift no doubt! I would really love to see a before photo if you have one…
Hi Naomi thanks for stopping by again and leaving a lovely comment. When we go to Chch it wil be a very fleeting visist as we are only picking up our campervan and heading off doing the touristy thing but thanks for giving me the details of your sister’s blog. I have been trying to find a pic of a dress similar but when I originally got it I wasn’t going to revamp it so I don’t have a photo. When I do I will add to my blog. Sandra