Ok, for those who haven’t read that far back, I have a wedding dress to make.
Back in October, my brother’s fiance asked me if I would make her dress for their wedding this July. Oh! But of course I would, I’d be honored! (Right? Isn’t it all so exciting?!?)
It wasn’t until the day after did the panic set in. Umm, I haven’t make a dress in about .. a decade?! Never mind a wedding dress!! But I’ll figure it out and make the best damn dress I can. Right? I can do this, and so help me God I’ll make it look professionally handmade. *gulp*
Did I mention that she’s shipping handmade raw silk from Cambodia for it? *whimper*
Now this woman is constantly flying out of town for her job, and is never here to be available for fittings. So I decided to make a double of her to make fittings as I need, when I need. (read “at 2am when I finally get some peace to sew”)
In January, I tried to make one out of paper tape, but I apparently bought the wrong stuff, and it didn’t turn out as accurately as I needed.
You need good old fashioned paper tape which you wet and apply. This stuff is the fancy new paper tape that has some kind of slippery plastic coating. Ugg, look at how it won't stick to itelf.
So we tried again a few weeks ago, this time using a product called Rigid Wrap. This is a fairly fast drying , plaster coated cloth which you cut into strips, wet and smooth onto the surface you need.
Here we are starting on her tummy:
“getting to know you…getting to know all about you…”
She is such a trooper. This process took nearly 3 hours to do.
But we ended up with a pretty great looking copy of her torso. The other HUGE blessing is that she owns a dress that fits her beautifully which she would like me to emulate for the wedding dress.
Here’s the body double donning said (oh my god I’m so relieved this lovely, uncomplicated dress exists) dress:
Hopefully the silk will handle softly, as I’d like to copy this neat gathered detail at the bust:
Even though this is a pretty straight forward A-line dress with a simple princess seaming and foam padding throughout the bust, I am faced with the task of making un-stretchable woven silk fit like this rather stretchy cotton.
I do think I’ll make a slightly slippery fabric cover for this bust, as this dress was a bugger to get on….
