Making my sisters wedding dress

As I have said many times before, making wedding dresses is one of my favourite things to do as it combines all my loves!!

I am incredibly lucky to have 6 sister inlaws! Yes 6! My husband has 4 sisters and then I have my brothers wife and my other brothers partner. BUT I only have 1 sister! So when my sister Marney got engaged and asked if I would make her dress it was a once in a lifetime experience.

Marney and her now husband got married less than 3 months after they got engaged so I had my work cut out for me! My sister lives in Sydney and I am in Canberra so to start the process of making her dress we made a Pinterest board. The Pinterest boards meant that we could both add things during our days that we liked about wedding dresses for her. We also started a board with hair, makeup and floral ideas just so we could get a clear picture of the direction of the wedding which I found worked really well. ​

When Marney was able to come to Canberra we tried on a few dresses that I thought might work for her body shape. This dress above was the dress I made for my Mum for my own wedding. From our Pinterest boards we kept finding dresses with interesting sleeves. So I thought this sleeve I did for my Mum's dress might work well. From this fitting we thought that a shorter sleeve might be more flattering. We loved how Marney's bust looked and thought I would do something similar for her wedding dress.

We tested a long, floaty sleeve but it just wasn't right. 

I found this beautiful cotton poly blend with a subtle stitching in a bright white. Marney has an amazing tan so the white looked perfect on her.

I then started to think about sleeves that I have done before that are shorter and more like a cap sleeve. I thought about the Larval dress from my Until We Arrive collection from way back in 2013 (pictured above) and thought this would look great on Marney.

From there I tried the dress on Marney again and she loved it. We decided to make the sleeves a little shorter and something needed to change with the hem. I then had a play with perhaps some sheer fabric over the top of the dress to make it a little more 'weddingy' when Marney tried it on she thought the dress really didn't need the extra layer and I am so happy she decided that as I think the final dress was perfect for her and I am so proud of what we created!

Our first fitting in the new studio! I needed to make some adjustments so that bra straps weren't visible and we pinned how Marney wanted the hem of the dress to sit.

I loved doing this fitting with Marn, she looks so happy and she had found her wedding shoes by this stage so it was fantastic to be able to test the dress with them. She got married at the beach in Sydney so we also had that in mind when working out the length of the dress. We decided on the dress being a little shorter so it was more casual and coasty. 

This was our last fitting, trying on the dress with all the underwear that was being worn on the day and I did the finishing touches on the seams of the dress. 

A close up of the beautiful texture in the fabric. I did French seams on Marney's dress so the inside was just as beautiful for her.

Some stunning photos by Amy Dobos of All The Love Letters. I am so proud of this dress and loved creating it with my sister. Marn was the most relaxed, gorgeous bride with the biggest smile on her face all day. It was so special to be a part of it.