Two years after sewing my wedding dress from scratch, and a year after sewing another dress for anniversary pictures, I wanted to create a floral dress in the same theme. I wanted to sew a short version of my wedding dress since my wedding day, but with other life goals, it was pushed off to the side. Pushing off the project for two years though worked out great where we had our pictures taken at our new home.
Design of a Floral Dress
When drawing out my design ideas, I had two patterns in mind. One was essentially a lace dress with a lace yoke that had cap sleeves. The other had cap sleeves, but more with t-shirt design. I chose the first design. My intent was to take second anniversary pictures with this dress. Being married on June 8, I was always captivated by Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her wedding dress. I wanted a similar design with the bodice piece. On her dress, it appears to be off-the-shoulder, but it really has a yoke piece that has minimal amount of sleeves on that bodice piece, but it has cape sleeves.
Pattern Butterick 6415
For the bodice, I used the pattern B6415 from Butterick. There are no cap sleeves for this pattern, so I took the ¾ quarter sleeve and cut it short, adjusting it as I sewed and fitted the dress.
Trace the patterns pieces from the original by laying a tracing paper onto top of the pattern and trace with a pencil. Do this for bodice front, bodice side, front yoke, bodice back, and yoke back.
The lace I use is the same from my wedding dress and from my first anniversary dress. It is a Telio white floral lace fabric with a nice edging.
Pin the pattern of all pieces to the lace, whether centered on a fold or doubled. Make sure to place the pattern pieces all following the same grain. The aesthetic of the dress would not be the best with some pieces having the floral up and down while other pieces have it horizontal. Use fabric scissors to cut along the edge of the pattern piece.
Fabric scissors are essentially quality scissors that are hid in the house away from anybody else using them and ruining.
Using the same traced pattern pieces, cut out the white cotton underlay fabric, along with the lining, according to the pattern’s instructions. Make sure to cut two or to cut on folds. Following grainlines are not as important with plain cotton. There’s no print or design to make sure is going all in the same direction.
Cut fabric. Iron all the pieces. Cotton takes a high heat to rid of the wrinkles and unnecessary folds. Do not skip the ironing step!
Sewing The Lace Bodice
Unpin and unfold bodice pieces of cut fabric. Place the lace piece, with the right side facing upwards, on top of the cotton piece, with the right side facing upwards. Line it up and then pin along the edge to keep it secured while sewing.
To sew, remove a pin from the corner. Begin to sew 5/8” stitch, removing pins before needle sews, all along the outside edge of each bodice piece.
The end result should be nice and flat with no wrinkles or folds.
Place the right sides, the sides with the lace, together of the bodice pieces, starting with the center bodice and side bodice. The wrong side of the top piece faces towards the seamstress. Use a 5/8” stich. Repeat with the other side of the center bodice.
Add the front yoke. For fitting, instead of stitching the lace straps, use a safety pin to hold in place. It will also prevent from having to seam rip lace, which is very hard to seam rip.
Stitch the bodice back with the yoke back. Add the front yoke. Combine the back bodice to the bodice sides.
Repeat with the lining pieces, and attach the lining to the bodice.
Add the sleeve to the bodice. Adjust the length as needed to desired length, even cutting multiple times until it is right.
Prepare the lace edging. I like to have it cut off even before cutting out the pieces for the bodice. With the right sides together, sew the trimming together. Then beginning in the center of the bottom edge of the sleeve and the center of the lace trimming, begin to sew the two together. It is good to have it centered because it will give a symmetrical look to both sides. If you need to cut off some of the lace edging, that’s fine. Just cut it to the right size, resew the trimming edges together, then finish attaching to the sleeve.
Try on the bodice to make sure it fits, making adjustments as needed.
Sewing the Floral Skirt
For cutting the skirt, I need a cutting board, overlay fabric, main fabric, sewing pins on a magnetic holder, and sewing scissors.
My overlay fabric is a white chiffon, which provides an elegant finish while also allowing us to see through it to the main fabric. The main fabric underneath will be a white cotton with a cobalt and royal blue floral print. This combination is the exact same as what my wedding dress was, except this one will be a shorter floral dress.
I originally make the length of my skirt to be 27 inches, but don’t follow my example here. I ended up making it much shorter by like 4 inches. Whoops!!! At least I didn’t start it too short!
I make both the overlay and the underlay skirts to be 27 inches. Let me just add that cutting chiffon is hard!!! Do you best to make it straight, at the right length. I make sure I have a large area to spread out the fabric and to realign before cutting again.
Serge the seams on the sides of the underlay skirt. And then also the overlay skirt. Using a serger is a bit intimidating. I only know the basic 4-thread stitch, but it is helpful to keep pieces of fabric that would otherwise fray. It was awesome to use one the chiffon fabric to create a secure seam, but also something small that nobody would notice.
Line up the underlay with the overlay placed over this. Serge these two together at the top. Then create gather at the top of the skirt piece that matches the same size as that bodice piece.
I usually do not follow a pattern with a skirt. I’ve always watched my mom and grandma sewing skirts with their own homemaking ingenuity. For pleats, do this. Boxed pleats, do this. Gathers, do that.
Sewing the Floral Dress
Sew the bodice to the skirt. I start sewing in the center to make sure they’re symmetrical. Sew the gathers securely before this. I gather it to the necessary size, and then I will sew on top of that so that in case the gathers would break, nothing will fall apart. It is more time and thread, but it is a peace of mind.
Realize too that I am only sewing the bodice piece to the skirt. I am not sewing the lining with it. The lining will be sewed so that it conceals all the fraying threads from the bodice piece. I also did this with my first anniversary dress where I show the process in more detail.
After putting in the zipper, I try it one to see where else to do other fittings. This is where I notice that the skirt is too long for my liking. I take the time to trim off about 4-5”.
At this stage, I also finish the hem for the skirt and the hemline for the bodice with a lace edge, mess around with belt ideas, and finalize adding the zipper.
What takes this dress the next step up is hand sewing the lace applique to the bottom of the skirt on the chiffon layer. I had this in my wedding dress, but the dress was full length. I could have excluded it on the short-length version here, but it would not have been the short version of my wedding dress without it.
It brings out the beauty of the dress. Because we don’t see where the floral print really ends since the lace applique conceals it, it makes the underlay floral fabric seem more of a mystery. It creates a ridge-and-valley in the dress, clashing beauty with beauty, much in the same way hills and valleys with grasses and a sunny horizon do.
The Occasion
At the forefront, I just wanted a normal length dress for wearing to small events or just for fun. It has really transitioned to our photography session that marked our two years of being together as well as becoming settled in our new home.
Events in 2021 pushed off the pictures until the fall season, but that’s okay. We had the wedding in my favorite season. My husband’s favorite season is fall. It worked. And hey, I was able to make all sorts of floral arrangements with my cut flowers too!!! Matching my flowers to my flowers.
After sewing my wedding dress, my anniversary dress, and a lace and floral dress, I feel good about making every single one. As much as sewing a third version of my wedding dress may be over-the-top, I don’t regret it. I created a beautiful dress for pictures, but also being able to in a way re-wear my wedding dress to other special occasions.
Photographs by Christa’s Captures
