3 Things To Consider Before Sewing Your Wedding Dress

It’s been a while since I wrote a wedding dress update on the blog, so I thought I’d share a little bit of the progress I made so far and what I’m learning along the way.  First things first – yes, I bought the fabric for my wedding dress!  My trip to NYC was successful and I came home with just about everything I need to get cracking at stitching it up, just a few detail elements that I’m going to wait on figuring out (embellishments etc).  The goal is to start the actual cutting out and construction next month, probably around the Thanksgiving holiday.  I need to get a move on it soon, so many people are asking me how it’s going so far and I haven’t started yet!  I blame the Halloween costumes…

There’s a few things I realized so far during the process of planning my dress that I wanted to share, in case anyone else out there is thinking about making their own dress.

1. How much time you’re willing to devote to this HUGE project? Of all of my DIY ideas for my wedding, this one is hands down the most important to me – it’s the only element of my wedding that I thought about before I was engaged. If I end up needing to farm out some projects to my bridesmaids, or if it looks like I can’t make that giant photo booth backdrop of white paper flowers, I need to be OK with that because my dress trumps all. Don’t underestimate the amount of time it’s going to take to make your dress — like I said, I’m starting mine soon to make sure I’m not sewing under (too much) pressure.

2. Understand Your Dress Style It wasn’t until I tried on dresses at David’s Bridal (which was as un-magical an experience as possible, btw) that I felt confident in the wedding dress I wanted to create. It’s one thing to picture how something will look on you in your head, it’s another to actually put the dress on and really see how the silhouette looks on your body in the mirror, how the train moves, etc. From this appointment, I learned that a sweetheart neckline and cap sleeves were something I wanted to recreate in my dress, but didn’t feel comfortable in a sheath-type of fit. Bring on the empire waist, Marfy Patterns! 

3. Respect Your Sewing LimitationsHow confident you feel in your sewing capabilities will ultimately determine the type of dress that you’ll sew and wear for the big day. If you’re relatively new to sewing, it may be beyond your skill level to recreate a fitted strapless ballgown complete with boning and layers of poofy tulle. If you’ve been sewing for a while, maybe you can tackle a dress with couture handwork and intricate draping. Sewing with silk and chiffon also present their own fair share of sewing challenges. At the end of the day, make sure you set yourself up for success with choosing a sewing pattern as well as fabric that will allow you to achieve beautiful results with your current skill set. It’s going to look great!