Holy cow, people, I am an emotional WRECK lately – what is up with me?? Life is so much harder when Keith isn’t around. Like last night, I’m doing the dishes and a GIANT centipede comes crawling up from the drain and is so giant that I couldn’t flush it back down! Okay, I do not deal with centipedes very well. To this day I am terrified a centipede will crawl out of the toilet paper roll while I’m using it because of a traumatic childhood incident. It also doesn’t help having seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom five million times while growing up. Anyway . . . I’m forced to deal with horrific incidents like that every day and frankly, it’s exhausting. Screaming uses up a lot of energy.
Thank goodness I have this awesome project to distract me. My new bride Heidi flew all the way from L.A. for the first fitting of her Grace Kelly To Catch a Thief wedding gown over the weekend. And ohmigod, her dress is sooo much fun to make. It’s almost entirely handstitched – all of the boning and the gathers in the skirt – all done by hand. Check it out:
Those are some serious busts pads – aw yeah. We’ve got a set on the inside of the gown as well. See, the original Grace Kelly gown has two perfectly rounded domes and well, most of us weren’t born with perfectly round ta-tas. To make your own, use 5 – 6 graduating circles cut from batting and enclose them in two layers of tulle. Super simple. Obviously this is just the very foundation of the dress – it will eventually be covered in swaths of woven chiffon. Like so:
Can’t. Wait. Oh and I would also like to note that this foundation fits her like a GLOVE. The dressform is bigger than adorable and petite Heidi, so it’s not laying as well here as it does on her. Just looking at the photo makes me want to run home and pick up my needle again. Love it!
Oh Veronica – how in the world do you do it?
Question – when will you post more wedding photos? Hmmm?
Very soon, I promise! Actually very, very soon . . .
hello…
wow!!
i love process photos!
there was some amazing foundation garment stuff like that in this exhibit where i live
http://www.fristcenter.org/site/exhibitions/exhibitiondetail.aspx?cid=795
You rock! This just made my day
Hm. Rebekah who commented above is from Nashville. I think she dated a friend of mine and actually made an awesome dessert for a suprise birthday party friends held for me several years ago. I wonder if it’s the same pastry chef from Nashville named Rebekah. I wonder. And her Etsy shop sells Harry’s stuff. So confused.
But she’s right. Did I tell you about the exhibit? AH-mazing. I snapped a few pics before the guard said I couldn’t . I should send them to you. They rock, as does the exhibit.
Oh snap. Did we just make a love connection?
hello…
howdy louise!
yep one and the same me!
‘cept i’m living in springfield and newly hitched!
been peeking at yer blog!
small world the internets yes?
Rebekah,
So cool. Congrats on the wedding/marriage!
And yes, the world is WAY too small.
And I still think about that caramel sauce you made. I pretty much just drank the extra.
Lovely! She will look stunning in that dress, I’m sure… I wish I was petite enough to wear something like that…
hummm… just thinking… is is easier to sew those bust pads on all of my tops or just on myself?
))
amazing job. as usual.
Hi! I see your site in the google when i was looking for photos of this dress that Grace Kelly used on the film to catch a thief! My Prom will be this year and I searching for things that can help me to make a dress like that! My english is not very good, cause I live in Brazil! So, I saw your site and… i’ll be so thankfull if you can give me some informations of this dress! I’ve seen some other posts talking about this dress and the etaps that you make! Well, thanks for the atention and if you could help me its will be soooooooooooo amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry for the wrongs on the gramatic!!) Please, answer me! my email is: manoella.pc@Hotmail.com
Hi-
I have a question and was wondering if you could point me in the right direction. I’m currently construction a dress foundation similar to the one you did, which, by the way, was a great inspiration. What kind of CB closure do you recommend?
Hi Shiloh! Because the client lives so far away, I fit the foundation to her in the first fitting and then literally built the dress on top of the foundation (as opposed to building them separately and then joining them later), so I’m using one lapped zipper in the center back for all layers and bias binding over the raw edges. If they are separate, I would suggest hooks and eyes for the foundation and a zipper for the shell. Best of luck!
Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help and direction.
My grandmother is making this dress for me for a spring event. When I was looking at the dress online I came across your website and was very impressed by your take on the dress. I was wondering if you had any advice I could pass along to her in making the dress; especially in the skirt and the bodice. We seem to be having a debate on how to make the folds in the bodice. Any pointers you could offer would be awesome! Thanks so much, my email is mollym@gps.edu