Wedding Dress Progress I: Muslin and Fabric

In the absence of good weather to take pictures of new makes outside, I thought it will be nice to update you on my progress on my wedding dress.

Inspiration dress (source)

I've chosen Butterick (B5325) which looks similar to my inspiration dress. It comes without straps so I will just add them. I've traced the pattern and graded it up several sizes for my waist and hip measurements. The only problem was that the biggest pattern size was 12 and according to the chart I needed size 16 at the hip. Thus I measured the distance between size 12 and 10 on the pattern and added it twice to the hip area. I then graded down to size 14 at the waist and size 8 at the bust.

I had to step on a stool, otherwise the fabric is just bunching up.

A quick tissue fitting of the bodice showed me that it fit well and I went ahead to make a muslin. I used a cotton (a former bed sheet) for the bodice as it has to be structured. For the skirt I used some old curtain - a very thin polyester with some drape.

I really like the fit at the waist. You can see that I pinned out some fabric at the side seams.

Surprisingly, the bodice fits me well. I expected to change the position of the apex but didn't need to! You can't imagine how happy this made me :) I just need to take out some fabric at the top of the bodice because otherwise my neckline is gaping. I might also add some horsehair braid to the neckline to stabilize and shape it. I've got the idea from a great tutorial by Gertie.

Bodice dropping towards the side seams.

The bodice is dropping towards the side seams. I think this is because the skirt is heavy and pulling it down. I'm not sure if this will improve if I add boning to the real dress. However, the addition of straps helps a bit in keeping the back more straight.

I couldn't decide where to attach the straps. I moved them further outside in the end (see below).

The skirt also seems to fit fine. I haven't decided yet if I want to keep the train or not. I really like the look and feel of it and when wearing the muslin kept walking in front of the mirror just to see the train. It makes such a nice noise when dragged on the floor :) However, because we are going to have a small wedding with only our parents and sisters, I don't feel the need to have one. Ah, I just can't decide!

Ignore the bunching at my hips - I'm holding the dress up in the front to avoid
stepping on it.

I've bought already the fabric. I got a lavender chiffon for the shell fabric and some sand washed silk for lining. The chiffon bodice will be underlined with silk dupion. It was the first time that I bought silk (and such expensive fabric). I have also bought a craftsy class about sewing with silk. So before touching the silk I'm going to watch that class. Do you have any tips about sewing with silk?

From right to left: silk dupion, chiffon, sand washed silk. The colors are darker than in reality.

So what's the next step? I have to make the changes to the pattern and order some horsehair braid. I also don't have any lace flowers yet, so if you have any suggestions where to find some please share!

Happy Easter to everyone!