You shall go to the ball *in an Elisalex

I am super proud of this dress – it’s taken quite a while to make as I’ve been so picky and careful about all of my finishes. I made it to wear to my cousin’s wedding on Saturday and everyone had a wonderful time – Congratulations Mr and Mrs B!

I’m normally a bit slapdash with finishing dresses off, just wanting them to be done and wearing them straight away. But with this gem I took my time learning loads of new techniques in the process and I think the end result is absolutely beautiful (also the shoes were pretty perfect too).

Apologies for the windswept look, I wanted to get a picture by the lovely lake at the wedding but it was a bit blowy! This is a sort of practice run for my wedding dress, which will be made out of the same silk dupion (in ivory this time). I’ll keep the sleeveless Elisalex bodice (from the amazingly talented ladies at By Hand London), attach a full circle skirt, make a tule petticoat and then create a French guipure lace overlay for the bodice (which I’m terrified about).

But I’ll be talking more about that dress later. Let me show this one off first – My princess seams and inverse box pleats all line up on the front, my invisible zip is the best I’ve ever done, the bodice is fully lined and hand finished around the waist and zip, all my seams are finished a la Hong Kong style, bound with black binding and I hemmed it by hand with a herringbone stitch.