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Looking for the Perfect Wedding Dress?
Why Not Design Your Own Wedding Dress?
(ARA) - Brides today have more choices than ever before when they are
picking a wedding dress. Many of the old rules have been tossed out. For
example, wedding dresses aren’t always white, they’re not always big and
poufy and they don’t have to include trains that go on for miles. A bride
can feel free to choose a wedding dress that fits her body type and
personality.
Are you looking for romantic or racy wedding dress? Will your gown be out
of a fairy tale or a fashion magazine? To truly have a wedding dress that
is yours and yours alone, consider designing your wedding dress yourself.
According to couture seamstress JoAnn Musso, brides should not be
intimidated by the thought of desinging and making their wedding
dress. “The skills needed to make a wedding dress are all ones a home
sewer has used before,” she says. “Set in sleeves are set in sleeves.
Don’t let the fact that they’re on a wedding dress make them seem more
difficult than they are,” she says.
Musso, who lives and work in Dallas, makes custom wedding dresses as part
of her couture business. While she firmly believes every bride should have
the dress of her dreams, Musso feels it is also her duty to help a bride
select a wedding dress that will be flattering. “The bride will have this
dress for the rest of her life to remember her wedding day,” she says.
Dress silhouettes break down into four basic shapes: A-line, which is
narrower at the top, flaring gently wider toward the bottom, works well on
most figure types, and is good for disguising bottom-heavy figures. A
sheath dress features a figure-hugging silhouette with a defined waist,
and flatters well-toned bodies. The mermaid wedding dress is close fitting
through the bodice, down through the hips and to about mid or lower calf
where the skirt flares out; it is not an easy style to wear or to move in.
Finally, a ballgown is fitted at the bodice; with a very full skirt, which
can hide, many figure flaws.
Visit a wedding dress shop and try on different styles of gowns. This will
help you determine what looks best on you and will give you a feel for the
latest trends. Maybe you like the bodice of one gown, the embroidery on
another and the fabric on a third dress. The beauty of designing your own
dress means you can pick and choose exactly the elements you want to
include in your perfect gown.
Starting with the right sewing machine is important. “Today’s computerized
sewing and embroidery systems make even a project like a wedding dress
much easier than it used to be,” says Gayle Hillert, vice president of
education at Bernina of America, a premiere sewing machine company. “For
example, Bernina accessory feet make sewing fine fabrics easy and there
are a variety available, like hemming, pintucking and edgestitching feet
that enable home sewers to add couture elements quickly and successfully.
Many fabric stores have bridal or special occasion sections with
appropriate fabrics and notions. If you don’t find what you’re looking for
locally, there is a wealth of fabric resources on the Internet. Musso
reminds brides that natural fabrics like silk (a popular bridal gown
choice) wrinkle easily. If that’s a concern for you, consider looking at
manmade fabrics or blends.
You may want to design a muslin version of your wedding dress for fitting
purposes. This also gives you a chance to do a “dry run” on the sewing. If
you have questions about the construction of the dress, you can work that
out on the muslin, too. There are many books available on designing your
own wedding dress that can answer questions and provide tips and “tricks
of the trade” as you go through the process.
The variety of embellishments available to provide the finishing touch for
your wedding dress is almost unlimited. Beads, crystals, lace and
embroidery are just some of the options you can use to add a personal
touch to your masterpiece. Embroidery is especially popular this season,
and with the right sewing machine, it can be easy to add this special
touch to your wedding gown.
Bernina’s artista sewing systems are good all purpose machines. The new
artista deco 330 is a stand-alone embroidery machine that lets sewers
create embroidery with speed, beauty and ease -- up to 650 quality
stitches per minute. The easy-touch screen allows you to edit on screen
and offers drag-and-drop capabilities. The user-friendly threading system,
complete with thread monitoring, ensures that you won't be wasting
valuable time keeping your machine threaded. When you're ready to stitch,
the 5.5-inch by 7.9-inch design area gives you ample room for larger
designs.
The most important piece of advice that Musso has for a bride who is
designing her own wedding dress is to start early! “If you don’t give
yourself enough time, it can cause a great deal of anxiety and pressure.”
And with all the other details you’ll be dealing with, designing your own
gown can become overwhelming.
Courtesy of ARA Content
Wedding Dress Resources |
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