Ingenious students create wedding gowns

Garments for weddings require special attention.
By SUSAN KHALJE
SCRIPPS HOWARD
I've just finished teaching one of my six-day couture sewing seminars, and I'd like to share some of the interesting sewing challenges that my students and I faced during our wonderful (if intensive) week together.
L. was working on her wedding dress. It's always special to have a bride-to-be in the class.
Nothing rivals a wedding dress as the most important garment one will ever wear. L., who is petite, wisely prepared a muslin (a mock-up of her gown, in unbleached muslin) from a simple yet elegant Oscar de la Renta pattern.
She found a beautiful silk satin online, and one of the most interesting decisions we made was to use it on the crossgrain -- we manipulated the fabric on both the lengthwise and crosswise grains, and found that the pleats that would be the main focus of the skirt folded better -- they were smoother and flatter -- on the crosswise grain.
The original pattern doesn't have a waist seam (long princess-seamed panels form pleats below the waist), but since L. was going to add a wide band of Guipure lace at the waist, we knew we could camouflage a waist seam if we added one.
Handled separately
Making the skirt separate from the bodice not only made working with the dress much less cumbersome, but it allowed us to place the skirt on the crosswise grain (the fabric would have been too narrow to place long dress panels on the crosswise grain).
We underlined the satin with silk organza, which was bodied enough to give the skirt the fullness it needed without a separate petticoat. We adjusted the depth of the boatneck for L.'s petite frame, and snugged up the deep vee seam in the back, stabilizing it with strips of the silk organza selvedge.
The dress was delicate and graceful, like L. herself, and I think she was very pleased with the result.
N. worked on a beautiful two-piece ensemble -- she'll be a guest at an upcoming wedding. The pattern was another Vogue, one which has been in the pattern books a long time -- it really is a classic.
It has a fitted, princess seamed bodice with straps and a fake-wrap skirt, the left front of which pulls up into a series of pleats at the dropped waistline.
Underlined
N. chose the Rolls Royce of fabrics -- 4-ply silk crepe, in a beautiful deep red. For the skirt, we added a drapey underlining -- silk crepe de chine -- to mimic the drape of the 4-ply silk crepe. The two layers were basted together and treated as a single fabric.
What really made the outfit spectacular was the lace top -- a short-sleeved jacket, really, that buttoned up the center back seam.
It was a sturdy black Guipure lace, decorated with black beads and black sequins. We cut it so that its scalloped border was along the base of each sleeve and the lower edge of the jacket; and there was just enough of the border left to shape around the neckline.
Guipure has no net background, so the red of the dress showed through very dramatically.
All of N.'s jacket darts and seams were shaped by hand -- one layer of lace overlapped the other, then the top edge was carefully fell-stitched into place, and the excess fabric was cut away from the under layer.
This technique really does make seamlines and darts disappear almost magically -- and N.'s careful work and patience paid off -- the lace of the jacket was beautifully shaped. She will look stunning at the wedding.
XSusan Khalje is the author of "Bridal Couture -- Fine Sewing Techniques for Wedding Gowns and Evening Wear," from Krause Publications. For more information, visit www.SusanKhalje.com or www.diynetwork.com.