Handmade Lace and Silk Wedding Dress

Pub­lished 08/28/2013

Writ­ten By My Father:

A busy sum­mer got busier with the mar­riage of our daugh­ter Katie last Sun­day. It was a beau­ti­ful day with con­tri­bu­tions made by many fam­i­ly and friends, and I would be remiss if I did­n’t acknowl­edge a few that I have not already thanked publicly.

The good peo­ple of St. Michael’s Ukrain­ian Catholic Church were extra­or­di­nar­i­ly hos­pitable, and its choir excep­tion­al as they wel­comed us to par­tic­i­pate in their beau­ti­ful litur­gy. The mem­o­ries of which will live on through the gen­er­ous con­tri­bu­tion of my daugh­ter Anas­tas­si­a’s pho­tog­ra­phy through­out the day. My old­est daugh­ter employed her cre­ative imag­i­na­tion to occu­py some of her high-spir­it­ed younger cousins, and when she need­ed a break my son, John, held them upside-down by the ankles for a spell. My youngest son, Mikey, pro­vid­ed a wed­ding speech which read more like an action plan for self-improve­ment for the new­ly wed cou­ple. While the Maid of Hon­or, Marusya also qual­i­fied for the title “Made” of Hon­or in that she not only made the bride’s dress, but also the bride’s moth­er’s dress and her own Ukrain­ian-fusion dress as well — very ele­gant indeed.

And with much affec­tion, I would like to acknowl­edge my own bride of 30 years for throw­ing a won­der­ful­ly inti­mate and ele­gant back­yard recep­tion with the help of many friends who con­tributed to its suc­cess. We all felt your love — thank you.

In short, it was a real fam­i­ly wedding.

 

Silk & Lace Bridal Separates

Mate­ri­als: 100% Silk and Lace

Pat­terns: Bur­da Mag­a­zine: Shop here

I did­n’t begin the silk top until a few days before the wedding!

This is because up until a few days before the wed­ding, I was unin­spired and uncer­tain as to what to do for the top of the dress.

My sis­ter want­ed sleeves and some­thing sim­ple, but I was afraid the top could appear too casu­al or look too much like a t‑shirt.

Then short­ly before the wed­ding (last Tues­day), I received the Sep­tem­ber issue of Bur­da Mag­a­zine in the mail. Imme­di­ate­ly upon read­ing the mag­a­zine, I was inspired by this Dress! It had the cap sleeves, detail, and ele­gance I was look­ing for! (Typ­i­cal of the Euro­peans to come up with these kind of pat­terns and designs)

Traced the top por­tion of the dress pat­tern and cre­at­ed a blouse

I serged some of the edges, but most of the fin­ish­ings and stitch­ing were done by hand.

Also, I did­n’t do any mock-ups or even test the fit dur­ing the process. I was EXTREMELY short on time & patience.

It took  2 long evenings copy­ing pat­tern pieces, cut­ting & sewing to build this top.

Over­all I was VERY hap­py with this!

I don’t believe there could’ve been a bet­ter top to go with this skirt, as well as suit Kate’s style! Kate looked absolute­ly beautiful!

I also give cred­it to my sis­ter, Anas­tas­sia, for the won­der­ful job she did with Kate’s hair and make-up!

She did a great job cre­at­ing a style that would fit the dress and occa­sion! (Thanks TESSY!)