Katie came to Sewing School with a very special occasion sewing project in mind. Turning her own wedding dress into a christening gown for her granddaughter, Lily.
Although Katie is not a novice sewist, she wanted some extra support to create such a sentimental item. Cutting up her wedding dress was a scary prospect if the christening gown didn’t work out as planned.
Just look at Katie’s amazing wedding dress in all it’s 1990’s glory! The leg of mutton sleeves and the big train were bang on trend when Katie and her hubby got married.
Due to the big skirt there was a lot of fabric to play with and lots of lovely lace and embellished details that we wanted to preserve for the christening gown.
Katie was using (now out of print) McCall’s 6221 pattern. You can still find this pattern on resale sites such as Etsy and eBay.
Cutting up her wedding dress
So after cutting out the pattern pieces in the required size we fussy cut the pattern pieces using the hem of the wedding dress skirt to create the hem on the Christening gown. Making sure that we featured the embellished lace symmetrically on the skirt panels.
Fussy cutting means using the design in the fabric to determine the placement of the pattern pieces on the fabric. Commonly used in quilting to place a design element centrally within a patchwork shape.
The bodice was cut from a unembellished section of the satin and we took care to place the pattern correctly on the fabric grain. And we again used some of the lace from the hem to create flutter sleeves rather than the puff sleeves in the pattern. This required a slight adjustment to the sleeve pattern piece so that the sleeve wasn’t too overwhelming on Lily’s arms.
After removing the beads and sequins from the seam allowances, Katie sewed up the gown using the pattern instructions. There was even enough satin left over to make a little party dress for Lily to wear after the Christening.
I think you’ll agree that the finished Christening gown is stunning and Katie has created a wonderful heirloom that can be passed from generation to generation.
Do you have a special occasion sewing project that you’d love to make? Or even just love to learn to make everyday clothes that get you compliments? The next Sewing School 5 week courses are starting soon – Get more info and book your place here.
If you have any questions about what you would like to make at Sewing School, just drop me a message here.
Love & Stitches
Alison xx
