In my last post about my wedding dress, I got you up to speed on what I had accomplished so far.  It took me awhile to take the plunge into starting the actual dress, but I finally have.

The first thing I did was prep my muslin (and paper) pattern pieces by cutting off the seam allowances.  I then pinned the pieces to my silk.  Like for the lining, I had to do this on the floor because my table is way too small.  I was so worried about getting the silk dirty (even though the floor was clean) that I put down a clean sheet first.  The pieces did end up pinned to the sheet, but it was not too much of a problem.  Using a contrasting silk thread, I handstitched the seamlines.  Once all the seamlines were stitched, I cut approximately one inch seam allowances.

Now I can actually start the construction!  My first steps will be to staystitch the front and back neckline and sew the darts.  On the back, I will also use twill tape to shape the back v.  The twill tape will be slightly stretched so that the v hugs the body.  Then it ‘s just a matter of sewing the seams.  Because the back of the dress is so low, I actually don’t have any closures.  Once the seams are sewn, I will let it hang for a couple days to let the bias in the skirt stretch out before hemming.