Read Part 1 – Fabric shopping here.
Last week, I worked on my friend’s wedding dress muslin. Previous to this muslin, I made three muslins just for the top part. I wanted to make sure that the bust line fit her exactly, and it took four tries. It is partly because we live in different parts of the country, and we had to mail each other the muslin back and forth. Also for the first two tries, she (for some strange reason) was not wearing underwear, so I needed to adjust it again once she bought a corset which she would be wearing for her wedding. The forth time, I made the skirt and installed a zipper in the center of the back, just as I will do for the real wedding dress.
You might be wondering why the fabric is so wrinkly?! Well, I pre-washed the fabric, and it wrinkled terribly. I ironed it twice, but it is still wrinkled..I was so frustrated! I actually wanted to turn the muslin into a “get away dress” (thanks Zhing for inspiration!), but it might not be happening because the fabric is quite bad. I read in one of the Japanese handmade wedding dress books that you are supposed to make muslin in seething fabric, so I followed that direction. Is all seething fabric this wrinkly? Or is it just mine?
Here is the back view – Since this wedding dress is for her after party, we kept the design simple and mobile. She wanted to avoid lugging a long dramatic train around, which worked out for my benefit, since I have not yet made a dress with a train. The skirt part is a simple half circle skirt. I will add an organza bow in the back when I make the the real one.
I sent the dress to her and next day she emailed me to tell me she already received it! God bless the efficiency of Japanese postal services 🙂
September on Instagram
Sewing Tips To Make Your Life Easier
1960’s fashion photos
Video// Shinjyuku Okadaya & Online Shopping
Lisa says
So much work to create a wedding dress! Looking forward to seeing the final product. I know it will look divine.
Lisa says
Yes, muslin is difficult to work with. You have a lot of patience-good for you!
It looks great and I like your studio!
Paunnet says
Excuse the ignorance, but what is seething fabric?
Kristine says
I’m not sure what seething fabric is, but muslin is the only fabric I DON’T wash. Or else it wrinkles a lot like you found out and impossible to iron out. Since muslin is just a trial fabric and you don’t ever need to wash it in the future like regular fabrics you make the final product in– which is meant to be worn many times over, I figure it doesn’t need to be washed and it stays nicely pressed from the fabric store 🙂 Good luck on the wedding dress… can’t wait to see the final product! Your friend is lucky to have you as her seamstress 🙂
zhing says
aww the silhouette is adorable!! 🙂 i cant wait to see your final masterpiece!! xx
Stefani Sarah says
Hi Chie, this may come in late. But I’ve tried sheeting fabric from Yuzawaya to Nippori and they all wrinkle like crazy after wash, even after second iron. Before washing, sheeting fabric looks to me like very promising fabric. At first, I mistaken it as “shirting” fabric and I made a white shirt with it. The result is embarrassingly wrinkled I can only wear it under sweaters. I’ve also read somewhere that sheeting fabric is also generally used for photo studio backdrop. Yeah, it makes more sense to me. I will take Kristine’s advice above with the rest of sheeting I have at home.
Chie says
Hi Stefani Sarah! Yea I wish I knew that muslin fabric is meant for only making a muslin, not to be washed or worn.. oh well! It served its purpose, and now I know for the future. You are right, it would make a great backdrop for a studio photo set, since it’s sturdy:)