Two-way Wedding Dress

Hello! Here are some pictures of the wedding dress that I completed recently. Hours and hours of work went in to it, and I can’t believe it’s finally done. This dress took a lot of thinking, revising, testing and more revising because this dress is a two-way dress. There are three pieces to the dress: strapless A-line dress base, Obi sash with the big back detailing as style one dress and teared organza over skirt as style two dress. The bride could not decide which way she wanted to go with it; classy, or girly or fluffy, so I offered to make a two-way dress so she could have both. There was a challenge of figuring out how to attach the obi sash without it looking like it was put-on later, due to the heaviness of the back detailing. I ended up using the plastic board which is usually used for hat brims for the waist band to support the weight. Here are the initial sketches. The left one is the style one and the right one is the style two over skirt. 

In order to add the volume to the obi, a soft wire (also usually used for hat brim) was inserted at hem. It holds up the weight of the medium weight satin fabric. 

Gem sash is another addition you can put it on and off from the dress. I made a small button hole in the style one obi sash, so the gem sash end can be hidden under the back details. 

I love the bust pleating details of the dress. It is such an classy design. I first cut out the sweet heart shaped top bodice, then I draped the pleating design on the dress form, using the same satin fabric cut on bias. Then I based the pleats, pressed, and took it to the sewing machine to make it the permanent pleats. 

These are style two over skirt above. This required a bit of testing and modifying. At first, I used chiffon Georgette, but it did not provide the structure that the bride was looking for. So I inserted fishing thread at hem as I surge the hem, but it made the circular motion shape, and did not turn out the way I was hoping for. Then I realized that I needed to rethink about my fabric choice. I found this off-white organza, and it worked perfectly. It gave the volume that I wanted. When you look inside of the style two over skirt, you see the hooks in the front and some satin ribbons on the sides and back to tie to the main dress. I wanted to be sure that this skirt does not slip down during the wedding.

My dress form is a bit bigger than the bride, so I could not put the dress on it to take pictures. The pictures above are obi sash for the style one dress and the pictures below them are style two organza dress, combined with the base dress.

It was a lot of work but the result was so satisfying!