Wedding Gown Update Post 3

 I had a muslin ready when the bride arrived on Monday. The fitting reinforced in my mind why a muslin is so necessary! Prior to cutting the fabric I did a lot of pattern alterations for fit and style. The bride put the muslin on and her eyes got wide. She said "you warned me". Yes, a muslin is a bit shocking to someone who may not have had custom work done before. I didn't tell the bride that this actually was one of the better looking muslins I have made!

Here is the muslin on my dress form. The muslin fit the bride very well. (she has quite a different shape than this dress form). The princess lines were so flattering on her pear shape figure. My goal was to show her small waist and to minimize the curve of her hips. Accomplished!
 So I was pretty happy that I had the fit figured out, but then she started looking at the style, and she realized that what she thought she wanted wasn't what she really wanted. We played around with the muslin, and various pieces of  bias cut muslin. We tried side ruching, and a drape...nope. We tried a cowl drape at the neck.....nope. We finally settled on making the gown off-the-shoulder with a bias band that will tie in a knot in the back.
 The bride brought an array of accessories along for the fitting. It was really quite fun! When she put on a lush combination of various sized pearl necklaces and long chandelier pearl earrings, we both went ah ha! It really was quite funny to see such beautiful jewelry with that ol' muslin!
 When I first met with the bride we had decided on 4 ply silk for the gown. I ordered samples from Emma One Sock  http://www.emmaonesock.com/  At the last minute I requested a sample of the silk crepe back satin. That is the fabric we decided on for the gown.
  Making a muslin is so important. Despite lots of verbal communication about the style of the dress, and despite the choice of a fabric, both of these decisions were changed! Had we skipped the muslin process the bride would have had a gown in a style and fabric that didn't thrill her.
 Hurray for muslins!!!!