Claire Kennedy Design

Portrait shoot

Although I plan on keeping my promise of no pics of the dress till after she treks down the isle - a few teasers:

 

Finally something that shows the luster in the fabric.  One of my most favorite combinations.  I'm now thinking about doing something in green for myself for the wedding in this family of fabrics....silk charmeuse under a satin-faced organza.

 This was just too hard to resist....this is called bokah from the Japanese boke meaning "fuzzy", pronounced boo-kay, hence the spelling variation from the Japanese.

We shot this in her back yard....actually this is a fabulous place where my sister resides - with a wonderful tree line in the back of their home and we shot at sunset - that wonderful light at the end and beginning of the day and we got some great shots.  This is the photographer getting a great shot!

Now I just have to keep my trap shut till October 24 - This is the hard part for me!

A little red dress

The wedding gown is moving right along and will be ready for the photography shoot on Sunday but project nombre deux is the rehearsal dinner.

Here is an outline of what we have in mind!

 

This is patterned off the bodice of one dress, the cut (on the bias) of another, and the back of another and the rosettes of another.  And although this looks like this is made of a knit, it is cut on the bias so that it will require as few darts as possible.

What will make this dress is that we are using the same fabric combo for the rehearsal that we are using for the bridal gown, that satin-faced organza with a very electric shiny charmeuse under it to give it a  floaty and air look (all cut on the bias - I'll be chasing this not only all over my studio, but down the hall and probably down the street by the time I'm finished cutting - but it will be beautiful and all worth it!)

Then on a trip to Dallas to get my fabric for the Chanel Jacket blog, I find this gorgeous lace.

 

It's taken with my iPhone so excuse the poor quality, but I fell in love with it instantly and immediately felt it was the perfect thing for the back of the dress.  The rosettes will be in chiffon or I have some black satin-faced organza that would make up gorgeously.  The rosettes just don't do well in this light of a lace.

Now this hasn't been approved by my muse yet, so it will be interesting to hear her comments...more to come!

MMW II, Bodice & skirt

MMW - for brevity:  My Muse's Wedding, since I'm sure this will be the second of many posts to come.

We're moving right along.  We have a shoot August 2nd, so I have to have it ready by then!  Not much time left.

 

Here we are with the bodice under all fitted.  And ready to ruche or shirr the fabric over the bra part.

 

This is the beginning of ruching on the bra.

One of the things I love about a wedding gown is the train and I like to see the skirt not that full, but the train to fall flat around the the gown.

This means putting in some additional fullness around the hem.  I just love godets (or is that godettes?) and how they make a train so beautiful.

One more note about the dress.  I love showing some of the details and how we're doing, but showing the whole dress before the event is not really my style.  after she walks down the isle, all can be revealed, so even though the dress will be done in the next couple of weeks, I won't be putting any over all and general pics up till she's out of the church.  It's just this thing I have.  All my clients know this and appreciate it.

In the meantime, another weekend has passed, so that means another bride in town and another veil.  That's next!

My Muse's Wedding

My muse is getting married.  Talk about fun.

For the last couple of weeks we've been doing the muslin

This is the glamor shot of that muslin.

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Believe me - this is the pretty shot of it.  Muslins are so ugly I hesitate to show them to my clients.  One problem.  They have to fit the client.  Wish I could fit them blindfolded, but stretches out the bounds of hubris of a designer just a little too far!!!

But finally, the muslin is finished, which means I cut out the real dress. 

It's just a tad on the laborious side.  We picked out a gorgeous candlelight silk, satin-faced organza, but it was a little too dark for my muse's liking, so we put a gorgeous electric-white, silk charmeuse to back it with.  The problem is that all the pieces have to have the organza & charmeuse pinned together. 

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THEN you pin the front to side, side to side back, side back to back, etc.  I use a gob of pins, but frankly I do not know another way to do this and have the seams come out un-puckery (that's a highly technical word in the couture world!  Not really, but it sounds good!!)

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Then I put a backing on the upper bodice part (not shown above, and in this case I needed real shape and body to it, as this will be the major fitted part of the dress, and being the scaredy-cat that I am, I back this with bridal shape - something sewn in, so that I can easily shape it around a ham or whatever so that the bodice doesn't look like something Maria would wear in Metropolis

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....or Madonna meets Theirry Mugler (Yikes!)

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This is ready for it's first fitting.  Even though my muse didn't see the comparison shots (above), she approved!  Somehow I thought she would!

 

Unfortunately no photography shows the exciting nap and shadows in this fabric.  One of my favorite combinations is an organza over the intense shine of a charmeuse or heavy-weight satin.    Even though the organza tones down the intensity of the charmeuse finish, it doesn't completely dissipate it and the combination makes for a very intersting and beautiful finish on the fabric.  So even though the dress has a "shine" it is not intense and there's a hit that it might be, but never pops like a satin.  Does that make sense?  Well, it's the best I can do with words, and since I will be working with this for a while, I'll probably be attempting a photography of the fabulosity of this fabric combo!