DIY Wedding dress inspired by Meghan Markle (1/4) | Wedding on a budget ep. 3

Hi guys, bonjour, this is Romy. In this new episode dedicated to helping you make a great wedding on a budget, we are going to create a wedding dress inspired by Meghan Markle. Our version will be humbler, obviously, as it's meant to be beginners-friendly, budget-friendly, busy-schedule-friendly and dance-floor-friendly. But rest assured that we will try to keep the spirit of this simple yet sophisticated dress designed by Clara White Keller for the House of Givenchy, as well as emulate to the best of our abilities its minimal and feminine glory. This jersey should do very well, it's thick, it's heavy, stretchy, it should drape nicely and be elegant enough. Also 15€ for 3m of fabric, that's perfect for our tiny budget slash gorgeous wedding challenge. To get started, we will need our basic block pattern that we will modify. If you don't own any, I highly recommend you to create yours by draping a mannequin, buying a ready-to-use slope on the barquette. You can also draft your own or simply duplicate a fitted top of yours. Leave me a comment if you want me to create a specific tutorial for each of these techniques in the future. So we need to cut the sleeve twice, to cut the back two times and the front one time only but on fold and you'll see later what it means. Alright, let's start with the back. I place my pattern on the fabric and I pin it in place. Then I'm going to cut all around at about 2-3cm to allow modifications. Now to trace the pattern on the fabric, you can use tailor chalk, carbon paper or even a fabric pen but because I'm not going to make a muslim today, I will trace it with a thread and a needle. It's a great technique because it won't mark the fabric and you get to see the tracing on both sides. Also we can easily do as much fittings and modifications as needed. Don't forget to start a new thread for each side of your piece. Don't forget either to name the piece you just cut. It's a good habit to have of the day you'll cut complex designs with loads of pieces. Now let's cut the other side, you just have to turn your pattern and repeat the same operation. Now to the front, I just traced the center line following the lengthwise grain of the fabric and I'm going to align my pattern on top of it. Once the tracing is done, I turn my pattern and repeat this operation on the other side. Let me just quickly straighten up this line right here and I'm going to mark my piece. In case we need to do modifications in the future, I go ahead and leave about 2-3 cm all around. We are now going to baste everything together at the shoulders and the sides, making sure our pieces are placed right sides together. Also, if you are feeling slightly lazy at the idea of basting, I can really assure you that basting is never a waste of time. We will do a first fitting to make sure everything is spot on. Don't forget to baste the bust darts using a contrasting thread color which will make it easier to remove. We are also going to add very quickly a temporary zipper to make our life easier whilst trying the garment on. To do that, we need to baste the center back's right sides together with large stitches. When it's done, we open the sewing and align the zipper on top of it, its right side facing the fabric. Now pin it and baste it very quickly. You can now remove the center back basting, this allows you to open the zipper, and you can try the garment on your mannequin or on yourself if you don't own any. In order to make modifications, we are now going to turn the garment inside out and pin it tightly along the side lines, the center front and back lines as well as the waistline. You can then adjust the dart and give yourself a slender fitted waist look. Transfer your modification on the other side, then baste the new shape of your darts. You can try the garment again, check your symmetry, and then if you are satisfied, make the modifications on your pattern as well. We will need it to cut the lining. It is finally time to take out the sewing machine to sew the sides and the darts. Leave the shoulders out since we will modify the neckline to create the boat shape. My fabric is slightly stretched, so I choose a suitable stitch, but if your machine don't have any, don't panic, a little zigzag, short and narrow will do the trick beautifully. Don't forget to try a few stitches on a scrap of your fabric before sewing your garment. Then sew everything, remove your basting thread, and cut the excess fabric. It is time to open the seams with an iron, again try the heat on a scrape of your fabric, and you can also use a round pillow if you want to have nicely shaped darts. Now let's work on the sleeves. You can cut them using the same process and mark the front parts to avoid sewing them backwards which still happens to me way too often. I'm going to baste them quickly, then I will turn them inside out and insert them within the bodice in order to have the fabric right sides together. After you have pinned your shoulder, you can baste it with very small stitches. This part is the most difficult of our tutorial as the shoulder head is always slightly longer than the armhole in order to give your shoulder some ease. Be patient, it gets a little bit easier every time I do a new shoulder. When you are done, you can go ahead and trace the boat neckline shape with a thread. I'm going to start a new thread for the shoulder, and then a new thread for the back. We will do the other side symmetrically on the table. Let's take advantage of the dress form to add a few marks as well to help us later with the construction of the garment. I place two of them in the back, this is the first, the second, and then two other one on the front. You can opt to add more of them if you feel that you will need the extra help. We are now going to unstitch the shoulder and report every marks and every tracings we just made on the other side of the garment. So let's start with the sleeves. I'm going to unstitch my shoulder and unstitch my sleeve. I am now going to place both sleeves wrong sides together, making sure that the grain lines are aligned, and I pin them in place. Then using pins, I follow the construction marks and the shape of the boat neck in order to have them appear on the other side when I turn the pieces. So I am going to use a lot of pins, this way it's going to be very precise. There you are! Now you can trace it with a thread and a needle, making sure to grab one layer of fabric only. Have a look now at how I trace the modifications on the pattern using a tracing wheel. It is a cheap but very useful tool, but you can also make do without, just using a little pin and pinning the fabric to trace the line. Now I am going to cut the excess fabric, and the extra line that you can see on the bottom of my sleeve, right there, it's a new line that I traced in order to shorten my sleeve and make a real three-quarter sleeve. So I am just going to baste quickly both sleeves again, and then I will sew them with a sewing machine, making sure that I start from the very bottom, going to the very end of the fabric. And using the same technique, it's time now to transfer the shape of the neckline on the other side, then I am going to cut the excess fabric, as well as report the modifications on the front and the back pieces of our pattern. I remove the temporary zipper, and now I am going to start attaching a sleeve to the bodice using the construction marks. Make sure that your pieces are placed right sides together. All right, so once my sleeve is done, I am going to take the time to baste it, and then I am going to sew it with a sewing machine. Now the only thing that we need to do is to repeat the same process on the other side for the other sleeve, and we are going to remove every construction marks and every basting threads. Yay, congratulations, the top of our dress is done! I am keeping the center front line, the neckline, the waistline, I am also keeping the length of the sleeves, and the grainline. These construction lines will be very handy in the next episode in which we will work on the skirt of the dress. I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial, leave me a little hello in the comments, subscribe to my channel, and follow me on Instagram. Bye bye, à bientôt!