Choosing a Pattern for your Wedding Dress

Are you planning on making your own wedding dress or having someone make your dress for you? If so, this will provide you with a few tips on how to choose a pattern for your dress.

Wedding Dress Patterns - Tips On How To Choose Them
By Melinda Barton

Shopping for wedding dress patterns can be just as daunting a task as shopping for a dress off the rack, even more so, if you will be sewing the dress yourself. There are so many things to consider when looking for just the right wedding dress pattern so that you will be the most stunning of brides on your wedding day.

The good news it that since you or someone else will making the dress from scratch, you will have total control over how your wedding dress will look on your most special day. You will have a custom creation that is unique and designed especially for you alone.

Here are some things to consider when shopping for wedding dress patterns.

The first thing to consider is the style of your wedding. Will it be a traditional wedding, or will you being doing something a little more out of the ordinary and have a themed wedding, such as a Celtic wedding? This of course dictates which type of wedding dress pattern you will be looking for.

Another consideration when looking for your wedding dress pattern will be the location of your wedding. Will it be indoors, or outdoors? If you will be having your wedding outdoors, you will want to consider the time of year and season. If it is in the fall or winter you will want to choose a pattern that help keep you warm, if it is spring or summer you will want something that will help keep you cool. The pattern in conjunction with the fabric that you choose will make a big difference as to your comfort on your special day.

You will want your wedding dress to show off your figure to it's best advantage. Listed below are the 4 basic body types and the goals that you want to keep in mind for yourself based on your body type when choosing your pattern:

Triangle -
your hips are wider than your bust and shoulders. Your goal will be to minimize your lower body and create the illusion of additional upper body width.

Reverse Triangle -
your upper body is wider than your lower body. Your goal will be to emphasize lower body width.

Hourglass -
your bust and hips are larger than your small waist. Your goal will be to create balance.

Rectangle -
your body is long and narrow without a strongly defined waistline. Your goal will be to emphasize width and avoid long vertical lines.

Pick a wedding dress pattern that emphasizes those body features that you want to play up or down.

Since you want your wedding dress to be the most flattering of dresses, there are other things to think about as well, such as the color of the wedding dress.

You want to pick a color that looks the best on you if you are not going with a white or off-white traditional wedding gown. You will want to consider your skin color when picking out your dress color. Your skin color will greatly affect how the gown looks on you. A bride with a lighter skin color has more choices than a bride with a darker skin color.

For brides with a lighter skin color, white or a dress in a darker color will result in a very lovely appearance. Brides with a darker skin color will want to choose their colors while also considering their make up also for the most beautiful appearance. If you have darker skin and do not consider your make up while choosing your fabric and during your fittings, you will not have a true reflection of how you will look on your wedding day.

Since you are making your own dress or having it made, you will be able to embellish it any way you choose. Brides can make fashion statements with fabric. You can range from delicate draping to more dramatic ruffles and fabric flowers. Ruffles, ribbon, ruching, gathering, pleats, fabric flowers, and draping are all special details that you can add to your gown. Just remember to keep your body type in mind when picking your embellishments.

Here are few places where you can start looking for your wedding dress pattern on line.

- Simplicity Patterns has been making patterns for generations. Look them up on the internet and browse through their patterns. They have a large selection of wonderful patterns to choose from.

- Vogue Patterns also offers a stylish selection of bridal patterns. Go to their website and browse through their collection also.

- McCall's, is another trusted name in sewing patterns. They have a marvelous collection of patterns on their website to go look through.

Searching through all the wedding dress patterns may seem overwhelming at first, but by following the tips presented here you will end up with a stunning dress and you will be the most beautiful of bride's on your wedding day.

Melinda Barton is an Internationally recognized wedding planner and author of the book Wedding Planning Secrets

She has given several TV and radio appearances and is passionate about helping everyone succeed in their desire to have the best wedding through simple and easy to use wedding planning secrets.

Should You Go for a Knock off Wedding Dress

Is there anything wrong with buying a knock off wedding dress replica with a small change to suit your needs? You could pay a few thousand dollars for the gown of your dreams, so why pay this much when you can buy the same wedding dress, with a few slight additions you may want for a tenth of the price?

Here are a few questions and answers about knock off wedding dresses.

Where Can I Find Knock-Off Wedding Dresses?

You can find many websites and auctions sites that offer knock-off wedding dresses like these. Normally you have to submit your measurements and wait about 30 days to receive the dress since they are made to order, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the quality.

How Can They Make a Knock-Off Wedding Dress So Cheap?

Normally these gowns are made in countries where the price to make a gown is a lot cheaper - places like China, India and some countries in Eastern Europe.

How Can I Be Sure of the Seller and the Quality?

Like anything in life, no you can’t be 100% sure you’re going to like your knock-off wedding dress – no more than you can be sure you’d love a designer original. You need to research the seller, see if they have any testimonials, and if you're buying off an auction site - check their feedback.

What Is the Average Price of a Knock-Off Wedding Dress?

Prices do vary, but you can normally pick out a gown for between one hundred and two hundred dollars. Not everyone can afford a really expensive gown, so the next best thing is a knock off wedding dress that’s a replica of the original designer you admired.

Yes, they look the same, but normally the knock off wedding dress has slight variations so they don’t affect the copyright of the designer. After all, this is your big day, so why should you go without the design you want when you can get a gown made to your liking, with any additions you want, at a fraction of the price you would expect to see in your local store?

How to Make the Wedding Dress of your Dreams

How to Make the Wedding Dress of Your Dreams is a book by Susan E Andriks.






The book includes a wealth of information about how to make your own wedding dress including:

- Who will sew it?
- Choosing the Style of your gown
- Designing your gown
- Bridal Fabrics
- Necklines and Collars
- Sleeves
- Hems
- Trains and Bustling
- Slips
- Headpieces, hats and veils

What do you Want in a Wedding Gown?

Choosing your wedding gown is an important moment in a woman’s life. Its become more a reflection of what you want your wedding to be instead of just the gown you want to wear. Women are choosing to make their wedding celebration an event not just a party after the ceremony.

Many women are looking at designing a wedding gown that suits an era that has styles they are attracted to. No longer is the wedding gown only a reflection of the styles of the day. Now women are more likely to pick what they want to wear instead of just succumbing to the pressures to wear the current style. No longer do they want to look like every other bride. Maybe the interest lies with a retro wedding where the wedding gown is actually a mini dress from the sixties.

Women are looking to express themselves with their choice of wedding gown. Although most brides still like to continue the tradition of marrying in white, which was first begun by Queen Victoria in 1840, many decide that a solid white wedding gown is not necessarily what they want. A little color on the dress to accent it or an off white or cream gown may better suit what she wants to wear.

What the groom would like to wear is also a consideration when choosing what the bride will wear. This is not as big an issue since usually a man will simply choose a tuxedo to wear and it will only be a matter of deciding on the style or color to be sure it suits her choice of gown.

What about those women who decide to marry in what their mother’s wore? This has come back into fashion as well. A woman who is fortunate enough to be built similar to her mother, and so chooses to wear her mother’s wedding gown is following in a tradition when daughters wore what their mothers had and maybe so did their sisters. No matter what a woman chooses to wear for her special day she will be beautiful and the day will be one she should remember forever.