'Hedwig' Wedding Dress

This wedding dress design is quite dramatic. It's based around another wedding dress, worn by Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp in 1774. The wedding dress that inspired this is really beautiful, it is a silver colour and has the most amazingly wide skirt. It's not the sort of thing that many people would choose to wear to get married in now though, particularly because the waist looks unhealthily tiny. My design uses some of the elements of the Hedwig wedding dress to create something that could be worn today.

The design is a creamy white, because although the original wedding dress is silver, I really like a traditional white wedding dress. The design has short sleeves that are off the shoulders, with a ruffle of very pale lace all along the neckline. Around the neckline there is also embroidery in a pale gold thread that follows the shape of the neckline. Other than this, the bodice is fairly plain. The skirt is very wide, and has a ruffled overskirt around the sides and back. The underskirt has lines of lace evenly spaced down the skirt. The skirt is floor length.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding dress design and images © Bronzedale Design

A Short Break...

Hi,

I've got a hectic couple of months ahead, so I'm just posting to let anyone reading know that I won't be posting any designs for the next 2 months. I'm leaving all my previous blog posts up, so feel free to look through the designs I have already posted. I'm looking forward to having a couple of months break, to give me time to come up with some new ideas ready for November. In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, please also look at my every-day-wear designs on my other blog www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/, and I will be back here on Tuesday 1st November with new designs for the winter.

See you soon,

Bronzedale Designs.

Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Girl With Flowers' Cloak

Sorry this post is late, I usually try to get my posts for my bridal blog out on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I've not got around to it until today, this week.  

I found the painting which inspired this cloak on a blog post about the artist Robert Reid. This cloak is inspired by a painting by him called Girl with Flowers. The painting doesn't show much of the cloak she is wearing, but I have used the colours of the painting and the flowers that are around her in this design.

The cloak is intended to be made of a blue-mauve satiny fabric, and to use the same material for both the outer and the lining of the cloak. The outer side of the cloak is embroidered all over with purple flower shapes and swirls. The lining of the cloak is mostly plain, but has a double line of decorative stitching running down it at intervals. The cloak could potentially be made reversible with either side able to be used as the outer side of the cloak. The cloak has a short, collar-like panel where is fastens at the front. The longest point of the cloak reaches to just above the knees, but the shape of it means that the edges only reach to the waist. So it's definitely more of a decorative cloak, than one that could be worn for warmth.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here on November 1st, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Cloak design and image © Bronzedale Design

'Marie Spartali Stillman' Dress

This dress is inspired by a painting I came across by Marie Spartali Stillman called Madonna Pietra degli Scrovegni. The dress in the painting is really beautiful, and so I have attempted to copy elements of it for this design. The painting only shows the top half of the dress, so I have had to improvise the skirt.

 The dress is made up of an under-blouse and a dress over top of it, joined together. The blouse is a mustard yellow colour and is pleated along the neckline, it has long sleeves. Over top of this is the dress which is a moss green colour. It has pleats around the neckline and puffed sleeves. It has a belt in the same mustard yellow colour as the blouse. The skirt is floor length.

 I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Fossil' Special Occasion Outfit

I drew this design after I'd shown my sister the Poiret inspired 'frock' that Lady Sybil wore in the first series of Downton Abbey. She really liked it, and so I designed this outfit in colours that she wears often.

The design is a rust colour, with green ammonite fossil shapes printed across the material. The belted middle, the sleeves and the ankle cuffs are in the same green used on the fossil prints. The sleeves are loose flowing sleeves that reach to just above the elbow, and the design uses a wide, high waisted belt panel. The ankle cuffs would be gathered and elasticated. The design would fasten at the back with a hidden zip.

Pattern made from shapes used on the design

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Outfit design and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Love Letter' Party Dress

I had the idea of designing a dress based around a letter after coming across the book (and blog) Letters of Note. I'd also flicked through a book a few months earlier about John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife Sarah Churchill. Quite how the two ended up coming together I'm not sure. Possibly because I remembered thinking that John Churchill wrote dramatic letters to his wife.

This dress is based around two letters that the John Churchill sent to his wife in 1706, from the Hague, and all the writing on the dress is taken from those two letters. I would have loved to have been able to have recreated his writing on the dress, but I don't seem particularly skilled at copying handwriting, so the handwriting ended up as a rather poor approximation.

The dress itself is a parchment colour and reaches to just below the ankles. It has plain, parchment coloured straps and would fasten using a zip at the back. The skirt of the dress is ruffled and hitched, the hitching in the skirt would be made adjustable using ribbons inside the skirt, which would mean that the skirt length of the dress could be adjusted slightly.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Dress design and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Magpie' Evening Coat

This is quite a dramatic evening coat design inspired by magpies. It is black and floor length with a high collar and no sleeves. The magpie is edged in gold and the wings use cut outs, so that pieces of a white satin panel underneath show through. The coat fastens at the side, with the panel that features the wing and tail of the magpie wrapping round to meet the panel featuring the head. It fastens at the side with two discreet buttons.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening Coat design and image © Bronzedale Designs