Rachel Lamb Bridal Design

Last year I made a bespoke wedding dress for one of my brides with white lace and ruffled white organza skirts. It really was a wedding dress! The above pic is a finished shot. I am showing here below, without much explanation, mainly work in progress shots of the dress as it came together. It was a very labour intensive dress with all the white corded lace hand appliqued onto the bodice, and the skirt ruffles also all attached by hand.  Above: Not finished yet - only about half the ruffles attached at this stage. I thought this would be good to show as another wedding-dress-making journey from start to finish. I'm taking bookings for 2019 and 2020 weddings at the moment. Do drop me an email if you'd like to discuss having your wedding dress custom made. :) X

To keep things tidy, this is the 2nd and final part of the post I started back in March following bride Lois's fittings for her bespoke 70's style wedding dress.   I love this image above of Lois & Ash on their wedding day! The photo is by Matt Brown . Back in the early spring when I started this post , (pre-peak wedding season & moving location distraction!) I thought it would be useful to show some of the process involved when having a wedding dress made. We left bride Lois at her 2nd fitting, where it was decided that the toile (calico prototype dress) was looking good and that it was time to cut out the real thing... 3rd Fitting: The above images are the dress on a stand, and then Lois in the dress at her 3rd fitting. At this stage the dress is put together but with raw edges in most places - the hem hasn't been levelled and finished and there are no fastenings at the back, or buttons on the front and sleeves, and everyth...

Well...what a year. Quite a lot has happened this year, not only lots of weddings, but alongside these, the main thing that happened is I moved out of my unit and back to my home studio here in my garden, which is where I was working before I took on the unit. The unit was a short and sweet experiment, but sadly it just wasn't working for me or my business - far too much noise and very high heating bills were stressing me out, so I decided to cut my losses and come back to my original purpose built studio. It all happened unexpectedly fast in fact, back in March with 2 weeks notice, and as with all things wedding, the show must go on! So, I'm much happier now. My work space is peaceful again. I feel joy again! :-) My garden studio is smaller, but prettier, and I can concentrate! Bliss! I'm still doing what I do - designing and making wedding dresses of all shapes, sizes and designs for my lovely brides, so if you're looking for a designer - dressmaker to hel...

If you're thinking of commissioning a bespoke wedding dress, I thought it would be useful to return to bride Lois from my previous post , and to show some images from her fittings so the progress of having a dress made can be seen. I've divided this process into two posts. This is part 1. First fitting: For at least the first 2 fittings, the toiles (prototypes of the design to check the fit) are made in calico, or something similar. It's not the loveliest of fabrics but it works well for toiles because it's cheap, easy to make marks on and to unpick and tear up! It's fairly standard to use calico for toiles in the fashion industry. Sometimes it's called a 'muslin', which I think might be more of an American term. (NB: It's important to have the underwear you're going to be wearing on your wedding day for the first fitting and every fitting thereafter, otherwise it's not possible to fit very accurately.) ...

Continuing my mini series on my Bespoke wedding dress design service, I thought it would be useful to take a look at the most common FAQs that I get asked by brides-to-be. These questions come up over and over again, so here goes: How long does it take to make a wedding dress?  I get asked this all the time and there isn't one answer! It depends entirely on the design of the dress. If we put the hours end to end it can be anywhere from approximately 40 hours to approximately 160...ish. It could be more or less than this, but this is average for me and my work. However the way I work means the hours are spread out over months, rather than worked from start to finish in one go. I time every dress I make so I have a good idea of how long a particular design might take to make. Working on a toile. What lead time do you need?  Usually 6 months or more, but often it's less than this. A year is ideal. 18 months is wonderful. If it's a complicated design or requires much ...

Something I often notice when chatting with some brides-to-be is that sometimes there are a few misconceptions about what it means to have a bespoke wedding dress designed and made, so I thought it would be useful to create a little mini series of posts about the Bespoke side of my business. I'll be covering the benefits, fears and FAQs that often occur, and we'll be looking in on a fitting to give an idea of what happens and the progress made. This post will discuss the benefits of my bespoke service. I often ask my bespoke brides what they were looking for in the service, and why they decided to go for a bespoke design with me, and they often tell me without being asked! So the following are some of the general benefits of a Bespoke bridal design service, combined with comments from my own Bespoke brides from the past few years: 1. "I want a unique wedding dress - I don't want to look like everyone else." You know that feeling - you're engaged, you...

It is my pleasure to show you images of this 70's style wedding dress worn by bride Lois last summer at her marriage to Ash. Lois arrived at her initial appointment with a few ideas that had a definite flowing 70's vibe, and after chatting through ideas and drawing some sketches, we looked at various suitable fabrics and came up with her gorgeous, relaxed design. The dress was made in an ivory silk Georgette fabric over a lightweight satin under-layer. The sleeves were left sheer using the Georgette only. The dress was left unstructured for a relaxed and easy boho wedding style. Lois and Ash had their wedding photos taken by photographer Matt Brown  and Lois carried flowers by Chloe at Bare Blooms . I loved making this wedding dress for Lois, she was a pleasure to work with and the dress was so 'her'. :) I have some further images of the making of this wedding dress to show in the next post. All for now. xx