The fabric is shot velvet - smokey gray and teal with embriodered cream lace inserts in the back train. The entire dress is bias cut. There are over 100 covered buttons down the centre back and the train has a mini pleated skirt effect.
As there was just me I drafted the pattern from scratch, cut and fitted it by eye as you can't get the best fit by doing it yourself while wearing the garment and pinning velvet is difficult as it marks the fabric. Luckily it paid off as it fit like a glove in the end, better than on this display dummy which has NO curves. Unfortunatley I didn't realise until the dress was finished how revealing the front was so had to stitch lace onto my bra so I wasn't flashing the Vicar in an unbrideley fashion!
Sewing velvet is a nightmare at best of times as the pile tends to walk - I got around this by stapling the seam allowance. Underpressing was also difficult as I don't have a velvet board so the entire underpressing and offpressing process was done with steam - lots of it. This is way the bottom appears crushed - the dress has been stored (not flat as it should have been), I can't bear to press it and ruin the pile.
