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I am so excited to share that last year I got married, and decided to knit my wedding dress! When I came to the UK to do my masters in knitwear design, as mentioned in the previous post, I made friends with a group of international students also doing their masters in various fields of study. One of those friends, Joe, had an older brother Luke (wink, wink), who I just happened to hit it off with. A year later we were engaged, and on May 19th 2024, we got married 💜.
We chose to have our wedding in Combe Martin, a beautiful coastal town in one of the most awe inspiring parts of England, North Devon. Luke and I had already shared some magical memories there, so it seemed like the perfect place to exchange vows.
Now, I didn’t initially think I was going to knit my wedding dress. I thought I wanted something with a bit more structure, but maybe I would knit a cute little cardigan to go with it a la Kate Middleton? I was doing a lot of research on what type of dress I would like, and wasn’t finding anything that was quite right. Then I talked to my 95 year old Grandma who insisted that I make it. “Who better to make the perfect dress for you, than you?” She had a point. After that call the vision came to me, and I knew exactly what I wanted to make.
Because we were getting married near the sea (and because it’s no secret that I’ve always loved mermaids, hehe), I knew I wanted a mermaid inspired dress. A lot of the dresses I had saved had that whimsical influence, and I wanted it to be magical.
Thankfully during my masters program, I experimented a lot with evening dress techniques. I was looking at the Art Deco era of fashion for inspiration, and noticed a lot of use of layered scallops. I wondered how I could create this look using my knitting machine, and was delighted when I found a technique that worked. Each scallop was knitted separately, and then joined together so that they overlapped. It looked a little bit flappery, a little bit feathery, and definitely mermaidy. While I loved the result, I found it very time consuming – especially the part where you need to seam up all of the edges! Because of that I didn’t end up using the exact technique for my masters collection, but I figured for my wedding dress I was willing to go the extra mile. I ended up knitting 42 individual scallops, which meant sewing up 42 teeny tiny side seams!
For the bodice of my wedding dress, I drew from the experimentation that I did during my masters of using traveling rib patterns. I’ve come to be fascinated by traveling ribs – they look so elegant, and am entranced by what they do to enhance the curves of a woman’s body.
I also knew I wanted a sweetheart neckline for my bodice, but that was something that I had yet to venture into. I knew I would need to use short rows, but how?! I documented my first attempt in an instagram post, which despite having lots of holes and mistakes, inspired me enough to know that I could figure it out.
I went on to create many iterations of the bodice, as you’ll see in that instagram post! It was certainly a long and intense design journey, but I finally landed on something that looked like what I had seen in my original vision. It was perfectly fitted, flattering, and looked reminiscent of seashells – win!
The next step was finding a yarn for my design. I went to Denier Studio in London, which sells deadstock cone yarns bought off designers that are ideal for machine knitting. I wasn’t totally set on having a white dress, but when I saw this yarn on the shelf it commanded my attention! It was SO shiny and pretty, and knew it would be perfect for my design. While a silk yarn might have been ideal for my dress, this was 100% viscose so gave the same pearly shimmer and luxurious drape. I decided to hold it together with a metallic thread yarn, which gave my dress that extra special sparkle.
In case you are wondering if it was smooth sailing from there, it certainly wasn’t! I bought 2 cones of the yarn with the owner telling me there was more in stock in the warehouse, but when I realized I didn’t have enough and went to buy it, it was sold out! I decided to get crafty and see if I could make it work. The problem was that 1 ply of this yarn was a bit see-through. I could get away with it with the scallops because they were layered, but for the bodice I would need to hold it double (where even then it was still a bit sheer!) The other problem with this yarn is that because it was itself 1-ply, it frayed easily and didn’t unravel well. I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes! I thought I might have just enough, but after finishing the front of my bodice, it was clear I didn’t. The back would need to be 1 ply.
Thankfully I was able to find a white bodysuit with a built in bra to go under my dress, which was a lifesaver because it perfectly matched and enhanced the dress! To deal with the see-though back situation, I decided to get some body jewelry to help distract from that area. I had already been interested in some sparkly arm jewelry sleeves, so it worked out quite well. I then also decided to have tulle bow “veils” at each shoulder to try to help cover the back – and these again ended up being really pretty and felt they helped bring the dress together. Happy mistakes!
In the end, I was so thrilled with how my dress turned out. Naturally I was a little nervous about hyping it up to everyone (and sharing the entire journey on my instagram!) in case it didn’t work out. I also had anxiety dreams about someone hugging me and getting caught on my dress at the wedding and unraveling the whole thing, lol. Thankfully nothing like that happened, and honestly I appreciated how comfortable and lightweight the dress was! We had an amazing photographer Esme Buxton Photography who took photos of us on the beach at golden hour, and it truly was the most magical day of our lives.
In case you are wondering, I do now have a pattern for the bodice of my dress! While it is really personal to me, I thought it was too pretty not to share, and it makes such a cute little top on its own. I’ve spent the last year and a half working on it, alongside 2 other new designs that are similar, “Flora Aura” hand knit and machine knit which looks like my original prototype, and “Total Sweetheart” hand knit and machine knit which uses a heavier sport weight yarn. “Bridal Bodice”, which is closest to my wedding dress, is now available as a hand knitting pattern and machine knitting pattern, and it is fabulous if I do say so myself! 😉
I hope you enjoyed hearing more about this journey!
💜 Lauren