ethicalweddings.com

I am having my wedding  dress made by ethical dressmaker Jo Mackin of Wholly Jo’s… and this week I tried it on for the very first time!

Jo has been busy over the last few weeks making my ‘toile’ dress - a mock-up dress made of very cheap fabric bought from a charity shop.  The idea is that all the alterations to the design and fit are done on cheap fabric, and the bio-sustainable silk that will be ordered for my real dress can then be cut exactly right first time.

So on Wednesday I tried on the ‘toile’ dress… and was delighted to find I absolutely loved it, even in the slightly odd stripey colour scheme of the toile fabric!  It was very useful to find out how it felt to move around in and Jo has said that later on, while she is making the real dress, I can use the toile dress to practice dancing in.

It’s been great helping Jo to design the dress.  I have sleeves that float down like tails from the elbow, which makes it really different to all the strapless dresses that are filling the shops at the moment.  And the dress is in two pieces - a fitted top and a long, full skirt, so that I can dye them and wear them again seperately.  I like the idea of being able to reuse the dress so that I make the most of all the money and energy used to make it.  And Jo has cleverly designed the bodice and the low hem of the top so that it looks like a traditional full-length dress.

I have decided to have dress made out of bio-sustainable silk, which is made using more ethically sound factory processes than is usual for silk, and which contains 40% hemp.  It’s a beautiful shiny fabric, soft once you’ve washed it, and will go well with my bridesmaids’ dresses!

I asked my four bridesmaids to choose their dresses from the local bridal shop in  my home town, as I couldn’t quite afford to have all of them made.  When we bought the shop dresses, I had to explain to the bridal shop ladies why I was having my dress made by Jo.  The shopkeeper raised her eyebrows when I mentioned organic and bio-sustainable fabrics, and asked me how much it was costing… but was astonished when I told her.  She said my dress from Wholly Jo is about the same cost, or maybe even cheaper than having a dress made from normal fabric.  It is also cheaper than many of the ready-made wedding dresses available in the bridal shop.

 The bridesmaids’ dresses we bought there are lovely, and I found everyone in the shop very helpful.  But it is much more fun going to Jo’s workshop! And Jo is going to use a piece of the fabric from the bridesmaids’ dresses as a detail on my dress, which will make them all match up quite nicely I think.

Now that Jo has made some alterations to the fit, I will try the toile dress on one more time in a couple of weeks.  And then it will be time to make the real one… I can’t wait!