Miss Havisham; Wedding Dress + Veil

Without a wedding dress and a veil, our character would look like any other old lady. So me and my partner, Rachel, decided to make both, following Pip's description of her; 

"And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white." 

"But, I was that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lusre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness in her eyes." (Dickens, C. (1986) Great Expectations  (pages 54/55- chapter 8),  Marshall Cavendish Partworks Ltd, 58 Old Compton Street, London  WIV 5PA)

We got 2m of yellowish lace, little fake flowers and a headband to hold the veil with. First we cut the lace almost in half, so the piece that will be used for the dress is a few inches bigger. 

Veil

Queen Victoria chose Honiton lace for her veil and dress; supporing the British lace industry. Her veil was long with a wreath of flowers at the top of her head.

Portrait of Queen Victoria wearing her wedding veil

anniversary present for Prince Albert

oil on canvas

1847

Artist: Franz X. Winterhalter

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_dress_of_Queen_Victoria)

Miss Havisham and Pip

Great Expectations

2012

(source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/great-expectations-2012/images/32915601/title/miss-havisham-photo)

We took the smaller piece of fabric, cut it in half, so it looks bigger and thicker. Then sewed it around the headband. Then, we stuck the flowers in the fabric around the headband to decorate it. It wasn't perfect, but neither was Miss Havisham's. 

lace, flowers, headband

Sewing the lace around the headband

Decorating 

Final look

Finall look

Wedding dress

We are both built very differently, so we wanted to make a 'dress' that we could both wear and adjust it. As we have already researched Victorian wedding dresses, we noticed that they all had off shoulder sleeves, and we wanted to create something similar. 

Queen Victoria in her wedding dress 

(1842)
Oil on canvas
Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter

(source: http://thedreamstress.com/2011/04/queen-victorias-wedding-dress-the-one-that-started-it-all/)

We decided to tuck in and wrap the lace around a creme silk top which she already had. Trying different styles to see what looks best and decided to take the lace over the shoulders and pinning it at the back. To keep it in place at the front we tied a creme headband at the and decorated it with some fake flowers. 

Silk top and lace

creating a look

Final look

(dress + veil created on Feb 16th 2015)

Neither one of us is very good at sewing, but we had fun and I think this will work well in our assessment. At the end we added a bouquet of white fake flowers which she dipped in coffee to make them look old and dead. 

Fake flowers dipped in coffee

http://www.confetti.co.uk/inspiration/bridal-veils-through-the-decades/

reference found on Feb 16th 2015