Below is a photo of a steeplebush wildflower embroidery sample. I sampled all the embroidered flowers before executing them on Allie’s organic cotton wedding dress. The stitches were worked delicately on two layers of organic cotton gauze fabric and then the back layer was trimmed away.

Designing a custom embroidered wedding dress.

The custom wedding dress process starts with an in-studio consultation.

Allie looked at several wedding dress styles and fabrics. We considered silk chiffon and georgette before settling on something more rustic, a natural colored organic cotton gauze. I sketched out several sillouettes based on her favorite features; a low open back, little puff sleeves and a flowy skirt. 

Allie and I sat down to talk about her favorite wildflowers and to choose embroidery colors.

We made a list of flowers:

Dandelion
Coneflower
Red Clover
Plantain
Forget-me-knot
Steeplebush
Asters
Lupine

We pulled out the embroidery floss colors together and adjusted the pallet several times.

I sketched the wildflowers and assigned them various colors for Allie’s approval.

Then I stitched mini hand embroidered samples of each flower. Our original list of flowers was much longer. We eliminated poppies and blue eyed grass as we perfected the color story.

I sent photos to Allie so she could approve the flowers, colors and size of the embroideries. I made adjustments based on her feedback. At her fitting we pinned the samples to her wedding dress. After she approved the flowers, and I approved the fit of her gown, I began embroidering the flowers on her wedding dress.

Below is a sample I made of a cone flower. I made several samples before deciding which stitch I would use for the stems and petals of each flower.

Below are embroidery samples of the poppies, plantain, steeplebush and lavender.

I used one end of embroidery floss for these delicatly embroidered wildflowers. I make these little color cards of single strands of embroidery floss, it is similar to a painters pallet but in thread.

To the right you can see the scale of the embroidery as it is being worked on Allie’s organic cotton wedding gown.