Why I made my wedding dress (and how I did it in 3 days)

Why I made my wedding dress (and how I did it in 3 days)

• 7.24.2026

I just got married again, a much smaller wedding but my first wedding when I was 23. I thought I would keep things simple and choose a store-bought dress, but… It didn’t work out. Of course not!

Let me tell you the story, and how my mom and I did it in three days.

Non-iPhone photos by Marissa Casillas Photography.

For my first wedding, I was engaged for a year and a half and I absorbed everything I could about DIY wedding culture of the early 2010s. We brides were so excited back then. No one had any money, so the vintage fabric scraps and burlap and rusty bicycle decor became original and unique to each couple, not just the necessity. We were all reacting to the clean and boring weddings of the 2000s when everyone wanted fancy and David’s Bridal strapless. The Knot, Green Wedding Shoes, and other wedding blogs were brand new and so fresh and inspiring. I made a completely original dress for myself that I loved! It was tea length, a basic strapless pattern, but I added wide straps and multiple layers of gray, ivory, and light pink tulle, and silk fabric flowers, I handmade and sewed in a cascading pattern. You can see it all here.

This time, I wanted a totally different wedding. I’ve seen enough “creative” and “original” weddings. I wanted timeless. I thought, for sure I wouldn’t be that picky about the dress, just something elegant and smooth, no lace or sparkles, off-white.

Well, I tried on so many at several bridal shops, and I ordered one online, a vintage 2009 J.Crew weddings dress that was the same one she wore in I Love You, Man. It was elegant, but the silk had yellowed overtime, and it smelled like old silk, and it didn’t have a train, and the hem was uneven, and it was a size too big (that part I knew when ordering).

For a long time, I planned on my mom helping me take in that dress, so I planned ivory shoes and an ivory veil, etc. But as we got closer, I realized it just wasn’t right.

I realized I really regretted not making my dress. So, 1.5 weeks before the wedding, I decided… I still have time!

Custom Made Wedding Dress at Home

On our way to a fun outing one Friday, I packed up the kids and brought them to Mill End, a nice fabric store in Beaverton. I looked through the bridal fabrics and found a sort of shimmery creamy white polyester twill.

It was a little whiter than I wanted, but the ivories looked beige. I couldn’t find quite the right fabric, but it was close.

I didn’t have a pattern yet, so I got 7 yards of that and 7 yards of a nice rayon lining. The rayon was great for the bodice, although I wish now that I had done a 100% cotton basic fabric for the skirt lining, and done it as an interlining to give the skirt more body.

I bought this pattern from Etsy and my mom helped me modify it. I wanted a slightly high waist.

My mom cut out the bodice… We did two muslins out of scrap fabric first. She tends to cut things looser than I want, and pattern sizing is completely whack, so at first they were definitely too loose and the straps too long. We tweaked, and she ended up taking out some fullness from the top of the princess seams as well.

We gave the bodice a white cotton interlining for structure, and then the rayon as a standard lining.

The fabric was definitely a little bouncy/high in body. Again, not the absolute perfect fabric, I wish it wasn’t quite so shimmery and quite so white, but it worked.

With lots of pressing, it behaved.

We got it to this point in about one day. She worked on the bodice and I cut out and then serged and pleated the skirt and the skirt lining.

Then, my mom went on a trip for a couple days with her sister who was visiting! So I fought my typical Monday evening laziness after the gym and came and sewed in her sewing room. I attached the skirt to the bodice and installed the zipper, but it was still a little too loose.

I came back another day with the kids… Put them in front of the TV while I took out and reinstalled the zipper, tighter. (This is why I almost never sew now that I have kids and plenty going on. It is definitely a better solo activity.)

Finally, I pinned up where I thought the bustle should be for the train, and then my mom sewed the hook and eye once she got back and confirmed.

My mom was in charge of arranging my train at the altar, she must have been testing it out here... here’s the dress!

It was fun to get dressed in my own room and have the kids and everyone right here in our comfortable home.

Mirror selfie while waiting for my turn to go downstairs and walk down the aisle!

The thing about making your own clothing, or wedding dress, is you think you should be able to get exactly what you want. But sometimes you can’t find the fabric that you want, or even when you have a professional seamstress helping you modify a bodice pattern, it’s not 1000% exactly what you pictured.

But I put all that aside on the wedding day, and I really enjoyed wearing this dress.

I was surprised at the range of options and prices for traditional veils... I went with this one in a "soft white" (hard to find) from Amazon for under $20. It's the 75" chapel length and was a little shorter than the dress train.

The dress bustled up nicely for dancing, and I'm glad I went with the simple back instead of something lower and more dramatic (like some of the ones I tried on). 

It’s a lot like some of my inspirations you can see on my Pinterest board, and it’s also very “me”! So I guess in a way I did get an original dress after all!

So grateful to have this skill and a mom who’s around and has time and love to share to help.