Wedding Dress Patterns

We're all trying to save money this year. Wedding dress patterns are a great way to save money and have the gown of your dreams. You can find a wedding dress pattern in just about any designer or style you wish.

Unfortunately, many women are nervous about buying and using a pattern. But if you're unable to sew the dress yourself, there are many seamstresses that make their living doing just that, sewing wedding dresses. Most are adept with applique, embroidery and design as well. Some charge by the hour, but most will give you a price based on the pattern and material used. While it may be cheaper to have a designer wedding dress made, it probably isn't going to be cheaper to have a regular dress made.

You can buy books or check out wedding dress patterns at web stores. Most bookstores will have pattern books on hand. Many web shops carry the books for much cheaper. Amazon notoriously has used pattern books as well as new, for amazingly cheap prices. Ebay also has many wedding pattern books and the patterns themselves on sale.

Famous pattern shops like Vogue and McCalls have thousands of patterns available for not just wedding dresses, but evening gowns and formal dresses. Many formal dresses can be used as wedding gowns and are unusual and different designs.

The cost is going to vary, depending on your fabric choice. Fabric runs anywhere from $4.00 to much much more. For silk or satin plan on $10-12 a yard. A large heavy skirt will take upwards of 10 yards of fabric. Ouch. But that is for a tiered long trained dress. For a sheath you're looking at maybe 5 yards of fabric. Adding in appliques and beading and your price just went up. Of course, a wedding dress pattern won't be anywhere near the thousands of dollars a typical Vera Wang Wedding dress will cost.

Take a picture of the gown you'd like. If possible, go to a bridal shop and try it on and take pictures in it. Get up close to get the details in the pictures. Once you have great pictures, take them to local seamstresses and check the costs. A Vera Wang dress usually starts at about $1750 and goes up to $10,000, but if you only play $1000 to have the dress made, you've got it .. forgive the pun.. made.

With a little research and planning you can find some wonderful fabrics online for use with wedding dress patterns specifically.

Chiffon – The cheapest I found chiffon online was for $4.48 for white. The other colors, which weren't common, were about $6-7. There are hundreds of colors in yellow cream, red, black, mango (loved this one) and others. I found the cheapest at Amazon.com and that includes checking Ebay. *shrug*, but Ebay may have some more fabrics cheaper, there are always sellers willing to go lower, you may just have to check back there.

Taffeta – depending on whether the taffeta is silk, satin or polyester (until this very moment I had no idea that taffeta wasn't its own fabric hah), ranges were from $4.99 to 28.99 per yard (the silk taffeta was the highest price but wow was it pretty)

Lace – The prices I found were anywhere from $3.49 to $7.99

Silk – Ranges from $18.99 - $24.99 for solid colors

Velvet – If you're making any winter wedding dresses you may be interested in the velvet prices, however I couldn't find any plain white. I did find a magnificent ivory silk with velvet embroidery. While the embroider wasn't white, the fabric was so extraordinarily that I included it here. I think it will make a fantastically interesting dress.

Appliques run anywhere from $3-10 each and a packet of rhinestones for accessorizing your dress will run about $7 on average.

You can find some incredible bargains for wedding dress patterns and making your dream dress will be very easy. Remember to plan way ahead because a wedding dress can take months to make properly with all the beadwork and embroidery. Amazon has a few books but not many wedding dress sewing patterns. In order to find the perfect wedding dress sewing pattern, you'll want to visit one of the Simplicity, Vogue or McCalls sites.