Trash It - Made to be trashed

I’ve always loved Trash The Dress and Offbeat Bride. Since I’m in no danger of getting married, I’ve been looking out for someone else to inflict Ideas upon. Lo and behold, my pal Maggie and her fiance Alan liked the idea of a completely non-conventional pre-wedding photo shoot.

Previously, I’ve bounced this idea off my photographer friend Edwin. He shoots a lot of weddings and was keen to try something new. When it was confirmed that we’re doing this, Edwin brought Shen along to help with the shoot. Two photographers? Yay! Get wet, muddy and go swimming in your wedding dress? More yays!

What’s left is to worry about is the dress. Edwin’s done some research and found that there’s is no fucking way any bridal shop in town will let one of their several thousand ringgit gowns be in the same sentence as a word which means “we might destroy the dress in the process”. Maggie and I agreed that the best option is to make the dress ourselves.

I happen to know someone who just bought a sewing machine and has the same project temperament as us (meaning once we get excited about getting something done, we become unstoppable forces). Peggy joins the team, and immediately starts sketching stuff down right at the table where we popped her the question.

Our shooting schedule was divided into two Sundays, and we had exactly one week to come up with a dress. There were a lot of late nights but we came up with two.

The cat is not impressed by our puny efforts.

None of us have any experience with making actual clothes. Peggy refused to call this “dress making” and insisted on calling it “crafting”. We eventually settled for the term “dress hack” because we’re essentially taking old clothes and turning it into something else. Our main source of material? Old curtains we rescued from a thrift store and a few items of clothing Maggie don’t plan on using anymore.

Bearing in mind that the dresses may not survive the photo shoot, we only focused on details that will show up on the photo and didn’t bother with things nobody will be able to see. The ruffles above were secured with two or three fast stitches.

Both Peggy and Maggie are a lot handier with the seamstress-y work than I am. I played the role of spare pair of hands, caterer, cheerleader, driver and over-glorified thread picker. I also found a pattern to make roses out of felt and made a bouquet with Peggy.

When the first Sunday came, Alan drove us all down to Pasir Pandak to meet Edwin and Shen. The crack team of dress hackers found that their work didn’t end the night before when we finished the outfits. Peggy especially had plenty of on-the-spot adjustments to make to the dresses, as well as make-up and hair.

Making sure the dress sits properly over the ruffle (left), and cutting off the
corners of the train because we couldn’t decide until ground zero (right).

The whole week’s work is about to be put to the test. And boy, they did. Maggie and Alan are willing to try just about anything.

 After all that punishment Maggie plied on the ruffly dress, the only casualty was this:

Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.

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