Laser-Cut Wedding Dress and Vest

Hello, everyone. Thanks for all the kudos and clicks from all the blogs out there that are linking here. This instructable shows off the laser-cut wedding dress I designed and made. I wanted to tell the story of why I made it and show off pictures that I hope will inspire you in your own projects.

This instructable doesn't contain too many details of the dress-making itself, because that's up to you - this Instructable is about the laser-cut detail. So here are lots of inspirational pictures, my vector files, and not too many words.

Check out more of my custom dress-making at http://www.jessicahinel.com

Step 1 Design a Dress

Every dress starts with some inspiration and a sketch. This is where a lot of ideas are quickly tried out. It's a great way to begin getting concrete feedback from the person your designing for. In this case, the bride got to see a lot of photos of existing dresses, to see how she felt about different aspects of their designs.

Somewhere in this process, it occurred to us that the sharp crisp lines that laser-cut fabric would have would look great on the lean lines and clean profiles of the dresses the bride was favoring. So, I began to explore this idea in the sketches. As the drawings progressed, I created more finished images and began laying out the laser-cut design. You can see one of the final sketches, below, and some of the other dresses that served as inspiration.

Comments

[BamaBob]

Thank GOD I'm already married. If my wife saw this BEFORE we married . . . . You'd be a getting a call to make another dress! Fine job!

[sioux gardner]

love your creation - thanks for sharing - I'm inspired!
can you tell me

does the laser 'seal' the cut edges and prevent fraying, or have you any other solution?
Is the dress lined in black - or is it simply left to hang?

WOW!

[WhyHello]

amazing

[bicycletechnocrat]

Wow! Stunning! This Dress is wunderful - and it even has got a slight nerdy touch through the CNC-lasers involved ;-). This can't get any better!

Also your bride is realy beautyful!

Thanks for sharing this project :-).

[Broom]

Nice work. Great idea.

Why didn't you starch and/or iron the silk before cutting? (There's soft creases visible under the cutter head.) Starch is easy to soak out, and ironing of course is harmless enough, if you set the temperature carefully.

[The Ideanator]

This is an excellent wedding dress. I like it!

[duckythescientist]

Absolutely the most beautiful wedding dress that I have ever seen!!!!

[Taylor Swift]

that is really cool! wered you get the idea?

[caitlinsdad]

Nice. Is this real organic silk or something synthetic?  I would guess the laser singes and binds the cut edge whereas some other material would need to be sized to keep it from fraying.

[jess17a]

i used a 35% silk/65% rayon blend.  silk and other fabrics made of protein, like rayon, produces a nice cut edge especially at a higher power setting on the laser cutter.  synthetics like acrylic and polyester also work and will have a edge that resists fraying at a much lower power setting.

[misstinabunni]

Rayon is a cellulosic fiber, it's usually made from wood byproducts (sawdust or maybe bamboo). Keratin fibers (hair) and other animal serum fibers (silks, spiderwebs I suppose) are the only protein based fibers, as most natural proteins come from animals.

[lala1989]

i'm move.

[rens]

thanks for that...what a stunning dress.  can you tell me how you stop the fabric from fraying once it's been laser cut.

[fantasia1940]

This is an incredible, wonderful dres!! :) so inspirational and a great idea of resourcefulness.  I'm really curious about the laser cutter that you had access to - I know these are dangerous and highly regulated.  Is this personally owned?  Or does it belong to a business or university?

[rattyrain]

I can see from one of the pictures that he is using an Epilog laser cutter.  I heard they are the best consumer-end laser cutters for the money, and are relatively safe.

[karnold70]

Simply... stunning. And I deeply appreciate that the Groom's vest was designed to match. Too many people make the wedding wholly about the Bride. It's nice to see the man included in the overall style.

[colargolet]

 OMG! Truly spectacular! One of the most beautiful wedding dresses I've seen. Great idea! 

[Super_pride1146]

What a lovely dress! It would have been *perfect* if the bride had included above-elbow white gloves, but thats just me.

[Fifibear]

WOW - Stunning - both in the design and the working. I had assumed a high synthetic blend as silk itself will not 'burn' easily. I work with heat and fabrics and use synthetics for that reason. What's the highest silk content you can cut with the laser. I love this!!

[jess17a]

 You can cut any silk with a laser, you just might have to use a pretty high heat setting (which can cause browning around the edges).  Silk is, like hair, made of protein, so will melt when you heat it up.  Not as much as something like polyester, but will still seal a cut edge nicely.

[jumpfroggy]

Wow - looks amazing!  Great use of a laser cutter.

[AT]

WOW!

[katschy]

Brilliant - and some excellent work.  Thanks for posting such a terrific Instructable!!

[canida]

This is incredible.  Nice work!

[balloondoggle]

Very nice dress, and a beautiful bride!  Congratulations on both the marriage and the nicest wedding dress I've ever seen - and I work in the wedding business!

[bertus52x11]

Is there a way of using the laser cutter and erasing the groom?
(just kidding). Nice job!

[Earthwreck24]

Dude you must be rich

[magickaldan]

You are very talented. Nice Work and thanks for sharing.

[randofo]

This is pretty awesome. It's probably one of the nicest things I've ever seen made with a laser cutter.

[zascecs]

I agree.

Pretty soon, we won't be using things like scissors anymore... 

[yokozuna]

How many times have I told you not to run with the laser cutter?!

[zascecs]

Don't hold your laser cutter at the sharp end!!!

wait...    |=/ 

[Sunbanks]

Wow! That isso cool!

[stephenniall]

 Wow beats acrylic and mdf any day . A very beautiful Dress .