Will this ever look like anything other than a wedding dress?

[DorisLessingsCat]

I keep toying with the idea of dying my wedding dress (which is actually a skirt and a top) so I can wear it again at formal events.

If I did I would also use the material from the detachable train to make cap sleeves.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Or opinions on whether it would be worth it? Thanks

I'd give it a go. Ombre effect, much darker towards the bottom of the skirt, in either blue or grey.

If you dye it a pale colour it won't matter so much if the stitching doesn't dye. Pale grey, eau de nil, pale blue...

It might be easier to add straps rather than sleeves like this

Thanks Twinklestein, I will probably take it to my local friendly dress maker. I was thinking of sleeves something like this:
www.topwedding.co.uk/beaded-lace-cap-sleeve-floor-length-draped-chiffon-mother-of-the-bride-dress-lf26126905.html

Those are nice.

What is the fabric?

with 5-6 events a year you just need one outfit, maybe two at a stretch for winter/summer.

SoupDragon I don't know what the material is, it doesn's say on the label. Someone with more knowledge than me could probably guess.

specialsubject are you my husband? If we based dresses on need there would be no style and beauty board

Synthetic and natural fabrics need different dyes. If it is synthetic, I'm not sure you would successfully dye it yourself.

My friend went to a local seamstress with her wedding dress, 10 years after the wedding.
Between them they came up with a plan to take it apart, dye the fabric and have it remade into a nice dress that my friend can wear for special occasions.

(She surprised her DH with lunch in Paris via Eurostar, and wore the dress, which he did not know about!)

Pookamoo that's a lovely story DH has actually mentioned doing something nice to mark our 10 year anniversary which was a shock as he's never not usually romantic.

I would dye it but then wear it with other items. For a gala dinner recently I bought a full length skirt and top that matched in sort of a chiffon, dark grey with sparkles (it is significantly nicer that I make it sound!)
What I love is I've reworn both but with different items. So I wore the skirt with a cap sleeve cashmere sweater for a less formal event. The top I've worn for a dinner under a black suit.
So I say dye it but have a think about how they could work separately as well.

If you add sleeves made of a different material they may dye a different colour and then look hideous.