First, a little background about why the Jewish bride and groom wear white on their special wedding day.  The custom of wearing white garments is common in Judaism.  There are several occasions when Jews wear white: Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and a Jewish wedding.  On these special holidays, we beseech G-d to forgive us of our sins committed against Him and we pray for a chance to begin anew in another year.  We wear white to emulate the angels in heaven which symbolize purity of sin because our goal in this earthly world is to get closer to G-d and reach a level of holiness close to the angels.

On a typical Jewish wedding day, the bride and groom take upon themselves a fast until chupah time, and they pray independently for a bright beginning to start their lives anew as one entity.  The groom typically wears a kittel and the bride wears a modest (and hopefully kosher) wedding gown.  On this holy event, we want to invite G-d’s Divine Presence into the wedding hall and it is appropriate to act and dress modestly to merit this.

And your camp shall be holy, and there should not be seen amongst you anything immodest, ervat davar. — Devarim (Deuteronomy) 23:15

The question is raised whether a wedding gown can be sewn by an amateur.  At KosherPatterns.com, our belief is a resounding ‘Yes!’  Designing a wedding gown is a totally different matter, but we have been striving to provide modest and kosher sewing patterns to the general public who aspires modesty in their lives so that they become more attached to our Father-in-Heaven.  Our tznius bridal gowns are tastefully designed with ample ease so as not to compromise on the femininity of the bride.

We strove to the challenge of our reader, a modest clothing advocate, who wants to see simple modest and kosher wedding gown patterns for amateurs to make on their own budget that is achievable.  So, we looked into what My Sloper currently offers and we came up with a sampling of eight different easy styles that one can make.  Here is our portfolio of sample wedding gown patterns from an ascending order of complexity.

Our sister site, KosherBridal.com, is now offering some of these styles for sale.

 Cowl Neckline A-line Maxi Gown

We start off with a waist-level bodice A-line maxi-length gown adorned with a cowl neckline and gathered sleeves with a high cuff.  This is a rather easy pattern to generate and to make.

Empire Waistline A-line Tiered Maxi Gown

This is another piece which is easy to make by assembling all the pieces together, a tiered empire-waistline a-line gown with a mock collar for formality.   We use plain sleeves for this, but of course, our end-user can replace the plain sleeve with other sleeve patterns that come with My Sloper.

Simple A-line Dress with Lace and Front Overlays

This option is actually inspired by a wedding gown from one of our clients who chose a similar pattern from a magazine and had it professionally made by a seamstress.  The gown is a simple A-line dress but it has added to it a frontal overlay from the same material that reaches the high-waist level.  In addition, a sheer lace overlay is added to the plain sleeves and skirt and Venetian lace borders all the overlays.

Layered Tiered A-line Gown with Sleeve Flounces

For those who love flounces and layers, this pattern is another easy one to generate and sew.  The layered tiers are flounces that are added on to a regular tiered skirt pattern.  Add two pairs of tapered flounces at the sleeve caps for a matching layered effect.

Multi-paneled A-line Gown

The gathered sleeves with high cuffs return for this pattern, matched with a waist-level multi-paneled skirt.  Our illustration shows ten panels.

Box-pleated Drop Waist Maxi A-line Gown

This pattern calls for a drop-waist bodice paired with box-pleated skirt and regular gathered sleeves with cuffs.  Add a nice bow or flowers along the waist seam line for a lovely feminine touch.

Cowl Neckline Blouson Waist Laced Caftan Sleeves and Skirt Overlay

This Victorian-style gown has a laced Band collar with a Cowl neckline and Blouson waist.  In addition it is laced with Caftan Sleeves and skirt overlay for a soft feminine charm.

A-line Gown with a Drop-waist Shawl Collar Jacket

This last pattern is probably the most time-consuming of all, only because it comes with a formal shawl-collar jacket with turn-back cuffs.  The gown itself is a simple A-line dress pattern that comes freely with My Sloper Demo.

Sewing Time

All the above patterns are easy for beginners and can be sewn in a day or two, depending on the sewer’s sewing speed and comfort level.  Pattern assembly is a breeze with My Sloper.  The most amount of time spent on these wedding gown patterns is not the sewing but the fabric and notions selection and purchase.  Learn how to estimate fabric yardage.  Lining a garment depends on the opacity of the outer fabric.    Satins come in different grades and textures, but most bridal satins are quite opaque and of medium weight. We are not limited to using satin as the fabric of choice.  We can also try cotton or cotton-polyester blend jacquard or chenille fabric that are usually medium weight.

Ordering a Custom Pattern

Contact us if you would like one of the above patterns custom-made for you based on your measurements.

Download My Sloper Dress Demo

Get a free dress sloper pattern by downloading the DEMO version of My Sloper Dress.

Bridal Gown Gallery

Here’s a Bridal Gown Gallery with prototypes made from some of the designs above.  Some of them are available for sale at our sister shop.

The post Tznius Bridal Gowns appeared first on KosherPatterns ®.

Profile

Head over to the Jacket/Coats tab.  Enter your custom profile for a Jewish male.

Kittle Sample Profile

Coat Ease

The default ease for a Jacket/Coat is as follows.  Note that the Neck Ease of 2-cm is added to the overall Neck Girth.  You can change any of the ease values to make it work for you.  When you choose a separate collar from the Neckwear-Collars tab (see below), you will need to add this ease to the Neck Girth measurement.

Default Jacket/Coat Ease

Collar Style

Select the first icon, No/Separate Collar.

Head over to the Neckwear=Collar Tab and pick a collar for your kittel.  For this sample, we choose a Traditional Collar.

Traditional Collar

We then style the collar as follows.  The highlighted areas show what are needed: Neck Girth, Back Collar Width, Unit (in or cm), Shoulder Slant and Collar Tip.  Remember we need to add the 2-cm Neck Ease to our Neck Girth.  Whem we are satisfied, we click the Draw button to draw the pattern and click Print to print to PDF.

Kittel Collar Styling

Coat Styling

Kittel Styling

We return to the Jacket/Coats tab and continue styling our kittel.  Since a kittel is usually worn at knee length, we select the jacket/coat length to be Knee instead of other options (drop-waist, hip, 2-in below the hip, and mid-calf).  We ignore the shoulder pad option.

We can choose a plain kittel that looks like a lab coat or we can style it with pleats.  For our sample, we choose Front Shoulder Pleats with 3 pleats of 2-cm wide each and a Center Back Box Pleat of 4-cm wide.  When you sew the back pleat, you can sew it as box pleat or inverted box pleat.  We then choose a straight side seam because this is for a man’s coat.  We ignore the lining and use the default.

Kittel Opening

We then style the opening of the kittel.  A kittel normally has a front button-down opening. We can choose from three button-down openings: Add-on, Separate, or Faced button-stand.  The Add-on button-stand is easy to sew; the Separate button-stand allows you have contrasting fabric for the button-stand that matches the collar and sleeve cuffs (if any); and the Faced button-stand is hidden from view as it is turned inside the garment.

Then we click Draw Back Coat to preview the pattern generated for the Back Coat.  At this point, we may tweak the sleeve cap if needed and re-draw the pattern.  If we are happy with the back pattern, we then draw the front pattern.  When we are happy with both patterns, we can print each pattern separately via the Print button.

Sample Kittel Pattern

Here is a sample drawing of the front and back of a kittel styled by My Sloper.  Note that the belt is not included in the pattern and you will have to generate that separately with ease based on your desired width and length.  The front pleats which run from the shoulder down to the hem may be sewn partially until the chest or waist level and left open below.

Front Kittel with Front Shoulder Pleats and Separate Button-stand

Back Kittel with Center Back Pleat

 Kittel Decorations

Commercial kittels come with fancy decorations which include trims.  We can sew a wide ribbon along the sleeve hem line, collar border and front button-stand and replace the regular buttons with snap buttons underneath the front button-stand.

Front Kittel with Decorations

Back Kittel with Decorations

Kittel Buttons Overlap

Unlike Western secular mens’ wear which follow the left-over-right button overlap, a kittel follows  the right-over-left convention.  Here’s a snippet of this tradition from the article, ‘The Man in the Glass Case’:

There are two more customs I would like to note here. In the world of Western fashion, men button their garments left over right. The origin of this custom, I am told, was to make access to weapons easier. When you meet a stranger be on guard and have your weapon ready. To ensure that you bear no malice stretch forth your right hand and shake to show you conceal no weapon.

Jews have no fear of this. Our garments are traditionally buttoned right over left because we bear no weapons and when we meet we need not show that our hands are empty. Instead, we say: “Shalom” (“Peace!”) The Kabbalahsays that the right side of a person should always take precedence over the left, for the right side of man signifies kindness while the left signifies sternness, justice and retribution. Just as G-d created the world primarily out of love and kindness, so love and kindness should predominate in men’s dealings with one another. Therefore one buttons the right over the left even though this may hamper the drawing of a weapon.  — the Man in the Glass Case, Chabad.org

Learn More About My Sloper

We hope you enjoy this tutorial of how to design a kittel using My Sloper Version 1.8.  Besides a kittel, you can also make other styles of jackets and coats.  We look forward to working with you to make modest and kosher garments for children and adults.  To learn more about My Sloper, please visit our front page.

The post How to Design a Kittel appeared first on KosherPatterns ®.