Prom Dress Mock Up

I as usual wanted to be different and what better way to make sure that no one wears the same dress as you, than to design and make your own! So here is the first stage of my development. It has evolved into many different things over the past few weeks but now I’m confidant that I have a design that I’m satisfied with and that I can actually reproduce with the amount of fabric I have.
 I started off with a circle of fabric using a circle skirt formula, making it much shorter, gathered it and attached it to a neck band.







 I then did 6 box pleats and elasticated the bottom to make it measure about half of my waist.












 A neck band (no idea of the right terminology here) was put together consisting of the lace, and interlining and an actual lining. The lace was sewn to the interlining and that was put right sides together with the lining . The curves were then clipped and it was turned the right way out.






A skirt was then put together using ……..
In the picture the collar (aha, that’s the terminology ) hadn’t been sewn together yet so it had a few inches taken off the width for the final thing. Ditto for the waistband, but you get the general idea of what it’s supposed to look like.
So I ripped up all the pieces and placed them onto my fabric (a gorgeous dusky rose pink satin) and they didn’t fit, plus I was slightly worried about working on the bias with the circle skirt bodice. Anyway it was back to the drawing board.










I looked at the dresses in my wardrobe and I saw a bodice with princess seams and had an “aha” moment. So I made up another bodice using simplicity 4070. I also took out several inches of the width of the skirt as I only have 3 metres of satin. It’s draping all wrong but that’s only because its a bit long for Millie, but once it’s hemmed it will be fine.
The arm holes needed to be cut down a bit more which I did later. Again the width of the collar is all wrong so the dress is out of proportion but you get the idea. I also took out several inches of the width of the skirt.
So this is the finished design for the prom dress and I’m fairly happy with it, although it’s not how I first envisioned it. The next step is to make a wearable muslin out of some fancier fabric so I can practice my princess seams and to make sure that I can deal with the slippery fabric.

Winter Dress

I thought it was about time to put down the summer garments, and to make something that I can actually wear without becoming an icicle. The ironic thing is that the day I took pictures it was really sunny, but it works just as well with a casual blazer and thick black tights. This bodice is from the Simplicity K4070 and the skirt is two gathered rectangles.There were lots of issues with this dress, but I soldiered on and am really happy with the end product. The only negative thing about it is that the skirt sticks to my legs when walking and I’m not quite sure how to rectify that.The insides are awful, and from now on I’m going to make them as neat as possible in every garment that I make.

I made up the lining, and then fitted it to Millie. As per usual several inches were removed from the bust area. I also cut the neck down a bit. The bodice was then taken apart and drawn onto grease proof paper. The main fabric was then cut out using the new pattern pieces.

I had slight fitting issues and the bodice was too small even after adjusting the pattern to fit better. To rectify the problem I cut out a really long trapezium shape and added that to the side of the dress, placing a zip on the right hand side. As you can see from the picture, this was an awful idea as a) it wasn’t straight and b) it was completely visible from the front view of the dress. So that was removed.

I then decided that it would be a better idea to cut a slit in the middle of the trapezium which was a much better placement for the zip.
The arm holes ended up being too tight so i cut about 1cm in and then turned it over to make it wider.
I attempted to line it, but it was unsuccessful as most of the raw edges were showing. Next time I have a better idea of how to put everything together.

A Spring Dress

This dress is made out of my brothers old pillowcase and a forgotten wrap skirt. It was a bit of a disaster because I fitted to the bodice to Millie (my mannequin), who had gained a few pounds without me realising -_- I wanted it to look really professional but i’d already sewn on the lining so for some reason I didn’t unpick it, I just took the outer and the lining in at the same time resulting in an untidy inside.You can’t see from the picture but it’s actually a halterneck, using the leftovers of the skirt material. Strapless dresses and I don’t go very well together.Also, sorry for the posing. I’ll get the hang of it someday…

I cut out the bodice from simplicity 8383 and fit it to Millie, removing as usual inches and inches of the bust area.

I trimmed the top and bottom of the bodice so it looked how I wanted it to look. Then I put it with the skirt to see whether it worked or not.
















The next step was to rip apart the bodice and put it onto grease proof paper to make the pattern pieces. I also added a seam allowance.












This is the pillowcase that I cut the bodice out of.

A pic of the bodice in construction.

This is the dress before I sorted the hem out, but you get the idea.
Next time I’ll move the halter straps a little further in and i’ll make sure that Millie is actually the right size!
Now I just have to wait for weather warm enough to wear it out…