As a child I remember dressing up in many attempts to wear this dress, White skirts and shirts with lots of glitter, or a vaguely period dress in our dress up box, but it was never quite the same. After I put this finished dress on I squealed and then shouted “I’m a ******* princess!”
It was a good moment.
Barring a few accessories of varying importance the dress constitutes the whole costume, and thankfully it’s actual construction isn’t super complicated. It does, however, involves a heck of a lot of trim and hand sewing, so get ready with that thimble.
This post covers the construction of the bodice and skirt, for the other parts of the costume head to the following articles:
Materials
- Metallic Crinkle Organza (4 yrd)
- Metallic Organza (3 yrd)
- Off White Satin (4 yrd)
- Zipper (1x 22in)
- Embroidered Metallic Organza 3yrd
- ColorCocoon and SilksUnlimited have other options
- Pearl 3D paint
As number of these trims came from small etsy stores, I have presented alternatives in case the version I used is no longer offered. Similarly, if it is in the budget I would recommend getting a little more than you think you need from these stores. Being half way through a project and running out was no fun when it happened to me!
The Bodice
Before tackling the bodice, I do recommend making the corset as this will determine the final fit of the gowns bodice.
The first step is creating a base in which all the trims can be sewn to, I draped the pattern for the bodice myself. The process involved taking the off white satin, and laying it flat over the chest, and pinning it in place. Then marking the desired neckline, underbust and arm holes, before stitching it all together.
The neckline forms a deep plunging v in the front at the center of the chest, which sits about an inch and half up from the underbust, with a center front seam. In the back the neckline follows the curve of the corset, a dipping a little lower in the center, about and inch above the corset. The underbust line is slightly higher in the center front and sits straight around the back and under the arms. The straps that go over the shoulder are about and inch and a half wide (to give space for hemming and attaching trim).
The bodice is made of one layer of off white satin and a layer of flat (not crinkle) metallic organza. I serged theses together at the shoulder and neckline, I didn’t do any other hemming as it would be covered by trim or stitched to something else. Rather than lacing in the back I used a hidden zipper that extends into the skirt, I didn’t need it to be historically accurate and I liked the idea of getting in an out of the dress alone!
The Skirt
Per the original design the under skirt is cut on the bias, using the off-white satin. I have some thoughts on whether it is important to do this… The costume designer was aiming to have the skirt skim over the hips, and bias cut does this really well. However, this lovely draping is lost by the outer layer of metallic organza. They then also added a padded hem, which again makes me wonder why they cut the dress on the bias.
This tutorial on instructables is a good place to start for bias cut skirts, or follow a basic A-Line shape pattern. In either case the shape of the skirt is empire line, to be sewn directly to the bodice. There are three pieces to the underskirt, two back sections and one front, (I cut two pieces and then cut the back piece in half). The skirt needs to be wide enough to fit comfortably over the hips and flare wider towards the bottom. When in doubt aim for a wider skirt, to give yourself more room to walk. Don’t worry about hemming it until you have the over layer and know how tall your shoes are, be sure to give an extra 5 to 6 inches for the hem.
The over skirt is made of alternating panels of crinkle and embroidered organza. I struggled with the embroidered organza, originally intending to hand embroider several yards of fabric, I came to realize this was a foolish proposition. In the end I purchased from an etsy store, which gave me a ‘close enough’ look. Rather than hand sewing pearls I used dots of 3D pearl paint, which I did before cutting or sewing. A word of caution if you need to iron after the paint is applied do so on the reverse of the fabric. The embroidered fabric I got was also too bright white, and very thin, to adjust this, first I tea stained the fabric to give it a more off white color and then I added a layer of cheap shiny organza underneath. I’m still not 100% happy with how the color turned out, but the contrast with the crinkle organza was better than before I dyed it.
On the overskirt there are 6 embroidered organza panels (3 on each side). The embroidered panels are touching at the underbust seam, and are pleated on the front and back panels. The embroidered panels need to have their widths at the top equal the underbust seam with a few extra inches on the front and back panels for pleating. The front panels are rectangles, and the remaining panels are rhombuses so they flared slightly wider at the bottom. The final length of the panels was determined when hemming, but the dress has a train at the back so the panels increase in length towards the back.
In addition there are 4 crinkle organza panels and a gore at the back. The crinkle panels were cut as rhombuses about the same width at the top as the non-crinkle panels, and taper about 2 inches wider towards the bottom.
Each side of panels was then stitched together along the side seams, alternating embroidered and crinkle fabric. I left the gore out and did not sew back seams (also the front, that is meant to sit open), this would be done after attaching to the bodice and adding the zipper. Note the panels are connected such that the seams are serged wrong sides together, meaning you can see the serged seam but the skirt lies flatter all the way around.
I attached the under skirt and overskirt to the bodice separately, over skirt first. The front and back embroidered panels are pleated, I pleated the front pleated twice away from the center and the back once towards the center, though the original dress has 3 pleats. The cinkle panels were pleated with one box pleat, such that all of the fabric is behind the embroidered panels. The embroidered panels are touching at the underbust seam, having a very slight overlap can help keep them in place. Once stitched in place I sewed on the underskirt.
At this point the dress is open at the center back seam, but is more or less in dress form. I then added in the hidden zipper at the center back seam. The zipper goes through all the layers of fabric including the outer skirt. Once the zipper was in place I could measure and add the gore. The gore is a triangle of the crinkle fabric, though I guess mine was more of a rhombus (I like that shape). I fills in the gap between the two back panels, I made mine long enough to have train and wide enough to give a good flare to the dress. I serged it to the back embroidered panels, and and stitched the small amount of pleating at the base of the zipper.
Next, Dress Part 2: Trims and Trims.
