Making of the Dance Dress

Welcome everyone,

Let’s talk about the  Making of the “Dance Dress”.  The gown was a requested design for a Junior High dance. 

This special dress with a princess seamed bodice, has 3/4” straps, that helped to cover the underpinnings.  The skirt is 7 gores, not your normal 6 gores, because we needed to add the front split.  I wanted the drape and weight of this gorgeous Teal, Satin Back Crepe, to sweep just at the top of the shoe, and still be heavy enough to avoid the chance of any windblown mishaps at the front split. Sporting a total of 6 yards of material, this “Dance Dress” was enough to keep her modest with proper coverage in all the right places.  

The upper bodice edges were supported using stay tape.  It’s for the bodice, it required no underlining, since the weight of the fabric was stable enough when combined with the Bemberg lining.

There were so many hands that helped to put this dress together.  Despite my challenges of working with a broken collarbone, I’m thankful for my sewing community, who pitched in to help me get her completed. A big thanks to you, “A.”, from my sewing group, my granddaughter, “Madam Secretary” and my daughter, owner of My Rosie Cakes.  I couldn’t have done it without you. 

Noteworthy:  

"Madam Secretary", pinned the skirt for me to sew. She worked with a silk press cloth, a pressing ham, and a sleeve roll to press all the seams and the seams on the princess bodice.  I am so very proud of her!!  I believe, that because of the high quality of this fabric, it made the perfect introduction to working with specialty fabrics for a beginner.

Sewing on the YouTube Live  

This was one of many garments I’ve sewn using this particular satin back crepe from Sew Much Fabric.  Every garment has come out excellent.  

The pattern is a made to measure pattern designed using the Tailornova platform.  You might think, isn’t it easy enough to quickly draft from my set of blocks? Not commonly, I always choose the route which uses custom measurements.  Of course, I already have measurements for each person setup and ready to create anything I want. Time saved, headaches avoided and endless fitting and testings alleviated. Watch that video here on my YouTube. 

The SewToFit community members receive a copy of these patterns, just for being a “Sew-Fitter”. 

Question. 

Have you tried any of the many made to measure pattern services which are flooding the market? Consider any clothing retailers who provide MTM garments as well. 

Andrea