My personal project
I'm in my last year of high school and since I'm in the international program, I have to do a personal project. I could choose whatever I wanted, as long as it was a creation, an essay or an event. I'm more artistic, so I chose to do a creation. I learned how to sew a couple of years ago, so I decided to make a dress based on an existant pattern from Butterick that I modified. My goal is to show how the fashion of the 50's inspired today's style. My dress will look like the one Marilyn Monroe wore in the movie The seven year itch, but it will be red and a little different, of course. The pattern recommended to use cotton, but I chose a completely different fabric that will give a more elegant and silky result: satin. Also, on the pattern, the dress ends a little bit below the knees, but I thought it was too short, so I decided that it would be longer. I started the dress in November 2008 and I finished at the end of December 2008. To illustrate the similarities between today's fashion and the 50's fashion, I also made a poster with pictures of typical dresses from the 50's. However, I can't post a picture of it here, since it contains copyrighted material. Enjoy :)Before sewing
I cut all the pieces of the pattern. There are three main parts: the bodice, the midriff and the skirt.
I started to pin the pattern on the fabric and the lining. I pinned myself accidentally a couple of times, but don't worry, it didn't hurt too much.
All my pieces of pattern are pinned on the fabric and the lining now. I traced a white line on the fabric to indicate where the skirt ends, because I wanted my dress to be longer.
I cut all the pieces of fabric and lining. Many pieces, eh? Well, nearly each piece that you see on the picture is in fact two pieces that are pinned together!
Sewing
I sewed a part of what is going to be inside the dress: the bodice lining. You can see that it's not flat anymore and that it has a cupcake shape.
You can see here the main tool of my project: the sewing machine. It's an electronic one, which is very useful! Only a couple of buttons and super easy to use!
Here is the full lenght skirt! Huge? Yes, because it isn't gathered yet.
These are the straps of the dress. What's on the left of the picture is going to be sewed to the bodice.
I now have two bodices: the lining one and the fabric with lining one. So, I have to sew the two together in order to have one bodice.
Here is what the left part of the bodice looks like. I personally love it! Now, I just have to sew the right part of the bodice on the left part of the bodice to create that V neck.
I joined the two parts of the bodice, so now the bodice is finished!
On this picture, you can see the parts of the midriff. The longest one will be the front of the midriff, and the two smaller ones will be the back of the midriff. If you wonder how I created those folds in the fabric, I simply gathered it. Since the fabric is more heavy than cotton, the folds are bigger and stronger.
I sewed together the pieces of the midriff, so the midriff is now done too!
Since the bodice and the midriff were both completed, I could now sew them together.
To create movement in the dress, I gathered the skirt. It's now finished!
Ok, so the bodice, the midriff and the skirt are all done and ready to be sewed together! But wait, the dress isn't finished yet. It's too early to "close" it.
I posed a zipper and then I sewed the back of the dress. To make sure that the zipper won't go down, I placed a hook too. Finally, I adjusted the lenght of the dress and did the hem. That's it!
Here is what the final dress looks like! I'm really happy about the result and I'm definitely going to wear it at prom! My grandmother gave me those gorgeous pearl necklace and bracelet that you can see on the picture.
Here is the dress again, but viewed from the back. I love all those folds, it looks amazing! I worked for hours and hours on this project, but I think it was worth it!