We have a relative’s wedding coming up and S needed a new dress that fit her gorgeous new heels. So, I took a chance to make a dress that matches the fun, fairy-like design of the shoes. S left most of the design choices for me and I decided on an airy tulle dress with a corset bodice.
Patterning… with duct tape?
I have never made a corset bodice for my 15-year-old before. But, this was the perfect chance to try out a new technique! I have seen cosplayers making corsets by duct-taping a person’s body and drawing the design on the tape. (Of course, there’s cling film underneath to prevent the tape from sticking to the skin!) Then the duct tape is removed and cut to make the pattern for the corset! Sounds fun!
I duct taped S and drew a bodice with a sweetheart neckline and wide shoulder-straps. The front is made out of three pattern pieces: the centre-piece, the side-front pieces that continue into the shoulder straps, and the side pieces. The back has a simple princess cut. I transferred the wonky tape pieces into a paper pattern smoothing out asymmetries and wrinkles and made a mockup. I was pretty surprised how well the bodice fit! I only had to add a tiny amount of extra to the shoulder straps and change the angle of the front strap. I also took in the centre-front piece a tiny bit and I had a pattern!
The fabric
For the fabric, we chose purple floral patterned tulle. To bring out the pattern on the tulle we added a blue viscose satin lining. These fabrics are easy to snag, so I also picked up some microtex needles that are perfect for delicate fabrics.
Designing and structure
I decided first to make a gathered circle skirt for the maximum twirl effect. Therefore, I started by cutting out the skirt pieces. The front was made out of one pieces and the back was divided in two parts with the zipper at the top. The skirt has a lining and two layers of tulle. However, when I tried the skirt on, the amount of gathers looked bulky and well… not pretty. After some thought, I tried out if the single front pieces were big enough to make a whole skirt. They were! So I ripped out the back pieces and turned my circle skirt into a half-circle skirt!
This style of bodice needed lots of structure. First, the tulle needed an underlining layer. Then, the whole bodice needed more support, which I added in the form of sturdy cotton twill. To reduce bulk, I cut the cotton twill so that it only had seam allowance at the vertical seams and the shoulder seams. I also trimmed the cotton twill away from the zipper edge as too much bulk at the waist seam could break the zipper.
By the way, I used my blue viscose satin the wrong way around so that the satin side was facing inward. This was mainly so that the lining of the skirt would be slippery enough not to stick to the legs. And as the skirt fabric was backwards, I had to underline the bodice the same way so that the bodice looked the same as the skirt.
I decided to make the boning channels visible. I boned all the vertical seams with two bones on each seam. For the bones, I cut up some long zip-ties. I learned this trick when doing historical costuming: Zip-ties are cheap and easy to find and work perfectly as boning when cut into pieces!
I lined the bodice with the same blue satin. At this point, I was happy that I had made the skirt smaller as otherwise I would have run out of fabric!
Ruffles!
Then came the fun part! Adding trims! I had learned to make long ruffles with a gathering foot but my first try ended with my machine eating the delicate tulle. After some thought, I decided to try out the pleater foot. To my surprise, it created a very nice ruffle! I cut out long strips of tulle with my rotary cutter and gathered them all. I added trims to the waist, the neckline, and around the armholes. With the last pieces I pinned two long strips to the top skirt layer with a wavy pattern.
The finished tulle dress
The rain stopped just for a bit in order for us the snap a few pictures of the dress. I am quite happy with how it turned out and S likes it too. And she now matches the hostas in my garden!
We considered adding sleeves to the dress but with the way I had cut the armholes, the sleeves didn’t really look nice. So, we ditched the idea. Besides, the dress looks just fine without any sleeves.
Thank you for reading and see you soon! Happy sewing!
Katja
