Graduation Dress

 Yup. Since I didnt find a dress of my taste or that wasnt excessively expesive, I did my own dress. Made this in 2 days, 'cus that was the time remaining for the graduation. xD
Hah... Well, its past a month now, but took some pics along the way and here they are~ c:

The sketch~ Something with a twist of victorian-ish loli dresses + military elements? Before buying the materials, it has to be certain what the heck I will be making. xDD

And yup, I drew this in April, but still left the material and sewing part in the last minute.

I made several desing sketches, but this was the one I liked the most. :)

The very first idea was to make a white or blue-ish dress, but somehow ended up with the classic black-white-red combination. Again. :|

I loove velvet~ So, bought black velvet, three different shades of red velvet, white cotton and black lace fabric. The buttons are plastic. Also bought some red velvet and black lace later.

I kept all the checks, summed up the costs and the total was ~30€. The most expesive material was the black velvet (half of the total). :I

 

 Let the trial-n-error part begin! No, I didnt use any kind of magazines given patterns for this. Heck, Ive never used one :I

Took the main lines from a T-shirt and drew out the rest with free hand using chalk. Constantly checked, that everything would be in the right size. Its always better to draw/cut out the pattern a bit bigger, because you can always sew it narrower without having to rip up anything. Also! Since I use an overlock machine, I have to consider that I have to leave ~1cm spare edge everywhere.

 

Front and back pieces. Also made slits for the back pices later- to make it "sit" better on the figure.

Ive had some very terrible experience before with pins and shifty velvet. Sewing the parts together by hand before sewing with the machine is a must! I wanted to make this as a half corset dress, but I was short on the glued fabric. -.-

The skirt part! First cut a rectangular shaped pice of the longest side of the black velvet (about 150cm) and then tried shaping the folds with pins on the mannequin.

Carefully took it off from the mannequin and marked the folds on the back side of the fabric, cut the unnecessary upper part.

Took out all the pins, folded the fabric in half and cut the other side in the same shape +added mirrored folds markings.

And pinned everything together again. :D

 

Sewed on the hidden zipper...

...and then pinned and hand sewed on the white skirt part whit the upper body part. The mannequin is upside down here. I pinned down the sides and then started dividing the fabric in half- pinned down a point, divided in half again and pinned down. The white skirt part is a rectangular shaped pice sewed together with the black lace fabric. The black skirt part from before is also under there.

The sleeves~

Welp, the half circle shape didnt hold shape like I expected it to and the second half cirlce shaped sleeve came out a bit bigger... So, boldly cut it shorter. c:

I wanted to make a lil' red bow on the back. ^^

Cut out a rectangular shape- folded in half- sewed together- tuned the right side out- folded together the open sides and "frilled" it together. Did the same with the other side, sewed both together, and voila~ A bow look alike. :D

Did the same with all the 3 shades of red and sewed the pices together. 

Now that I look at it... I guess it would have been better, if it was a bit bigger. :I

TADAH~ :D

Added lace on every edge, golden buttons + chain and the front frilly red thing is sewn on by hand. The rose is made from a satin dark red lace.

Hah... I guess its good enough for 2 days. xD