Ariel Inspired Dapper Dress

I really wanna go to Disney's Dapper Day (October 3rd, 2015, ) for my 21st birthday; yupp.. 100% partying like the disney fan-girl I am with all the other princesses :P I've really gotten into swing dancing lately and a lot of the 20s era things, so I thought it'd be perfect to make an Ariel dress with a little bit of everything and a bit of a pinup touch to it. I've never really designed a dress, so its a bit rough, but I love it anyways:

 

 

I've got the finger waves going on, the peter pan collar rimmed with small pearls, a bow at the waist with a shell in the middle, the kick pleats with a different color inside, the almost-sleeve-but-not-really-quite-a-sleeve-but-it-still-is-a-sleeve thing going on, and most importantly.. Ariel's colors!

 (I haven't decided on the shoes yet)



 I went to JoAnn Fabrics to check out what kind of fabric I should use and what colors (realistically) they had, lucky enough, they had wonderfully perfect colors that matched the Ariel look I was going for.

The purple and Jade look a little darker than they actually are, but the above pictures are pretty accurate

 

I didn't really wanna make the blue-green part plain, but it's what they had, Ill be on the lookout for a pattern that would look good, and I'll keep updating my dress progress as I go ^.^



 

--------Update: 12/28/14---------

New addition to the fabric family of options!!

Look at this beauty!! ♥♥♥ Its almost perfect! (I think) :P

When out under the jade fabric, it makes it look a lot darker, but its sooo pretty! I guess we'll have to see.

 

By the way, Jo Ann fabrics gives away free samples of whatever fabric you want (max. 2 per person), so that might help ;)

 

--------Update 1/9/2015--------

 

First attempt at curling iron finger waves, not too bad for the first time with no hairspray :)

 

Got the instructions from here.. but its hard doing it all on your own!

http://www.samvilla.com/pro/blog/how-to-create-finger-waves-using-a-curling-iron#.VK9uwu85DIV



 



 



 



 



UPDATE: Polka Dot Dress

I got suuuper tired of making a dress all to have it keep slipping down because something was wrong with the bust! I had to fix it so I thought it would be a good idea to fix it with adding sleeves or having it hold up with my shoulders somehow. But other than adding that, I think i finally found a way to fix the non-fitting bust problem. I looked through a few blogs but nobody really had a tutorial on ho to fix that for "well-endowed" women, and I guess it really doesnt help that I'm not posting a tutorial either...(mainly because I forgot to take steps of the process) D:

But I did find a pretty good idea! Since I took this dress from a pattern ( The polka dot part from McCall's M6646 and the lace part from McCall's M6838), someone said that it helps to copy the pattern onto muslin first. I really haven't tried that yet, and even though the extra work would be tedious, I think it's well worth it when the problem keeps popping up and you don't want to ruin the actual fabric you're using for the dress. Once you would copy the pattern onto the muslin, you can adjust it, re-sew it, make it fit you PERFECTLY, and then use what you altered as a new form-fitted pattern and you would have no problems when youre working on a dress (or whatsoever it may be).

However, for my dress's bust, if you can see here in this picture, it looks kinda tight, like its too flatly shaped for boobs. The top part doesn't form well above the bust and around the waist its very loose and just doesn't that great. I happened to notice all this after I wore it for an entire night :P

 

 

Now I learned how to fix that! I kind of trial-and-errored it though, I made the bust MUCH rounder and since I already had cut the fabric, I just made the seam allowances smaller. I used some chalk and pins to draw out and fit it. Ultimately, its tighter and better fitted, I wish I had taken pictures though :(

 

 

But this is my newer dress now, I bought 1/2 a yard of lace for the top and lace in one long strip for the bottom of the skirt. And this is the result:

 

It's soooo much better fitting, it complements curves (which is what every girl wants in a dress), and it stays up so theres no more pulling up a dress while moving aroundlike every normal human being does (because we cant be expected to just sit there and look pretty without moving an inch all day)!

Here's a side view to see where it's tighter and where I extended the stiches a bit (waist & bust)
Hope you like it!





Polka Dot Dress

I usually don't make things for myself because, well... I have no idea, but I rarely do. Anyhow, I made this on spare time in college and finished it up now that summer started! The ribbon isn't attached that way I can interchange it and have it match different outfits too. :)

 Soon after making this, I found this dress on Modcloth, it's nearly identical!


http://www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/specs-and-the-city-dress?crlt.pid=camp.ljSGW3m2zesz

The dress on Modcloth is a little pricey, but it's beautiful either way. I still like mine better though ;) Its has a more defined sweetheart bodice and the skirt is very VERY flowy!

Alice in Wonderland Inspired Prom Dress

This one took me a while because it was made in the middle of school and balancing that work load was pretty tough, but it was definitely worth all the time put in. I love tutu's and corsets and thought putting both together would make the perfect "me" dress for prom!

It was first inspired my the newest version of the movie Alice in Wonderland. I loved Alice's "Um" dress and wanted to create my own crazy colorful dress similar to it. I was aiming for a more unique bright dress rather than something pretty and "breathtaking", so I think it ended quite well!