Costume modifications: Simplicity 1623

Shanazel

Moderator
1623.jpg

I'm making the long dress with long open-top sleeves for performance. The bodice is deep rose crushed velvet with rose to sunset orange sari silk stamped with gold motifs for the skirt. I may add gores to the lower skirt for fullness depending on how much fabric I have leftover and intend to line the skirt to the knee then add a couple of rose chiffon tiers to hold the skirt out at the hem and show during turns.

Comments? Suggestions? I've not made an evening dress as a bd costume before but I'm in the mood for something different.
 

Daimona

Moderator
View attachment 9551

I'm making the long dress with long open-top sleeves for performance. The bodice is deep rose crushed velvet with rose to sunset orange sari silk stamped with gold motifs for the skirt. I may add gores to the lower skirt for fullness depending on how much fabric I have leftover and intend to line the skirt to the knee then add a couple of rose chiffon tiers to hold the skirt out at the hem and show during turns.

Comments? Suggestions? I've not made an evening dress as a bd costume before but I'm in the mood for something different.

Nice pattern. I like gores for more fullness.

:think: To make it work as a bd costume, you'll have to alter it to make it fitter around your waist and hips.
There are several ways to do this.
If you've got a lot of the crushed velvet, you could make the bodice longer and use the stretchy properties of the crushed velvet to make it more figure hugging, thus giving you more of the sari fabric to use for the skirt.
Another way is to make the dress following the pattern and then alter the dress itself.

ETA: It is also necessary to adjust the sleeves to make it possible to raise your arms above waist-height (believe, me, patterns like this are made for people to keep their arms down, not out or up). The easiest way to do this is adding a gusset, but this will not affect the fact that the shoulders and the upper part of the sleeves are designed for raising the arms (guess how I know? :rolleyes:). An easy way to do this is to make your own sleeve pattern once your sleeve hole has a nice fit is to draw yourself a new pattern by laying out the dress (or pattern) flat, and then fold a large piece of paper (this will be the upper part of your sleeve), fit it into the sleeve hole and adjust the angle of the sleeve before you trace the sleeve hole on both the front and back on the sleeve pattern. You may still add a gusset for further freedom.
 
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Ariadne

Well-known member
:think: To make it work as a bd costume, you'll have to alter it to make it fitter around your waist and hips.
I didn't think of that. Sari fabric doesn't tend to have much give in it. I love your idea for the fabric though. I wonder... looking at that back of the pattern it has a 22" zipper. What if you replaced that with a modestly panel and elastic button loops? If you sew them on both sides with an elastic ribbon laced through it for extra give then it will be adjustable for size and tightness without loosing that give for dancing.
 

tigerb

New member
I've done the dress-to-BD costume thing. I found I had to be really careful of the fit around the armholes to allow enough arm movement... so a muslin of a similar fabric is good. And yes, I had to take mine in around the hips as well. I was actually able to leave the zipper out of my dress because the fabric was stretchy enough for it to just go over my head.
 
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