Belle Gold Ballgown - Materials and Plans

I've made Belle's ballgown before, but since I'm remaking it, I decided to change it up.  I did tons of research on the theme park dresses, and dresses that other people have made, and I decided I would have a few changes to mine since version 1.

I got out my sketchbook and started to take some notes about what I'd like to do differently.

First, I could never hem the ruched sections properly and they dragged on the ground, collecting dirt and debris (from outdoor photoshoots). I wanted to take a note from the theme park dresses and make an underlayer that would have a smooth hem, and put the gathered sections on top of that. Since much of the underskirt would never be seen, I planned to make most of it out of mockup fabric and only do the bottom 12" or so (the visible part) out of satin.

Second, I wanted this dress to be two parts - a bodice and a skirt. The original dress was so heavy being all one piece, and washing the bodice meant the whole thing had to go in the tub. I wanted to be able to wash the pieces separately.

Third, the original skirt didn't have as much volume as I wanted. Yes, it was big, but the gathered sections didn't have the fullness that I had envisioned.  I decided to break with tradition and use (gasp!) a different skirt pattern than my standby, McCalls 4090.  Simplicity put out a pattern for the live action Cinderella movie (Simplicity 1026/S0229) and the lines looked perfect - a bodice with the pointed front that was off the shoulders and a huge skirt, both separate pieces.

 

I couldn't find any fabric I liked locally (sadly, the gold sparkle satin I used before has been discontinued from JoAnns, and Golden D'or didn't have anything that I really liked either). I ordered swatches from Fabric.com and Onlinefabricstore.net and found some nice shades of crepe back satin. Some was far too yellow, but there was a nice range of gold tones.

I also had some fabrics left over from my first gown. I had a few yards of a shimmering gold 2-way stretch fabric, and a bunch of a sheer sparkle fabric from JoAnns.

I liked the two-tone effect of Belle's dress in the film, so I selected a dark gold for the bodice and skirt swags, and a lighter gold for the skirt and shoulders.  The deadline is Dec. 5, but I'll be wearing this in a holiday parade with my red fur-trimmed cloak over it.  That means I only really need to have the skirt finished, and I can fudge the bodice for now. I can also get away with things not being perfect, since the dress will be seen from a distance.