All silk, crystal, all hand-beaded. 🙂 Seven packs of 3mm crystal beads at 2,400 per pack. I had 142 beads left. Four packs of 4mm crystal beads at 2,400 per pack. I had 67 beads left. One pack of 6mm crystal beads at 600 per pack. I could actually have used a few more, but substituted the 4mm. None left. One pack of sequins at apps. 25,000 per pack, and I wasn’t even about to count how many are left. Maybe a third were left. Add in about 15 yards of various silks, one spool of thread at 1000 meters, most another spool at 500 meters, part of another 1000m-spool… Oh my god, this gown was finally finished. It tops the last Heaven gown I made years ago. That one only had 23,000 beads. Heh. Only.
Sometimes I am sent the most beautiful fabrics and trims to work with, and this is no exception! Â Kat sent this gorgeous blue silk and the trim, and asked for a regency robe to wear for a sailing event. Here is the result! I’m not sure that there’s much to say aside from the bodice is lined in cotton, and the skirt is box-pleated. The center back is double-box pleated for more fullness while keeping a slim silhouette. By request, the pleats on the sleeves were moved to the top instead of the period-correct location of toward the back. The gold gown under it is one of mine, and it for the photos only. It looks so much better than just putting the robe on the dress form.
This princess prom gown was inspired by Carly Rae Jepsen’s Cinderella gown. Inspired-by is key here. As we went along designing, elements changed, up to and including in the last hour!! The corset IS a full corset, despite the lack of seams on the outside. I’ve devised a method of corset-construction that doesn’t lack the integrity of traditional assembly, yet allows for not having those seams. (They’re on the inside lining in a special way.) The rosettes have pink Swarovski crystals in them, and these are special crystals, magic, one might say. See, Haley was in a production of Legally Blonde, and these crystals were left over from that production. I got them from the director and worked them into this gown so that Haley could have a part of Metro with her. She was going to star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but funding didn’t come together, so I really wanted her to have Metro with her for prom.
The skirt has 200 yards of tulle in pink and blush over a cotton lining. Cotton isn’t as reflective as most satins, and so had the desired effect with flash. All of the fluff is tulle, no other supporting layer. The top layer is split, and draped back. The skirt is what was changed in the last hour. The flowers on the skirt weren’t there, but I was staring at the gown on my dress form, and something just seemed off. Then it hit me. So I grabbed chiffon rosettes and the rest of the crystals I had, and had at it. 🙂
Sheer, gauzy dotten linen, light and flowy.  The tucks on the skirt have pastel 1″ ribbon running through them, as do the sleeves and waist, and a narrower white ribbon closes the neckline. The yellow can be switched out for a different color. This was a a very narrow fabric, and took some tricksy work to avoid vertical seams all over the skirt. 🙂 Because the fabric is so delicate, all seams but one are French seams, and all are reinforced with extra rows of stitching. This is a NorAria Designs gown, bodice pieces cut by Lady Jersey, the sleeves and skirt and all sewing by yours truly.
This gown was top-secret for the longest time! In pageants, you don’t share what you’re wearing. Can’t let the competition know. 🙂 Nora Fosberg Azevedo approached me about a gown for Miss Plus Northwest Brittany Hudson, and it was a no-brainer. YES!! This gown is a collaborative design between me, Nora, and Brittany, and a joint creation between me and Nora. Months of tweaking and fittings, a dozen yards of charmeuse and silk dupioni, several hundred Swarovski rhinestones, and many, many hours later, and this is the result! Brittany made it to the two 10 (Nora and I screamed so loud that the emcee teased us), but did not place. She did, however, with the WeCare scholarship.
When I found out my daughter’s Teacher Rashelle was getting married, I had to make the dress for her, as a gift to her for all she has done for Charlotte. My family supports our educators wholeheartedly, and Rashelle is such a sweetheart and we all love her dearly! I was so thrilled when she said yes!! She wanted something that isn’t the typical poofy princess dress, but still beautiful princess and elegant. I suggested something based on Tiana’s wedding gown (not the green lily pad dress, but the one she wore for her church wedding), and Rashelle loved it! Instead of cream, in white satin, and on the cowl neckline, a rainbow of jewels. And a rainbow veil!! The film version has a higher hemline in the front, and was lower in the back. I left this one a bit longer than the film version, and raised the back a bit, but otherwise kept pretty faithful to the film. This dress closes on the left side with an invisible set zipper. The veil is a seven-colored rainbow. 🙂
She’s still a part of our lives, and we are so lucky for that. Â She is the type of educator we really need more of. Â Support you educators!
My daughter saw the School of the Oregon Ballet Theater’s Genzano costumes in the middle of 2014, and fell in love with what she called the peacock dress, and wanted one. What is a mama to say? 🙂 I took some costume notes (I had the opportunity to see the up close), and on the way home from the studio, got supplies. The skirt is five layers–green, navy, cream, green, cream–with a brown satin ribbon waistband. The bodice is lightly boned for structure, and is five panels of navy velvet with a wine piping, and hydrangeas decorating. The original bodices were either navy velvet (for the lead female dancer in this scene), or hunter satin, and closed with hooks. I wanted more versatility, so used grommets and lacing. These pictures were in downtown Portland just after OBT’s OBT Exposed event.  She wasn’t even five yet!
Another regency gown! This one is made from a delicate, slightly sheer cotton and closes with a drawstring at waist and neckline. The ribbon sash is just tied on. I have tons more of this fabric! Due to the border print, this gown is limited in length, and for most wearers, would be dancing length.
NEW HI-RES PHOTOS and updated information! Click on any photo to see a ton more detail.  The photos shown here are large, and will get much larger (thousands x thousands for the resolutions) when clicked.
As promised, I returned to MoPop with my real camera instead of my iPhone camera. Â I already gave a good deal of information in the first post on this gown. Â So this post will be mostly photographic, with commentary on new information or things to pay extra attention to beneath some photos. Â Some shots will be close to the same, but sometimes a lightly different angle shows something just differently enough for it to be clearer. Â I’ll upload more of these photos to this Facebook album today, though the resolution might get squished.
This one shows the necklace very well. Â Through studying the beadwork, I was able to determine that I was incorrect on the neckline missing trim. Â Let’s look back at the gown on Sarah:She has a yellow flower on her right shoulder, but there isn’t one on the right shoulder on the mannequin. BUT! Through studying the beading and lace pattern, I was able to see that this photo of Sarah has been flipped. So that flower isn’t missing. It’s on the mannequin’s left shoulder, and In the film itself, it is also shown on her left.
If you look hard, on the left sleeve you can just barely tell that there’s a larger opaque poof just at the top. It looks like a floating ball of pink. Below that is cellophane with a lace overlay.
Starting just under the big shiny spot toward the top right by the right sleeve, you can juuuuuust past out the beginning of the front bodice seam.
The ground of the lace is in a diamond pattern.
The back of the necklace is seed beads on wire with a basic spring clasp and a chain hanging down the back.
The bottom edge of the bodice is piped.
The neckline of the bodice is piped. You can also see how the lace is pieced on and stitched down rather than being a solid piece of shaped lace. If you look closely at the left arm, you can see the shadow of its outline.
The bodice closes with what appears to be ten hooks and eyes.
The fullness of the sleeves is concentrated toward the top.
In the following pictures, pay special attention to the edges of the lace. Â Two types were used, an eyelash lace for the front half, and a different lace in the lack.
This photo shows the two types of lace. This is from the back on the right side. The lace father away, which looks to be our left, is the eyelash, while the lace on the right that comes back toward the camera, isn’t.
The edge of cellophane!
The piecing on the skirt edge is easy to see here.
Check out the zig-zag edge.
Here is that repair I mentioned in the last post.
I was incorrect about the lace last time. It looks irregularly crinkled, but upon closer look, it looks like the organza was pulled and pulled until the fibers were all pulled out of shape.
A pretty decent view of the front lace pattern.
I hope these additional photos are of some help to some of you!  I’m already sourcing fabrics for a couple inquiries as my schedule allows me too, and my daughter wants one as well.  Because of course she does.  She loves fancy things.  Like mother, like daughter. 🙂
Up soon…Jareth! Subscribe to get notified of the one. Â It’s a few weeks out yet. Â My commissions schedule is too busy for me to start breaking that one down!
All silk, crystal, all hand-beaded. 🙂 Seven packs of 3mm crystal beads at 2,400 per pack. I had 142 beads left. Four packs of 4mm crystal beads at 2,400 per pack. I had 67 beads left. One pack of 6mm crystal beads at 600 per pack. I could actually have used a few more, but substituted the 4mm. None left. One pack of sequins at apps. 25,000 per pack, and I wasn’t even about to count how many are left. Maybe a third were left. Add in about 15 yards of various silks, one spool of thread at 1000 meters, most another spool at 500 meters, part of another 1000m-spool… Oh my god, this gown was finally finished. It tops the last Heaven gown I made years ago. That one only had 23,000 beads. Heh. Only.
  
