A Bustle-y, Ruffle-y, Dragon-y Ball Gown

 We decided to host a dragon themed ball, my friend and I. This of course left me with a burning question, what would a historical dragon ball gown look like??

Now, to be clear, the ball was pure fantasy. I just like to take any excuse to make, or wear, a historical gown so I wanted to add some history to my fantasy and make a fantastical historical dragon ball gown. But where to begin???

Red and Gold. Those seemed like good dragon-y colors. An excellent starting point! 

Especially considering I already had both red and gold silk on hand.

Now why Red and Gold you ask? Because I'm a Gryffindor of course!

About 10 years ago, give or take a couple years, there was a trend going around the historical sewing community of making bustle dresses to correspond with one's Hogwarts house. At that time, I began gathering silk to make my own Gryffindor bustle dress. A silk plaid drapery remnant of 3ish yards featuring some red and gold, a gold crinkled taffeta remnant of 3ish yards from Fabric Mart, and 7ish yards of a red silk from Fabric Guru. 

I gathered these silks slowly, one length every couple years as I came across good deals on the colors I had in mind. I paid less than $10 per yard for each piece. As I gathered my materials, I daydreamed about and a designed my 1870's Gryffindor Gown between other projects. Finally, in 2024, I had all my materials, I'd picked a fashion plate from 1874 I wanted to re-create, and the red and gold gown was at the top of my project list. Of course, by this point Hogwarts themed historical clothing had fallen out of favor online, but I'd spent so long dreaming of this gown I was going to make it!

I figured out my base patterns from the Truly Victorian patterns I'd been given over the years and began cutting strips of red and gold silk to make the magnificently ruffle-y skirt from my inspiration fashion plate. And then. . .

And then, in a single afternoon almost two years ago, my life drastically changed. One morning I went to visit my parents and sister with my rolls of silk for this project hanging out in the back seat, and that afternoon I came home with three children in the backseat instead and the rolls of silk had been unceremoniously booted to the very back. 

Two months after being licensed as foster parents we had our first kiddos to parent, and love, and provide a safe and stable home for, and sewing fancy historical dresses was quite literally taking the back seat. The very back seat. The trunk actually, seeing as my seats were suddenly full of living, breathing, very active human kids.

Ok, yes, this picture has nothing to do with the subject at hand, but my brother took it at the dragon ball, and the colors are perfect! Thus, here it is.

Soooo, fast forward a year and a half, and my red and gold silk is sitting stuffed in a box somewhere. Somehow, we have learned how to be parents, added an additional child to the mix, and I have occasionally found time to sew. Wild.

And I need a dragon ball gown. Preferably historical. After brainstorming a few ideas I thought of my red and gold silk bustle skirt I'd had pretty much cut out before the kids arrived and I shelved the project. Red and gold were good dragon-y colors. What if I pivoted on that project and instead of making a Gryffindor Quidditch robe inspired day bodice to go with that fantastically ruffled skirt, I made a dragon inspired evening bodice?

The gold and red ruffles down the back of the skirt that I'd intended to represent the Gryffindor Lion could just as easily represent a dragon's tail. I just needed to pick the right bodice design to go with it.

The diagonal folds on this 1874 evening bodice made me think of  the texture of a dragon's belly. That was it! I'd finish the skirt I'd started, and make a bodice inspired by this one to go with it. I might be over dressed for a 2026 dragon ball, but it was going to be fun!

I ordered some dragon buttons for the bodice off Etsy, and I got started!

At long last, it was time to actually sew this red and gold silk gown. It was going to be different than I originally planned, but my entire life is different than originally planned, so that seems to be fitting.

  

Claire McCardell Meets Minerva McGonagall

 It was a beautiful green plaid - I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it at the City Sewing Room - and there was a lot of it! My first thought was it would make a wonderful 1880's ensemble, but. . . it was stretchy. This woven plaid certainly had a high spandex content, which is not ideal for historical clothing. I almost left the plaid behind for that reason, but it was just too pretty! I decided to take about 4 yards home with me that day. It wasn't suitable for historical clothing, but surly I could figure out something more modern to make with it!

The green plaid reminded me of Professor McGonagall, so I decided I wanted to use the fabric for something inspired by McGonagall - inspired by her, but not costume-y. (I've already done an 1890's McGonagall outfit, so this could be more casual.) 

I decided a long skirt was a must, but did I want a shirt dress, or a wrap dress? Or something else entirely? I wasn't sure! I let the ideas linger in my mind for a few months while I worked on other projects. Finally, in November I decided I wanted the green plaid to be my Christmas dress, so I needed to nail down the design. I took to Pinterest and discovered this Claire McCardell dress saved to one of my boards.

It was perfect! Long skirt, unique wrap-style bodice, and, since it was a designer dress, it would work for my "Designin' December" entry, for the sewing challenge hosted by Linda of "Nice Dress, Thanks, I Made it!" This dress had everything!

I spent most of November keeping my eyes open for a good pattern to alter for my dress. I contemplated several - both in my stash and in the pattern books at Joann's. I needed a pattern with cut-on sleeves, no darts, and a high wrap front with some rouching. I knew I'd have to alter a pattern to get just what I wanted, but even so, finding a good pattern to start with was harder than I thought it would be!

Finally I picked Butterick 6318. It only featured one of the three elements I was looking for - cut on sleeves - but as it was a basic bodice pattern without any extra design details or fluff, it would make a good block to alter for the McCardell Design.

I started by tracing off the bodice in my size. For the bodice back I eliminated the center back zipper (my dress would close at the side like the original), and the waist darts. Since my fabric was stretchy due to the spandex content I knew I wouldn't need those back darts the way I would with a standard (non-stretchy) woven fabric.

The front bodice alterations were a little more involved. First I cut out a full bodice front pattern piece from brown paper, rather than the standard half to be cut on the fold.

Then I messed around with folding down to top edge of the pattern piece to decide on the angle I wanted the wrap neckline to have. The original McCardell dress had a very high neckline, but that looked uncomfortable to me. I wanted mine to be a bit lower. Finally, I picked an angle I thought looked good, and chopped off the extra paper.

Next came the messy part. I eliminated the front darts by rotating that fullness over to the side seam to make the pleats featured on the McCardell dress. Once that was done my pattern was ready! I just wanted to make a mock-up to double check everything. . .

Yeah. That mock-up didn't happen. In fact, the dress didn't happen for Christmas the way I'd planned. I was too busy sewing other people's Christmas dresses and Christmas gifts to make my own happen. (Good thing I've got a collection of Christmas dresses from previous years, I still had plenty of options to wear to the various Christmas gatherings - and it was fun to wear old makes again!)

So, here was are the week after Christmas. I decided I still wanted the dress. So yesterday I made it happen.

Since I didn't feel like dealing with a mock-up I just cut the dress out yesterday with some extra length added to the sleeves and bodice - as those are the areas I often find a touch short. I also added a cut-on facing to the  front bodice neckline, and decided to skip doing a lining.

I carefully cut out the bodice back so the two halves would meet in a chevron pattern.

 I attempted to do the same with the sleeve seam, but since I had to cut the front at a specific angle so the front neckline would be on the straight grain, the sleeve pattern matching was less successful.

I sewed up the bodice, then tried it on to double check the fit. It fit beautifully, and I was very glad I'd added the extra length!

I made the skirt - two rectangles gathered up with side seam pockets and a placket on the left hand side, and attached it to the bodice.

To maintain the stretchy-ness of the fabric I sewed the waist seam with a zig-zag stitch and bound the seam with some red plaid fold-over elastic from my stash. I thought the red would add some Christmas cheer to the inside of my dress!

To finish off the dress I added button holes to both the under and overlap of the bodice, and the skirt placket. On the underlap side I added a piece of twill tape to the side seam to sew buttons onto. I used some black plastic buttons from my stash for this.

On the overlap side I used some beautiful black glass shank buttons for the bodice closure, and some standard plastic buttons for the skirt closures. The buttons on the skirt placket are completely hidden inside the pocket when the dress is worn, so those didn't need to be fancy.

The original Claire McCardell dress closed with hooks and eyes, rather than buttons, but I didn't feel like sewing on a bunch of hooks and eyes last night, so buttons it was!

Besides, there's a another McCardell dress of a similar design (just shorter and of a less expensive fabric than my inspiration dress) that does close with buttons down the left side - so I felt completely justified in my closure choice!

I sewed on the buttons sitting by the fire last night and my dress was done! I'd begun at 10 am with cutting the dress out, and it was finished by 9 pm, even with several breaks throughout the day to eat, do house work, visit with a neighbor, and cook dinner!

Probably my quickest and easiest Designin' December entry yet! There are a couple little things I wish I'd done differently, but for the most part I love the dress and am very pleased with my day's work!

I made my skirt from two panels of 44" wide fabric, and I wish I'd done 3. The extra fullness would have been luxurious! But I didn't have enough fabric for that - I really should have snagged all of this fabric when I found it at the City Sewing Room, rather than just taking half. Oh well, two panels still gives a comfortably full skirt.

My second regret is the bodice length. Remember how I said the bodice was the perfect length when I tried it on prior to attaching the skirt?

Well it was. . . but the weight of the full skirt certainly stretched out that bias cut bodice so it's a touch too long now. I should not have added that extra length. It would have been fine without it. Oh well, throw on a belt or sash and its an easy issue to hide!

All in all, I love this dress! 

It's incredibly comfortable and I intend to wear it lots this winter!

I've even got one more family Christmas gathering coming up that I can wear it too!

So I can still call it my Christmas dress, right?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you! I hope you had a wonderful celebration of our Savior's birth with your family and friends!

The Gryffindor Sundress

 Oh look! For the first time in what feels like ages, I’m sharing a dress that’s not orange!

September 1st is the day students go to Platform 9 3/4, board the Hogwarts Express, and return to the magical school for another year of learning. 

Thus, it seemed like the perfect time to share the Gryffindor dress I made last summer. 

The fabric was picked up on sale at Joann’s a few years back. I grabbed some of this black background Slytherin fabric to make my brother a few things, and snagged 3 yards of the Gryffindor to make myself a dress.

When I finally found time to turn the fabric into said dress last summer, the recently acquired Burda 6343 was at the top of my pattern pile, so I decided to pair the two together.

I loved the interesting bodice seamlines (hard to make out in the busy print), full skirt, and square neckline.

I was worried the neckline might be a little too low for an every day dress, so I raised it about an inch, both front and back.

As we were still living in the apartment at the time, I had yet to be reunited with my fabric stash. Thus, I had nothing on hand to line the bodice with, as directed by the pattern. So instead I decided to bind the neckline and armholes with some narrow red vintage bias tape I had on hand. 

I like the look, but I think it would have been better to line the bodice instead. There is a lot of fabric pleated into that skirt, and it would be better supported with a fully lined bodice.

Speaking of the skirt - it is full! 3 yards was just barely not enough fabric for this dress, and a directional print was not a good idea. 

The fabric was too narrow for the full width of the skirt pieces, so extra had to be pieced in on the edges. And my fabric scraps weren’t quite long enough for that, so there’s extra piecing at the bottom corners of both the front and back skirt panels.

The extra seams are completely hidden by the pleats, so no problem what so ever, but a 60” wide fabric would be a better choice for this pattern than the 44” wide cotton I used.

I decided to do an exposed black metal zipper down the back, and added a red ribbon at the waist.

The red ribbon actually wasn’t planned. I meant to wear the red belt from this dress with my new frock, but when I brought the dress back to my parents’ one weekend to be photographed by my brother, I realized I’d forgotten to pack the belt.

So I went through the stash of sewing notions still in my parents’ basement and grabbed a short length of red ribbon and sewed it on to the the dress.

While this was plan B or C, and not my original preference, I’m actually glad it went this way.

The finished dress is so comfy and easy to wear and it’s nice not to have to remember a separate belt to go with it!

Despite its few flaws, this dress has become one of my favorites this summer, getting worn several times a month.

Now that it’s time to go back to Hogwarts, and the weather will hopefully be cooling off soon (hopefully!). I’m sure that my Gryffindor dress will start staying in my closet for longer periods of time, but I’m already looking forward to pulling it out again next summer!