Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had an amazing time with their family, even though things feel so different. I really enjoyed spending time with my family, although I missed my grandparents so much. This year, I started some new traditions for the holidays, & I think we all really loved it.

Buuuuut, back to what you really want to see; for Christmas I wanted to make a beautiful big burgundy gown & that’s exactly what I did.

When I started making this gown, I first started with the materials to work on the bodice. I bought this fabric from JoAnn’s, it is a see-through mesh material, and I also bought a nude soft lining & beads to add some dimension on the top. So I drafted the pattern & then cut the bodice out. I believe I only needed a yard, some may need less than that, but I consider the fact that I have a full bust & I also like to buy a little extra in case of any mistakes.

I had to cut the nude lining two different times for the layer that goes under the material & then the lining that actually makes your garment look neat on the outside.

I basted the mesh material onto the nude lining so that it would not move then I pieced all the pieces together. I added boning to the front part of the garment to create stability & give the dress bodice some hold.

After I got the pieces together, I sewed the beads on by hand to give the embroidered flowers a bit of pop. This took an extremely long time & quite a few beads. I bought 3 packs of tiny beads & I used every single last bead. I would say I got about 4 to 5 flowers done, & they ranged in size. Next, it was time to move on to the skirt. I created the skirts in panels. I made the skirt a bit wide so it could be gathered at the waist. Usually when I make tulle gowns I create a lot of length, but for this certain gown I just wanted it to be floor length. I had to make several layers of panels to create a thicker look & to not be as transparent. I put a burgundy layer as an under skirt so that you could not see through the tulle. Next I attached the gown bottom to the top & I started to create ruffles.

SO, a small helpful tip…

They have tulle rolls that are precut. USE that!

I bought 3 rolls of this tulle. It is so easy to use. I used triple layers to cut the ruffles though. I then gathered all of the tulle by hand & carefully pinned it into place. The pinning is the HARDEST most tedious step to this dress, along with creating the ruffles. It took me 2 hours for one ruffle alone; that included me cutting the ruffle, gathering, and pinning. It was exhausting. My initial design was to have ruffles completely down the dress. Do you think that happened? Absolutely not. I made this dress two days before it was time for the photo shoot. That was my fault, due to time management. What makes the pinning process so long is the skirt is a large circle with a lot of gathering, which means even though you cannot see it visually the entire circumference. So I had to open the skirt up & pin every bit of that skirt into place making sure the ruffle stayed even.

After the first ruffle, I decided that there was only going to be two, based on the time it took me to create the first one & the time that I had left to finish it. After I carefully pinned everything, it was time to sew those ruffles on. It felt like I was never going to get to the end, the ruffle just kept going & going. I eventually finished the ruffles, added a zipper & the rest was history.

fin.