Ever sewn a ballroom gown?

[Momling]

My daughter just started competing in ballroom and needs a dress for a Viennese waltz. I'm pretty good at sewing, but haven't worked much with chiffon and tulle and godets and such. Are there any ballroom dancers or seamstresses who are willing to give me ideas? You can send me a pm and I'll be forever in your debt!!

[Harriet Vane]

I have sewn a few bridesmaid dresses as well as more than one wedding dress.

 

Start early. A fancy dress takes longer.

 

Make the waist tight or it won't be sufficient to hold up the weight of the dress. Not uncomfortably tight, but shoot for a snug fit.

 

Lots of fancy fabric frays easily. Because of this, I often find myself using a rotating cutter (like a pizza cutter for fabric), cutting pieces only when ready to sew them, and I am obsessive about zig-zagging edges to secure them. One dress I made had a sheer overlay. I cut it first thing, and then didn't piece it together till much later. It frayed so badly that it would not fit over the satin under-dress. I had to buy new fabric and re-do the sheer overlay from scratch. I was worried the same thing would happen again, so I did it all in one day.

 

The first dress I did, I had a reference book, and I also found a Really Nice Lady at the Vogue store in Chicago who was extremely gracious about answering my many questions.

[Lady Marmalade]

Having recently worked with chiffon, it's all about the iron.   Chiffon shreds if you just look at it.  The trick is to iron a fold, sew a seam using tiny stiches along your fold, and THEN cut the fabric just beyond the stiches. Then you iron another fold where you just cut off the fabric, and run it through the machine again so that you don't have any shredding edges left. 

 

Youtube helped me immensely with my project.  I searched for "how to sew chiffon" and a whole bunch of stuff popped up.  

 

Also, make sure you buy extra fabric just so that you can get familiar with it.  I spent an afternoon with my machine and a few panels of chiffon, sewing them with different stitch lengths and tensions until I found the perfect combination for my fabric.  I think this was key, and kept my stitching neat and tidy on the final project.

[justasque]

My daughter just started competing in ballroom and needs a dress for a Viennese waltz. I'm pretty good at sewing, but haven't worked much with chiffon and tulle and godets and such. Are there any ballroom dancers or seamstresses who are willing to give me ideas? You can send me a pm and I'll be forever in your debt!!

 

Jalie has a pattern that might work, Simplicity has had a couple in the past specifically designed for ballroom, McCalls has one, and Burda also has done one.  If they are out of print, you can sometimes find them on eBay or etsy.  

[fairfarmhand]

what style do you have in mind?

[FaithManor]

Agreeing with Marmelade, chiffon literally shreds just because you blinked, LOL!

 

I made a gorgeous evening gown one time for dd out of a brocade. It is a nice fabric to sew with, very elegant and timeless, holds up well.

 

Yes, the iron is your friend, and spray on "fray check" an also be very useful. When I work with chiffon, I add extra seam allowance and french seam it because it is such a fray monkey.

 

Also, your machine may not like sewing on pre-sequined fabric so get a plain fabric and then add the glitz by hand after the garment is made.

[shawthorne44]

Silk chiffon stretches if it is hanging up.  I made a puffy silk using a gazillion yards of silk chiffon for my wedding dress.  it fit great, right length, I hung it up.  Night before wedding my great aunt was hemming the dress, and I still had the waistband tucked into my bra.  If it hadn't been almost floor length this wouldn't have been a problem.  

[GailV]

The woman who owns Gorgeous Fabrics has a blog, and has discussed making ballroom gowns on it -- she has made them for her son's ballroom teacher. I don't recall how much detail she gave, but I think she discussed her decision making processes. This was years ago, by the way, so would take some googling.

 

Don't some people use spray starch on chiffon to help it behave while cutting out? I just made a Ghost of Christmas Past dress for dd that had chiffon, and other than the way it crawled all over when I tried to cut it, it really wasn't that bad to work with. I serged everything as I went along. And probably care less about details since it's a stage costume.

 

I would look for more tips online at places like the sewing forum on Artisan's Square -- lots of older seamstresses there who have done all the things, tried all the techniques. They have a specific sub forum for costumes.

[gingersmom]

eBay

 

They come from China and are beautiful. Ours took about 2 weeks to arrive.

[Momling]

What my daughter would like is something a little reminiscent of Hermione's dress in the Yule Ball scene. Not exactly... but something similar.  She actually has a bridesmaids dress that we could repurpose the bodice for this dress. It's nice and stretchy and very pretty and I think if I put on a new skirt and add some flutter sleeves, it could work really well.  I'm not sure what would be best in designing it -- if we do tiers on the skirt, how many? If we do a circle skirt - how many circles of fabric (3 half circles?) or do we do multiple single circles? Or godets or gores? Or crinoline underneath?  Should I make a wavy hem made with fishing line? Use horsehair on the hem?   We only have JoAnne's nearby... should I consider buying fabric online instead?

 

The bodice we already have looks like this but in pale pink: http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_high-low-mesh-dress-with-floral-one-shoulder-8420bw1b 

 

It's a solo thing, so we are pretty free to have whatever dress we want without worrying that it'll be overshadowed or whatever.

 

Any ideas?

 

Edit -- Oops - the link doesn't work and the dress is discontinued. Google image " high-low mesh dress with floral one-shoulder " if you want to see it.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Momling

[Lady Marmalade]

What my daughter would like is something a little reminiscent of Hermione's dress in the Yule Ball scene. Not exactly... but something similar.  She actually has a bridesmaids dress that we could repurpose the bodice for this dress. It's nice and stretchy and very pretty and I think if I put on a new skirt and add some flutter sleeves, it could work really well.  I'm not sure what would be best in designing it -- if we do tiers on the skirt, how many? If we do a circle skirt - how many circles of fabric (3 half circles?) or do we do multiple single circles? Or godets or gores? Or crinoline underneath?  Should I make a wavy hem made with fishing line? Use horsehair on the hem?   We only have JoAnne's nearby... should I consider buying fabric online instead?

 

The bodice we already have looks like this but in pale pink: http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_high-low-mesh-dress-with-floral-one-shoulder-8420bw1b 

 

It's a solo thing, so we are pretty free to have whatever dress we want without worrying that it'll be overshadowed or whatever.

 

Any ideas?

 

Edit -- Oops - the link doesn't work and the dress is discontinued. Google image " high-low mesh dress with floral one-shoulder " if you want to see it.

 

For my last project I bought fabric from http://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com/because my best local option is also JoAnnes.  They are really expensive for not-so-great quality of fabric.  The chiffon I ordered from the wholesaler was of a superior quality.  I needed 30 yards, and they sent me one solid, 30 yard roll of fabric and I paid only $2.35 a yard.  Shipping took less than a week.  I didn't realize it was 60 inch fabric when I bought it, so was even more thrilled with the price once I got it!  The 45-inch fabric from Jo-Annes of a lesser quality was $7.99 a yard, AND I would have had to special order several bolts of the fabric. 

 

To do something even a little similar to Hermione's dress is going to take a LOT of fabric.  And all those hems!  Oy!  I would be reluctant to buy from JoAnnes for this kind of project, even with a coupon.  

 

You might want to consider buying a roll of muslin and making yourself a pattern for that dress.  Have you seen this blog posting of it?  http://imgur.com/gallery/li4J8 She actually makes it look a little less daunting.  It's not as stunning as the original, but it might give you some ideas.

[KatieJ]

I have never seen a ball gown but I do have some experience in Bridal wear. I can't answer your questions about using wire, but the easiest way to,hem layers of chiffon is a rolled hem using a serger.

 

Another hem I used hundreds of times on formal wear we called hem, cut, roll.

I would use it on the lining of your dress.

I'll try to explain.

Let's say you need to hem the dress 2 inches. Don't cut off the excess. Mark your hem line and then 1/4 inch below your mark , press in a crease. You can now do one of two things. Using a basting stitch you can sew a narrow stitching line next to your crease. Cut off your excess and then turn it up and stitch it againusing a regular stitch length.. Someyptimes I would pull out that basting srptitch, and sometimes I just left it.

Alternatively, you can do the first row of stitching , leaving the excess fabric in place, turn up the 1/4 inch hem using a regular stitch length, and then carefully cut off the excess. Hope that helps.

[Spy Car]

Never.

 

Bill 

[Nan in Mass]

I haven,t done a ballgown, but I,ve run toilet paper through my machine as an extra layer under my flimsy fabrics, to keep the teeth from snagging the fabric or to keep the fabric from sliding around. I make the pattern by tracing an item of clothing that already fits well. I think I,d hem those ruffles first, then sew them on. Make sure you use the right needle and practice on scraps until you get the tension exactly right. I,d probably sew right off the edge at the end, cut the thread long, and then fasten the thread off by hand, rather than going back and forth, if I were working with chiffon in a place that showed. I have an ordinary, 30yo Singer, and I wouldn,t necessarily trust it not to bunch up slippery or fragile fabrics in running in reverse.

 

Nan

[Momling]

I don't have a serger but I do have a rolled hem foot on my sewing machine which I've used on sheer fabrics. What about a hot knife on (synthetic) chiffon? Has anyone tried that?

[KatieJ]

I don't have a serger but I do have a rolled hem foot on my sewing machine which I've used on sheer fabrics. What about a hot knife on (synthetic) chiffon? Has anyone tried that?

I have not used a hot knife, but I did plenty of rolled hems on my sewing machine before I Bought my first serger. I agree with PP, I would hem those layers before I sewed them together. You do need to be careful that you are pretty sure of finished hem length before you start sewing. One time I had to go back and rehem layers to make them all proportional as I needed to shorten the dress more than I had anticipated.

[Peach]

I spent 13 years as a pro ballroom dancer :)  the skirts on my smooth dresses were normally 2 full circles per layer for a gathered skirt. You can do godets to make it bigger but they are a pain to sew if you've not done them before. A gathered skirt is much easier and two layers  should do unless it's really sheer like white. If you are reusing the bodice of the other dress, can you find dance trunks to match it? That will be okay for underneath as long as she isn't doing lifts. To hem it, let it hang for several days till the chiffon does what stretching it's going to do. This is the result of circle skirts being cit on the bias and chiffon is really bad about it. 

 

If you want rhinestones, you can use a hot glue gun but go light on the glue if you use it on the chiffon and don't get the gun tip to close to the chiffon. Make sure the stones are the AB type so they'll catch the light and reflect back - sorta like diamonds do. The normal crystal type doesn't and has no effect really.

 

With that much skirt, no crinolines. They are too stiff and don't move, which is what you want the skirt to do. Way back in the early 80's, ballroom dress skirts were all crinoline and sorta stuck straight out :) Thankfully that style went away never to be seen again :)