My Handmade Prom Dress!

For pretty much as long as I can remember, I've wanted to make my own prom dress. And I did! After months and months of planning and preparation and a few weeks of actual sewing my dream dress was completed in time for prom. This is definitely one of my all time favourite and proudest makes and to have a handmade dress to wear felt wonderful.

Like many bigger projects the planning of this dress took a lot longer than the actual sewing. Whilst I've had a vague vision of what I wanted for years, the more specific details were much hazier. I always knew that I wanted a fitted skirt with a side split but the style of neckline took me longer to decide upon. I think that the whole thing kind of slotted into place with the decision to make a halterneck dress, deciding on this detail allowed the process of fabric and pattern buying to begin as I now had the design for the dress in my head.

The pattern took a long time to decide on! Although a halterneck dress may seem like a fairly generic design I really struggled finding the right shape for the halterneck while making sure that the pattern was designed to be slightly more formal. I ended up hacking the pattern that I used a fair amount, something that I knew would be needed from the start, so rather than looking for an exact match I tried to look for a pattern that had the right bodice for what I wanted. I found the perfect bodice with the Simplicity 5330 pattern, the back and skirt design weren't what I wanted but the princess seams in particular were exactly what I was looking for. 

I made a couple of changes to the design of the pattern, the most obvious one being the back. There are two variations possible when using the simplicity pattern, neither of which were what I wanted. Instead, I drew a line across the back bodice pieces so that they aligned across the back under the armpits and then sewed them like this to create a semi-backless bodice. I'm so pleased this worked as I love the more elegant design as opossed to the filled in back of the original pattern. I'm delighted with the invisible zip too! They're definitely my favourite type of closure and although sewing this one proved slightly difficult as the dress had to align perfectly both at the top of the zip and at the waist it's another feature that I'm really glad to have spent time on.

The bodice took a lot of fitting and I actually made a toile (for the first time!). It was really quick and easy to do but I wanted to familiarise myself with the construction of the bodice as I couldn't use the pattern instructions due to the altered back. I also ended up having to take in a lot of fabric at the side seams as well as some gaping at the princess seams so thanks to the toile I didn't have to find that out when cutting into my actual fabric. The bodice of the dress is fully lined which makes it look beautiful inside too and it also feels very luxurious to wear.

The other main adjustment that I made to the pattern was to change the position of the slit. The pattern does have a slit included but it's in the side seam making the skirt looking quite shapeless and rectuangular in my opinion. I was worried about changing the position of the slit incase lining it up with the princess seam made it too central, but the positioning has worked perfectly and I'm so glad I changed it to make the dress a bit more modern and the skirt more flattering. What I effectively did was to make the princess seams appear to extend all the way down the skirt which I think makes the dress look slightly more cohesive. I had no idea whether or not my hacked pattern would actually work as I had to add the slit to be in line with the centre of what would have been a dart while also adding seam allowances. I changed the front skirt into three separate pattern pieces as opposed to one, much like the design of the front bodice. Luckily it worked exactly as I had hoped. 

I was surprised to find myself with time to spare before having to wear the dress after it's completion, although I did leave the dress for a week without a hem! I would have hated to have rushed such an important project though so I'm glad to have completed the dress earlier than necessary. What I hadn't thought about was a clutch bag so I ended up having to make one a few days before actually using it. Luckily, it was a very simple project. I designed a really simple bag to be made from the fabric leftovers with an envelope like design and box corners. To stabilise it I actually inserted card inside it which worked really well although it did make sewing the lining slightly more difficult. I used an eyelet as the closure with the intention of adding some sort of ribbon but found that I actually preferred it with just the eyelet which was heavy enough to weigh down the flap so I didn't need a tie to secure it. It's a very simple clutch bag but I think it works well with the dress and was exactly what I needed.

Compared to the design, choosing the fabric was easy. I started thinking about the type of fabric that I wanted in January (bearing in mind that my prom wasn't until late June!) and decided that I wanted to use a crepe. Atelier Brunette have a stunning range of viscose crepe fabrics which made my decision on which fabric to use very simple as I knew as soon as I saw their range that their fabrics would be perfect. In order to choose the colour I ordered swatches from Minerva Crafts - the first time I've ever ordered a fabric swatch! I chose swatches of green, navy and black and while I was initially tentative to settle on navy it felt like the colour most suited to me and the navy crepe was gorgeous, not at all dull.

I spent hours focusing on the tiny details of this dress such as which button to use for the closure and handsewing the hem and slit seam allowance. It is without a doubt my dream dress and a project that I've wanted to sew for ages and finally had the opportunity to do so. I really loved making this prom dress and it's a garment that I'll treasure forever. Wearing any garment that you've made is wonderful but wearing this dress in particular knowing that I'd made it felt really special.