Refashionista: Black long evening gown

Refashionista is finally back! It's been too long since my last refashionista post. Not that I haven't made anything, but it's taken me awhile to get things photographed, and I've also been sewing from scratch more these days (those posts are coming as well).

Now, on to this beauty I made several months ago, actually. One of my goals for this school year was to add to my performance wear. I desperately needed a simple, yet dressy concert gown. I made myself a gorgeous, but super fancy concert gown last spring, but I needed something more subtle. What would be better than a classic and elegant long black evening gown.

For this dress I used two old garments from my refashion pile (pictured above). The first a simple black velvet dress that was a couple of sizes too big and an odd length. The second my Mom's old lace blouse she wasn't wearing anymore. The best thing about these two garments was that they were both stretchy, which meant no zippers and an ultra comfy dress. It's like performing in your pj's!

The velvet dress was exactly wide enough to become the skirt part of the new dress. I cut the upper part of the velvet dress off, just below the armholes and attached it to the underlining of the lace blouse.

Then I used the pattern on the lace to cut out a new uneven hem for the blouse. I attached the blouse hem to the velvet skirt with pins and sewed it on by hand adding small seed beads along the way as embellishment. I did the same cut out hem with the sleeves of the dress. I think it gives it so much more sophistication, although it's a very simple modification.

This could be the easiest evening gown ever made. It turned out exactly as I hoped and I've been getting a lot of wear out of it already. A very successful make in my book!

Hanna's Concert Gown: Part 2

My concert gown has been the biggest sewing project I've tackled in my seamstress career. Not only did I have to draft the pattern for the underdress from 3 different patterns, I had no instructions how to work with the upper layer or how to put all the elements together. I'm so proud of the end result! This project really showed me how much I've developed as a seamstress over the years.

I showed you little glimpses of the neckline and the dress in progress in part 1. Now you can see the beaded neckline in full glory. I was a little bit afraid that the neckline would have too much bling, but seeing it on the finished dress, I think it's just bright enough.

As you can see, I've swapped the wider ribbon for a narrower one. I didn't feel comfortable with the way the wide ribbon kept rushing together, plus the narrower ribbon makes my legs look super long. And that's a big plus when you have legs as short as mine.

I'm  in love with the whole ensamble! I think the earrings (tutorial here) complete the dress. I thought they might be too much given the sparkling neckline, but when you're on stage, everything has to be larger than life, so that it would have an effect from the 20th row as well.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way my gown turned out. I'm especially happy that I was able to create my design exactly the way I imagined it from the beginning. Finishing this dress has given me so much encouragement to get going with sewing projects I thought I didn't have the skills to tackle. It just proves that I can make anything if I want it badly enough.

Hanna's Concert Gown: Part 1

My weekend is in full sewing swing. I'm busy working on my concert gown for an upcoming concert I'm performing in. You can see my progress in the above picture. I have still many miles to go, but I pinned it together to give you an idea of what the finished dress will look like. As this is a huge undertaking, I thought I'd share the process in two parts.

I started with three different patterns...

and combined them into one. I did do a muslin for the neckline and the bodice to adjust the fit. I actually had to do a lot of altering, so it was good that I did the muslin before cutting into my gorgeous gown fabric. I didn't need to make a muslin for the skirt since I've already used it previously and knew it fitted well.

After cutting out all the pattern pieces, I first started working on the neckline. I'm pear-shaped, so I wanted the neckline to draw attention to my upper side and help balance out the hips. I covered the neckline with decorative stones. I hand-sewed them on with invisible thread.

Next step, sewing together the underdress. This step was the quickest so far, since I'd already done the muslin and new everything would fit together and on me as well. The trouble started when I started gathering the upper layer of the dress. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it all fit and look good. It's going to take some more work, but I'm already starting to see the end result. It's going to be stunning!