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When I say this dress was a labour of love, I'm not exaggerating. From the choosing fabrics to adding the trims, every stage was filled with hundreds of choices that finally resulted in a piece I'm so happy with.
When one of my closest friends, Becca, asked if I could make this gown for her I was very excited, then soon realised that, unfortunately, we are both perfectionists which meant that every tiny detail had to be checked and double checked multiple times. This dress is, of course, based on Christine Daae's Wishing Dress from a particular scene within the Broadway version of The Phantom of the Opera, which is performed by multiple different theatres across the world. This means that there are many variations of the dress - some have the embroidery at the front; some don't, some have trim on the collar, some don't; some have the skirt pleats sewn down; some don't...so the first challenge was pinning down exactly which variation of the dress we were going to use as our primary reference.
After choosing our reference and main fabric, the next hurdle was finding the velvet contrast fabric, which took an entire day going back and forth among the fabric markets in London to try to find the perfect colour match. After that, I had to focus on the best way to make the layered trim on the dress - with the result being that I had to create it myself out of 4 trims; a blue velvet ribbon with white ricrac on either side, sewn over a blue tassel braid. This required hours and hours of hand sewing, especially on the waterfall cascade (folded section along the back of the bustle), which had to be done carefully so it was invisible from the other side.
There were many challenges with this piece, but I'm extremely proud of the outcome. So much so that I displayed it on a mannequin at my table at Fantasy Forest Festival in July. Although seeing Becca's excitement when she finally tried on the final costume is everything I needed, and I can't wait to see her wearing it at many more conventions!
When one of my closest friends, Becca, asked if I could make this gown for her I was very excited, then soon realised that, unfortunately, we are both perfectionists which meant that every tiny detail had to be checked and double checked multiple times. This dress is, of course, based on Christine Daae's Wishing Dress from a particular scene within the Broadway version of The Phantom of the Opera, which is performed by multiple different theatres across the world. This means that there are many variations of the dress - some have the embroidery at the front; some don't, some have trim on the collar, some don't; some have the skirt pleats sewn down; some don't...so the first challenge was pinning down exactly which variation of the dress we were going to use as our primary reference.
After choosing our reference and main fabric, the next hurdle was finding the velvet contrast fabric, which took an entire day going back and forth among the fabric markets in London to try to find the perfect colour match. After that, I had to focus on the best way to make the layered trim on the dress - with the result being that I had to create it myself out of 4 trims; a blue velvet ribbon with white ricrac on either side, sewn over a blue tassel braid. This required hours and hours of hand sewing, especially on the waterfall cascade (folded section along the back of the bustle), which had to be done carefully so it was invisible from the other side.
There were many challenges with this piece, but I'm extremely proud of the outcome. So much so that I displayed it on a mannequin at my table at Fantasy Forest Festival in July. Although seeing Becca's excitement when she finally tried on the final costume is everything I needed, and I can't wait to see her wearing it at many more conventions!
