Nai Day 2014!

This month I had the pleasure of making my great niece's Sr. Prom dress.  She submitted this photo of a Michael Costello (Project Runway/Season 8) original.  Though Michael did not win that season.  He went on to design some fabulous gowns for celebrities, such as Beyonce, Ashanti, Tatyana Ali, Meagan Good and Britney Spears just to name a few.  

Muslin Mockup - the Back

Muslin Mockup - the front

     To create this dress is used McCall's 2718.  It is a sloper/block or master pattern, which is used to develop other patterns or styles. Using the smallest size available, a size six(6).   I combined the sloper bodice and skirt to create a torso sloper and drafted the flounce.  Next, I sewed a muslin mockup of the dress to check for fit and style.  I could have used a dress form, but she was smaller than my form.  Therefore, I fitted the mockup to her body.  It was just about perfect, except for the bust darts.  Once those adjustments were made we did a second fitting....Perfect! 

I would then go on to cut out the dress, flounce and lining.  I used a beautiful red poly stretch crepe for the fashion fabric and a stretch poly lining. The original dress I believe was a knit, so I installed an invisible zipper closure at the side seams so that she could get into the dress.  A zipper would not have worked on the back because of the flounce.  Once that was done, I did a third fitting in the fashion fabric because my muslin didn't have any stretch.  Guess what!  She lost weight so the waist was to big.  A little more tweaking and pattern adjustments.  I then dropped in the lining.  Another fitting and then on to hand sewing the lining to the zipper, tacking at side seams and hem.  Below is the finished garment!  She was very pleased!