Deconstructed Prom Dress: Part 1 - Making a Crinoline
A few months back, I was on my way to mom's house and stopped at a yard sale because they had a crib and I wanted to organize my fabric a bit better...
At said yard sale, I reconnected with a childhood friend who was the one having the yard sale at her parents house. I bought the crib and when I told her what I wanted to use it for, she started giving me a couple of prom dresses that she had worn. She said 'well since you sew, maybe you could use them for something!' I like the way she thinks! :-D
Anywho, one of the dresses actually fit (Yes, I tried them on. Don't judge) but the other did not. The 'other' was a lovely dress, but it has some stains on it and I wasn't sure if they would come out, so I decided to sacrifice it to the fabric gods. It had crinoline... I needed crinoline. It was fate!
I took it home and stuck it in a tote until about a week ago when I wanted a 'fast' project. I say fast, but it took around a week. It could have gone faster, but I was working on some Christmas gifts in-between. Anywho, I took a slip that fits well and made a copy of it from the prom dress lining.
I pulled the top elastic as far as it would go and pinned it to my board before cutting so I could get as close of a fit as possible to the original.
I wanted to add some extra seam allowance room on the top for my casing...
And I wanted it to be a little longer so the scratchy material wouldn't bother my legs...
Then I took the lining and instead of cutting on the fold, I cut on the seam, essentially doing the same as cutting on the fold. It was a nice serged seam... I didn't want to waste it. haha
I made a casing and inserted some elastic
I stretched the elastic to the length of the lining and pinned every quarter mark. Then I sewed a zigzag stitch right onto the elastic. Once I started sewing on of the quarters, I would pull the elastic all the way taut and sew the zigzag stitch, making it able to be very stretchy.
I think it came out pretty!!
And of course, I had some help...
I cut off all the crinoline from the prom dress and I measured out 90 inches. I measured out 90 inches because the slip itself is around 30 inches and I knew I had to gather a bunch of the crinoline, so I multiplied by 3. I then hand gathered the top of the crinoline, old school like. Once I had it gathered enough to fit the slip, I laid them wrong side (crinoline) to right side (slip) and sewed.
I'm sure there was an easier way to do this, but I couldn't see one. haha. Anywho, I then folded the crinoline down over the front of the slip and gave it a quick top stitch to keep it in place. And Voila!!
Before...
And after!
I had watched a couple of tutorials on how to make a crinoline and they made loads of layers and whatnot. I just wanted a little fullness to my dresses made from vintage patterns. I think this works just fine for my purpose. :)
At said yard sale, I reconnected with a childhood friend who was the one having the yard sale at her parents house. I bought the crib and when I told her what I wanted to use it for, she started giving me a couple of prom dresses that she had worn. She said 'well since you sew, maybe you could use them for something!' I like the way she thinks! :-D
Anywho, one of the dresses actually fit (Yes, I tried them on. Don't judge) but the other did not. The 'other' was a lovely dress, but it has some stains on it and I wasn't sure if they would come out, so I decided to sacrifice it to the fabric gods. It had crinoline... I needed crinoline. It was fate!
I took it home and stuck it in a tote until about a week ago when I wanted a 'fast' project. I say fast, but it took around a week. It could have gone faster, but I was working on some Christmas gifts in-between. Anywho, I took a slip that fits well and made a copy of it from the prom dress lining.
I pulled the top elastic as far as it would go and pinned it to my board before cutting so I could get as close of a fit as possible to the original.
I wanted to add some extra seam allowance room on the top for my casing...
And I wanted it to be a little longer so the scratchy material wouldn't bother my legs...
Then I took the lining and instead of cutting on the fold, I cut on the seam, essentially doing the same as cutting on the fold. It was a nice serged seam... I didn't want to waste it. haha
I made a casing and inserted some elastic
I stretched the elastic to the length of the lining and pinned every quarter mark. Then I sewed a zigzag stitch right onto the elastic. Once I started sewing on of the quarters, I would pull the elastic all the way taut and sew the zigzag stitch, making it able to be very stretchy.
I think it came out pretty!!
And of course, I had some help...
I cut off all the crinoline from the prom dress and I measured out 90 inches. I measured out 90 inches because the slip itself is around 30 inches and I knew I had to gather a bunch of the crinoline, so I multiplied by 3. I then hand gathered the top of the crinoline, old school like. Once I had it gathered enough to fit the slip, I laid them wrong side (crinoline) to right side (slip) and sewed.
I'm sure there was an easier way to do this, but I couldn't see one. haha. Anywho, I then folded the crinoline down over the front of the slip and gave it a quick top stitch to keep it in place. And Voila!!
Before...
And after!
I had watched a couple of tutorials on how to make a crinoline and they made loads of layers and whatnot. I just wanted a little fullness to my dresses made from vintage patterns. I think this works just fine for my purpose. :)
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