The Making of the Jellyfish {AKA The Graduation Dress} | Part 2 The Bodice

I'm back guys! My new computer is fantastic and makes editing so much easier and faster! As promised, here is part 2 of The Making of the Jellyfish {AKA The Graduation Dress}, which is about the making of the bodice.

This is my bodice mock up with the completed skirt. I drafted the bodice myself without any patterns and was able to get the mock up completed in a few hours.

All my bodice pieces cut out. I cut the pieces out of my satin and then out of a pink broadcloth to flat line the bodice. Flat lining, for anyone who doesn't know, is just cutting the same bodice pieces out of another fabric then basting them onto the fashion fabric pieces. It helps strengthen the fabric and reduces unwanted wrinkles.

Next I zig zagged the edges of my satin and broadcloth pieces. After that I basted the flat ling onto the satin pieces.

I had a bit of a "duh!" moment after I finished this. I realized that I could have just zig zagged the lining and satin pieces together instead of doing them separately and then basting them together.

Next I stitched all of the bodice pieces together.

Then I stay stitched around all of the round corners - which were the arm holes and the neckline. Stay stitching is just basting around curved edges. It keeps the fabric from stretching out of shape while you're still working on it.

One of my favorite tricks, which saves time and money, is to use bias tape for boning channels. I just used 1/2" double fold bias tape and stitched it onto my seam allowance on all the seams of my bodice. It works great and you can get it for cheap at any sewing store!

 The completed boning channels.

At this point I cut out all of my boning. I use thick zip ties for boning. They're cheap and I haven't had any problems with them. The pieces are roughly 1/2"-1" shorter than the boning channels plus seam allowance.

After debating on how to finish the edges I finally decided on this method. I traced the top 2 inches and bottom 2 inches of every pattern piece, cut them, zig zagged the edges, then sewed them together like I did my normal bodice pieces.

I ironed the seams flat then stitched the bottom pieces, right sides together, then folded it over to the inside and hand stitched it down with a whip stitch.

I did the same thing with the top, but first I had to add the elastic straps. I needed flesh colored elastic, but wasn't able to find any in the stores that was the right size (it was either way to wide or way to small). After doing some research I learned that a lot of dancers tea dye their elastic. I did a couple of tests with tea's that I had on hand and some extra elastic.

I tried several different types of tea, but the one that worked the quickest and got the best color was Tazo Organic Chai tea. I think I let the elastic "steep" for a couple of hours before it was a good color.

 After the elastic was done I put the boning into the bodice and then pinned the elastic onto the bodice underneath the finishing strip (I'm not sure what this would be called...) and stitched it just like the bottom. I decided this time that I needed to under stitch the top to keep the edge nice and flat. I ended up doing this by hand because the elastic wouldn't allow my machine to sew along the arm hole. At least not very easily. After that was done I tacked it down like on the bottom. It ended up making a big difference!

The finished under stitching. Not very pretty but it worked!

After that was done I stitched my zipper onto the back. I had to use a separating zipper for the bodice, and it ended up looking pretty good but because they didn't have any in pink and I had to get white it's a little more obvious that I would like. Plus it's a pretty big zipper!

Here's some shots of the nearly completed bodice...

 I  contemplated a lot on what to do for the arms. I wanted some type of sleeve or sleeve type thing. I ended up using the shoulder sleeve thing from Anna's dress from Simplicity 1215. After I made it up I hand stitched it o the inside of the bodice.

The pieces, zig zagged, stitched, and clipped...

Ironing makes a huge difference! Especially in something like this. The bottom piece is ironed while the other one is not.

My hand stitching. I did two rows just to make sure it was secure. Probably overkill but I don't hand sew that often so I wanted to make sure it was secure.

Lastly, I had to sew the skirt to the bodice. I did this by hand, with the tiniest stitches I could manage. I wanted to make sure it was secure since the skirt was fairly heavy. When I was finished it was very secure and I didn't have any problems with it.

And that's about it! I had wanted to embellish the bodice and add jewels or something to the skirt, but I decided not to because I was running out of time and didn't want to stress over it.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I made this dress and hope you learned something! Please feel free to ask any questions.

The Making of the Jellyfish {AKA The Graduation Dress} | Part 1 The Skirt

This is my first post since graduating on the Saturday! YAY! I've made a couple of posts about inspiration for my graduation dress, which is inspired mostly by romantic tutu's from the ballet. I did a lot of research before starting this dress and then I learned even more when I actually made it.

The finished dress

I have given this dress the nickname "The Jellyfish" because while I was working on the skirt I noticed that it resembled the movements of a jellyfish when fluffing it up and down. And now that's just what I call it.

This post is going to be about making the skirt. The skirt includes 10 yards of tulle and approximately 2 yards of 58" satin, and a whole lotta patience. I ended up having to make the skirt 3 times because it was made of tulle which meant I didn't do a mock up to work out the bugs. But you'll learn all about that if you keep reading.

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This first part is the first time I made the skirt. I started out with making the basque, which is a piece of fabric that the tulle gets sewn onto and sits on the lower waist/hips. I made the first basque out of a pink broadcloth, which was my first mistake. I thought that the tulle would blend the color/fabric difference between the bask and the satin of the lining skirt. But I was wrong. 

My basque is basically drafted the same way you would draft a 3/4 circle skirt. I didn't really know what other shape to use and it ended up working just fine. When the bask was cut I folded the edges over about 1/4 of an inch and hand sewed it down. After that I measured and traced out my rows where I would stitch the tulle, which were 1/2" apart.

The next thing I did was cut out my tulle. I purchased 10 yards of 58" wide tulle. Each layer of the skirt was made from 2 panels 2 yards by approx 29" wide. I learned from the last time I used tulle in the petticoat for my Rose Tyler dress and avoided the sewing machine as much as possible.

After I had my pannels cut I stitched them together with my sewing machine, creating basically a 4 yard skirt that I gathered by hand.

I stitched all of the panels together, creating the layers at once so I could just gather, stitch to the basque, and repeat.

After I hand sewed about 4 layers on (which took I don't remember how many hours) I started to realize the skirt was poofing out too much at the hips. Personally I like this shape, it actually resembles the shape of my favorite version of the Star Princess dress from Phantom, but it's not the look I was going for.

I did some research and learned that tulle on romantic tutu's are usually sewn 1" apart where I had been sewing them at 1/2" apart. So I took out 2 rows of tulle, had to gather it again, and then stitched it on at 1" apart.

This gave me the silhouette I wanted and I kept going, moving onto the skirt lining next.

For my skirt lining I did a full circle skirt. I drafted the pattern to fit the measurement of the bottom of the basque instead of my waist. To draft the skirt I use this tutorial HERE, which I've used before and I love it!

After the skirt was cut out I zig zagged the edges to keep it from fraying and then I stay stitched the waistline. For those of you who don't know, stay stitching is just basting around curved edges. It helps keep the fabric from stretching out of shape.

I added a lapped zipper to the skirt in the back. This was my first time doing one of these zippers and it turned out pretty good. Not the cleanest, but it all got covered in tulle anyways.

At this point I pinned the skirt lining onto the basque and I realized that the difference in types of fabric and the color difference was going to be obvious, so I made a new basque out of the same satin and, which also meant I would be restitching the tulle on again.

I made the basque the same way as the first, but this time I zig-zagged the edges

Next I stitched the hooks and eyes on.

You'll notice that the hooks and eyes are alternating. I decided to do this after my first basque because they would come undone easily and this is a technique that's been used since theses little guys were invented.

After that I sewed the lining to the basque. For this basque I decided it would be easiest to sew the tulle on after I attached the lining. Which was the best decision I made.

After the lining was attached I started sewing tulle... again.

I decided against going ahead and making out the lines on the basque and free handed it. I didn't want to have to deal with washing the marker out under 5 layers of tulle. Overall I think I did pretty good at keeping it even, and you definitely can't see any of the imperfections when I'm wearing the dress.

 This is the skirt with 4 layers of tulle and the mock up for the bodice. I ended up adding the 5th layer  while I was working on the bodice.

So there you have it! The skirt took approximately 12 hours, give or take a bit because I kept forgetting to time myself. I went through the entire BBC North & South mini series, at least 1 Star Wars movie, and a few episode of When Calls the Heart while working on this skirt.

I'll be posting the 2nd part of making The Jellyfish soon and pictures from my graduation party as well.

Thanks for reading!