A little disclaimer - I say tutorial but it is more of a documentation of my progress. I'll try to be as thorough as possible and hopefully, someone might find this useful one day.
In this post, we will go through my progress on the Red Dress itself. You will not find the crown here - I will make a separate article for it, along with some tips on the wig.
A FEW NOTES BEFORE WE BEGIN:
My dress is based on the Broadway production's costume. If you were to aim for the Madrid or Stuttgart one (the US tour one is basically the same as the Broadway one), there would be a slight difference in lace applique placement and probably also in the fabric choice for the lower skirt. (If you want to see those differences, I have covered them in my analysis of the Red Dress).
There are definitely things that could have (and should have) been done differently. I will make sure to point them out to you so that you do not repeat my mistakes.
MATERIALS USED:
(The links are in no way sponsored, it is my attempt to save you some of the pain of looking for the right materials.)
- For the MAIN DRESS I have used a simple satin from my local fabric store. The lining is made from red cotton with organza ruffles sewn onto it. The lining of the bodice is just some thick cotton-ish fabric that I have found in a thrift store.
- The BUSTLE is made of bedsheets but any red cotton will of course do just as well. Also you will need organza for the back part. The pattern I used for it is Burda 2447.
- The design Anastasia has on the LOWER SKIRT is called "paisley". I have used a metallic brocade from Fabric Wholesale direct. (https://www.fabricwholesaledirect.com/products/gold-paisley-metallic-brocade-fabric?variant=8139806900339 ). It was the only brocade that I could find that had the paisley design and at the same time, did not have any silver thread in it. (Of course, if you find anything more stage-accurate, I will be happy for you and consider sharing your find with me. :-) )
- LACE APPLIQUES I used are from Louy's International Store at Aliexpress (https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/Lace-Applique/1015046_506680932.html?spm=a2g1y.12024536.pcShopHead_7930089.1_1_1). I have chosen these for one simple reason - in order to ensure the lace appliques would be the same colour they had to be bought at the same store and this one had wide enough selection for me to choose a few designs to later combine. The only lace applique that I have not bought from the store is the center piece (that you can see in the photos below). The center piece is from CS-SX Store on Aliexpress. (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2Yd-Hot-Sale-Light-Gold-Mesh-Lace-Trim-Applique-Trimming-Luxury-Embroidery-Light-Gold-Lace-Fabric/32868457895.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dmNIkPE). You will also need TULLE in order to have something to combine the lace appliques on and to keep them together.
- RHINESTONES are also Aliexpress bought with majority of them being from QIYI rhinestone Store (https://www.aliexpress.com/store/2783123?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d73Nh5v ). Yet again, my main goal was to ensure that all of the rhinestones would have the same colour. I will go over what sizes I bought further in the article.
GENERAL PROGRESS TIPS
- Do not start with the main dress - if you do not have the bustle finished when you are working on the main dress, you will never truly know how the skirt behaves when the bustle is under it
- Hemming foot is your friend. (It makes life so much easier when hemming all that organza. Trust me.)
Let's get to it!
THE BROCADE SKIRT
The brocade skirt is a simple A-line skirt (which means two yards of fabric were enough).
Just a few tips:
- Don't make the skirt too narrow or it will be difficult to walk round it, especially with the heels.
- Hem the skirt at the lower edge with bias tape. The brocade frays like crazy.
In the photo you can see how the brocade changes in different lighting. It worried me slightly when i was making the skirt but as soon as made the made main dress, I found out that it was not a problem. The main skirt casts a shadow on the brocade, making it appear less orange and also making the gold ornaments stand out really well.
THE BUSTLE
For the bustle I modified a Burda pattern 2447. It is a pattern for a Rococo dress with a bustle similar to Anastasia's. The only problem - it lacks the ruffles.
I have started with a mock-up of the Burda pattern, which turned out being too long for me. I have shortened it so that the middle tier with boning in it became the last one and added one more tier of boning to the top instead. (If you look closely at the photo with the red bustle's ruffles partially finished, you can see the boning channels.)
Each side has five layers of ruffles.
The back side is a simple oval shape made out of organza with ruffles added to the hem and to the oval shape itself (second to last photo). This thing should be longer than the rest of the bustle and it should reach to your knees, mine unfortunately ended up being as long as the rest of the bustle.
THE MAIN DRESS - The bodice The bodice is divided into 12 equal sections, which correspond to the main skirt's pleats. (I accidentally made the two front sections smaller, don't follow my example.) I have made my own pattern for the corset by using foil and tape. As you can see, the lining of the bodice is white so I used white for the lining as well.
First I cut out all corset pieces out of both fashion and lining fabrics. I sewed the fashion fabric corset together. Anastasia's dress has a zipper at the back which runs through both the corset and the skirt, so at this point it was necessary to make a part of the skirt as well.
THE MAIN DRESS - The skirt
The skirt is ankle length at the front and reaches the floor in the back. The top of the skirt is pleated.
I used pieces of paper of the same width as the corset sections to create my pattern. The short pieces imply the section which were later pleated, the long ones correspond to the sections on the corset and also to the places where the lace appliques are placed. (The fabric with a pattern is my mockup fabric.)
In the second picture, you can see a half of the skirt already pleated (I had the skirt in two parts because I did not have fabric wide enough to be able to place the back part of the skirt on fold.)
I sewed the fashion fabric part of the bodice and the skirt together after this. I inserted a zipper at this point as well.
THE MAIN DRESS - The lining
As you can see in the photo, I did not insert boning channels into all of the seams, for I did not find it necessary. The fashion fabric ad the lining are sewed together entirely by hand.
As for the lining of the skirt, I used the same pattern as I did for the main skirt. As you can see in the second photo, I did not pleat it the same way as I did the main skirt.)
The skirt's lining contains A LOT of ruffles. I made 4 layers of organza ruffles. The last photo shows the lining skirt wrong side up, of course, it's just to show the ruffle placement.
Before I sewed it together, there were a few finishing touches yet to be made.
THE MAIN DRESS - details
As I have mentioned, the skirt is pleated and the pleats are sewn together for the first 10 centimeters or so of the skirt. This is best done by hand when you already have the lining pinned to the skirt.
What I used in my Anastasia dress is horsehair braid. I added it to the front of the skirt, sandwiching it between the fashion fabric and the lining. It helps to keep the front of the skirt in shape.
Once I had both of these things in place, I sewed the skirt's lining to the skirt itself. By hand.
THE LACE APPLIQUES.
The lace appliques on the skirt have the same length all over the skirt, which definitely makes one's job easier.
I cut the lace appliques I bought and organized them to a shape most resembling the one on the original skirt. I used red tulle as a base and glued the lace appliques together as much as I could.)
The rhinestones have also been glued to the lace appliques prior to being sewn on. I found that it makes the sewing much easier. (A Gutterman fabric glue worked great for it. I used two tubes for the entire dress, which is not bad.)
I sewed/glued the lace appliques on the dress itself.
And that's it!
If you have any questions/feedback, please don't hesitate to message me.
Here are some photos of the finished dress:
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