Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Daily Dress: Strapless Cotillion Dress

Look at the drama of this skirt! I chose this 50s dress today (for sale here) because it's a good example of a boned garment. My high-waisted boned skirt tutorial today is really just a short strapless bodice, if you think about it. You can use the same techniques to make a strapless dress, but you will want to omit the horsehair canvas (too stiff) and sandwich the boning in between a layer of lining fabric and a layer of silk organza instead.

This dress also demonstrates how to effectively use stripes on a full circle skirt. See how the grain line is horizontal at the center front skirt? Because the skirt is a complete circle, the stripes become vertical at the side seams, so there's no need to match stripes up at the seams, since they'll be parallel to each other.

The red arrows in this photo show the grainline.

In the picture below, you can see that the dress closes with a side lapped zipper, which is a lovely vintage detail.
The seller notes that the label reads "Cotillion Formals." It would also make a lovely wedding dress, don't you think?

16 comments:

  1. What a wonderful dress! It would be a great wedding dress.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Until you mentioned it it didn't occur to me but this WOULD make a fantastic wedding dress. I would absolutely wear this down the isle (which I will not be doing for some time) But still, some lucky lady should snap this up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely dress. I especially like the embroidery over the subtle stripe. Thanks for pointing out how they used the stripe in the skirt.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Incredible! The grainline thing is blowing my mind a little bit. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's an amazing dress. How would it suit a bottom heavy gal?

    ReplyDelete
  7. This dress is AMAZING! I love the green (velvet?) ribbon detail! I'd love to wear this to a fancy summer function! And yes, it would make a fabulous wedding dress.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This dress is simply stunning. I also want to thank you for pointing out the striping detail-- I learn SO MUCH from reading this blog!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful! It would be a lucky bride that got to wear this down the isle!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ooh, pretties! I'm loving the way the stripes work - thank you for pointing those out. I'm definitely going to have to try out a striped circle skirt (I've got a gingham one planned, but not a striped ... yet!).

    ReplyDelete
  11. The grainline on the skirt is really fantastic. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. <3 I think I could traipse around in this dress all day long, even if it was just to the supermarket =)

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a gorgeous dress. I love the way the stripes are working. Wedding dress, party dress, fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Fabulous to glide in down the aisle, and the bridesmaids could wear that luscious green.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I like how the stripes on the side fronts of the bodice also mirror the direction of the stripes on the skirt too! Very pretty dress!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comments; I read each and every one! xo Gertie

© Gertie's Blog For Better Sewing. Powered by Cake