This post is about another one of the neutral “wedding wear” dresses that members of the chorus wore to the finale of “Cinderella”.  This is not my favorite dress close-up, but I do like it better from a distance.

This costume began with a base dress.  This is actually the remnants of a dress.  Once upon a time it had a sparkly net overlay that I cut off for a different purpose.

The cast member I was making this costume for was very petite.  I cut the skirt off below the waistline (leaving enough fabric to re-attach the skirt).  I shortened the skirt at the waist to preserve the fullness at the bottom.  (You can see my measuring sheet at the base of the picture.  We measure every cast member during auditions.  I create a binder with all the measuring sheets.  If I am sending a costume out to be made by a volunteer I can copy this sheet and send it along with the supplies.  It makes life much easier).

I found some sheer curtains with a swirling gold pattern to use for the top of the skirt.  I gathered these on to the top of the shortened dress skirt, and then stitched both layers to the bodice.  Sheer curtains gather up very tightly, and make a great overskirt.

You can see the stitching line is just below the original waist seam.

I paired this base with an ivory two piece dress.  The jacket is seen on the dress form, and the dress looked like this:

I cut the bodice off the top of the dress and divided it into three pieces.  These I used to embellish the top of the bodice.

This didn’t have quite the “pop” I was hoping for, so I added some metallic gold trim.

I took some tucks in the front of the jacket and shaped it to the waist.  The jacket attached to the dress with some pieces of velcro.

The finished dress:

 

On stage:

I like this costume from a distance.  The square neckline and long sleeves gives it a Tudor-esque feeling.  The very full lightweight skirt gave it some nice movement as well.  It definitely needed the metallic trim to give it some visual interest.

This was another very quick costume.  The emphasis was on the overall “look” of the wedding scene, and not on the individual costumes themselves.

Cost:  base dress –remnant, 2 piece dress:  $2, trim: donated, curtains:  $2