Chrix Design: Red from Transistor

This might not look it, but it is actually a very amitious and difficult project. The dress is a beautiful evening dress and it clearly needs a luxurious finish, no room for errors and unforgiving materials. Yippi.

In the game she tears away the bottom part of her dress, an effect I very much would like to include for my stage show.

In my mind there's no doubt that she is wearing a high end dress and I was opting for silk or satin. As I have close to no sewing experience I went for satin as it is a bit cheaper and a bit easier to sew.

Analysing the dress:
This dress had a Art Deco feel, both with color choice and geometrics. The stripes on the shoulders seems to be gather at one point at the middle attachement on the front and on the back. This also creates a V.neck and a V-back to the dress. The dress skirt is layerd with 4 "scales" on each side ending in a mermaid skirt flare at the hem. The waist I decided to sew as a corset to help me achieve Red gorgeous waist.

Inspiration
I also looked at beautiful vintage evening dresses in mermaid skirt style and came over this photo, so beautiful. I will still make my stress as close to the reference photo as possible, but it gave me so many ideas to add more luxury to it. (I need some rhinestones)

Photo: onewed.com

Pattern making
First I needed a pattern because this dress is anything but simple. To get a better overview over the dress pattern I made a tape mockup on my doll.

Mockup
Combining a pattern for a princess seam bodice and a mermaid skirt I sewed a mockup dress out of canvas and drew on my pattern. Then I could cut it up along the lines and I would have my individual patterns. I modified a princess seam pattern for the bodice (made a plunging v neck and back) and constructed the pattern for the mermaid skirt which was then divided into the "scallops". The sleeves would be sewn partially separate, to allow movement.

Base dress
This dress has a lot of layers so I decided to make a base dress to attach them on. Here's my bodice, which looks very short deep V neck and the fact that I want the skirt to be sewn very high.

Why did I choose this style of bodice you ask? Because I need a sturdy construction to hold the sleeves and huge feather collar in place.

As for the skirt I cut off the mermaid skirt pattern at the knees to prepare for the short version of the dress she wears most of the time. (The ripped off version.)

Sewed both parts together and my base is ready for details.

Sleeves
Her sleeves are striped alternating yellow and a slightly darker hue, a beige color. From several reference photos I have concluded that this is the pattern.

Which layed out flat would look like this

And when sewn together looks like a undefined tube.

Unfold it and I get my lines. Here you can clearly see the reason why you need to press the seams all the time.

Testfitting one sleeve

And jolly, here we have two ;) Just look at how those lines meet up. <3

The sleeves were lined with the same beige satin as the stripes and sewed into place.

Which means that I can put in the invisible zipper to my base dress.

bilde.

Scales

This is what I call the single shapes of the petal pattern going down the dress front. For the top of the dress I need four scales/petals and I need four for the lower skirt (tear away)

As mentioned above I made the pattern by cutting up my mockup dress.

All of the scales are lined with the same beige satin as used on the sleeves which is understiched to keep the lining from showing.

Adjusting placement of the scallops

Skirt
Befor I fininsh the ripped dress any further I need to make sure the skrirt will match up. This is the tear away part of the dress, which is designed to be ripped off using snaps.

Matching up all the scallops.

To get the right volume in the skirt I added a petticoat. I used stiff tulle and a rolled hem foot on my sewing machine. It worked so well to trim the edges this way.

Rolled hem foot is magic I tell ya!

Collar
I decided to make the collar detachable, easier for transport and in case of repairs.

The base is worbla with white craft foam glued on top. Before adding feathers I covered it completely in a white stretch fabric, making it easier to sew on the feather trims.

The full dress
Here you can even see some of the seam lines on the torso, I'm actually a bit proud of those, makes an extra detail even though it won't be visible when the corset is on.

The collar is attached with snaps :)

And the sleeves/chest piece turned out so gorgeous <3

The full dress with the tear away skirt (please ignore the wrinkly state it is in, it was taken straight from suit case to photo session here)

The lower skirt is attached with a series of snaps, so it can be ripped off easily. I didn't want to use Velcro, as that might snag the fabric and makes a horrible sound when torn off.