The "Think of Me" Gown - Pictures and Production

The Think of Me Gown

Think of me,
Think of me fondly
When we’ve said goodbye.

Remember me,
Every so often
Promise me you’ll try.

On that day,
That not so distant day
When you are far away and free,

If you ever find a moment,
Spare a thought for me.

And though ‘twas clear,
Though it was always clear
That this was never meant to be,

If you happen to remember,
Stop and think of me.

Think of August
When the trees were green,
Don’t think about the way
Things might have been.

Think of me,
Think of me waking
Silent and resigned,

Imagine me
Trying to hard
To put you from my mind.

Think of me,
Please say you’ll think of me
Whatever else you choose to do,

There will never be a day
When I won’t think of you.

Flowers fade,
The fruits of summer fade,
They have their seasons, so do we. 

But please promise me
That sometimes
You will think of me.

Wow! I can’t believe it’s done. I can’t believe it’s been three months. I can’t believe…well…all that’s happened!

To go back to the time when I was just considering this gown, just beginning to consider the idea of replicating a costume, seems like ages ago.

So, so, so much happened. There were numerous hiccups. The numerous trips to Joann’s. With all the money I’ve invested at Joann’s, I should be offered some kind of partnership or buy a part in the company or something. Studying pictures and video clips until I couldn’t see straight. Crying and eating numerous squares of dark chocolate when the going got rough. Ripping out seams. Puzzling over snags.

So. To go back, back, back to the very beginning and chronicling it? It’s practically impossible. But I’ll try. ;-)

I made the gown out of ivory colored silk taffeta. I knew I didn’t want satin, as that would be too “shiny” and flimsy for the gown. Taffeta is more matte and stiffer. I lined both the bodice and skirt with white bridal lining (I wasn’t planning on lining the skirt, but the material ended up being too sheer and you could see the hoopskirt through it).

While I thought in the beginning that I would be using the Civil War pattern I bought with the mannequin, I ended up changing numerous things about the pattern.

I first made a mock draft out of an old pink sheet ;-) and I’m so glad I did…because I ended up adjusting so many things!

I used ivory tulle for the overlay on the skirt and the tulle on the bodice and sleeves. While I used clear beads in the beginning on the sleeves because I thought the crystals would be too big for the scale, I now wish I had used the crystals. More on that below. But anyway.

I started out with the hoopskirt pattern. The instructions on the pattern were a bit difficult at times…or maybe it was just me. That could be a very good possibility. Anyway.

I used a white cotton material that I had laying around my mom’s fabric stash (yes, she gave permission ;-)), plus plastic fabric covered boning for the hoops and grosgrain ribbon for the vertical supports.

The petticoat was white organza, two ruffled layers attached to a waistband. Thinking it over now (and after some trial and error) I would have added another layer to help the sheerness, but live and learn. ;-)

I used this gold and silver braid stuff (not sure of the actual name) for the starbursts on the skirt. The starbursts take a huge amount for such a small little thing…the smallest starburst takes sixty crystals, and the largest ones take 140 crystals, 29 inches of gold braid, and 19 inches of silver braid. Per starburst. Yeah, it was pretty interesting. ;-) I glued the crystals and braid to the tulle with Tacky Glue, backing the tulle with parchment paper. After the starbursts dried I peeled the parchment paper off of the back. It worked great.

The tails are probably the most detailed part of the dress and honestly, the most fun. The base of the tail is the same ivory taffeta used on the dress. I searched high and low for just the right fabric. I started out looking for a silver ribbon to use, but they were all too metallic. I wanted more of a satin, but all they had were more of a gunpowder gray and not a silver. So I kept looking, and then one day while on my weekly trek at Joann’s, I noticed a corner of silver satin sticking out between two bolts. Hooray! ;-)

The silver lace I found way back at the beginning, when I was first starting to plan for the dress. It’s absolutely perfect and I love it! It’s actually perfect for if I ever make a full-size replica (yeah, when I’m ninety, right? ;-)), so I ended up trimming it down to make it the right scale.

The blue in the middle is just a blue ribbon, folded and trimmed to size. You can’t see it well in pics, but there are actually blue and topazish stones in the starburst as well as clear, so I added them. Obviously because of scale I had to adjust all of the starbursts, but I tried to stay with the basic idea as much as possible.

The blue trim…all the honor goes to my eleven-year-old sister Belle. I searched high and low for blue trim with white scallops…nowhere to be found. I was about to settle for blue trim, when she came up with this brilliant idea. She found this trim that had scallops and little loop thingies on the ends…what if I just cut off the loops and sewed the scalloped part to the blue ribbon? It turned out perfect.

The tails were pieced together with Stich-Witchery, which worked out perfectly. And the fringe is silver. I thought I’d have to trim it, but once I got it on, it ended up being the right size.

The “modesty panel” on the fabric was a peach-colored cotton my mom had. While the dress has it as a completely separate layer that is pulled up from behind the bodice’s neckline (like a camisole under a V-neck), since no one is actually going to wear the dress and we’re just trying to get the look, I sewed the panel right over the bodice. The crystals were glued on and the tulled gathered, swagged, and sewn over the panel.

The feathers are ostrich, and were a part of a lovely—and expensive—trim (twenty dollars a yard…thankfully I only got a fourth of a yard!). It was funny…I was walking to the cutting counter with the bolt, and this lady out of the blue grabs my arm and asks, “Are you buying all of that???” I’m like, “uuuuh…no, just a fourth of a yard.” She sighed. “Oh, good. I’ve been looking all over for that.” It was funny. Anyway, I cut clusters of feathers off of the trim and glued them to the sleeve.

Anyway. The bodice was boned with cable ties…you know, the little plastic things that they put on kids’ toys and they’re soooo annoying…yeah, anyway. Ingenious. Perfect size and work so well.

The eyelets were compliments of my pastor’s wife…I struggled over what on earth to use for the lacing up the back, as all the eyelets at Joann’s were too big…and she suggested using mini eyelets that you use for scrapbooking. She very kindly lent me her eyelet kit and it was awesome. So here’s her credit! ;-)

My first mistake was that I didn’t figure for enough boning for the hoopskirt. They call for hoopwire in the pattern, but I used boning because it was all ready cased in fabric so I could eliminate a step. What I forgot is that hoopwire comes as two wires stacked on each other that you tear apart when you use it. So you buy half the amount you need and tear it in two, you know? So I didn’t consider that, and ended up with not enough and had to get more! Yikes!

Some other things that I’ve made note of for later if I ever decide to make this again…you know, to sell or something…

1. Bigger seam allowances. Because it was so hard to adjust things, add boning, the whole shebang, because the seam allowances were way too small.

2. Make the skirt first and fit bodice to skirt. Because the bodice is tailored to the mannequin. So I made the bodice and it fit perfectly. Get the bulky skirt under it, and I couldn’t lace it shut. Which brings us to…

3. Reinforce eyelets. Now, I don’t think I’d have had this problem if I hadn’t made the bodice so small. But the eyelets need reinforcement for all that lacing up and tugging…I’m thinking interfacing.

4. Make tails narrower. We didn’t have a pattern for the tails, so we went by the picture. While it’s great on the bottom, the tails were too wide on the top, so you could see it on the sides. Which meant that you had to scoot the tails waaaay over and they’re a bit close together than I wanted.

5. Cut sleeves narrower. I had to really take the sleeves in because the pattern’s sleeve is quite a bit wider than what I was wanting for the gown. So next time, I’m going to cut them narrower.

6. Use crystals on the sleeves. I thought they’d be too big for the scale and so used clear beads instead, but after using the crystals on everything else I realized that it would have been fine to use the crystals.

So anyway! Here’s some pictures of the dress from first cutting to finish!

Cutting out the mock bodice.

Piecing it together...

All sewn together! At this point I realized that I'd need to cut a deeper V-neck in the actual bodice.

The completed hoopskirt. Sewing the slots in the ribbon to feed the boning through was, I think, the most tedious part of the whole dress. ;-)

The petticoat.

Cutting out the draft of the skirt

This has to become the tails. ;-)

One of the pages in my reference album...this is what the tails have to turn out like! ;-)

Pinning the darts on the actual bodice...scary...

The finished sleeve...

Adding the eyelets to the back

Pinning the bustled tulle in the back

Just finished gluing the feathers on

 Beginning the tails...

Belle's brilliant idea...Trim off the loops and you've got the perfect scalloped trim! Trimming eight yards of that stuff was a bit tedious, though. ;-)

A starburst and it's reference...

Complete with modesty panel...just about to glue on the crystals before sewing on the gathered tulle layer...

Beginning to position the starbursts for sewing on...

Waiting for a starburst to dry

And now, comparison pictures...

So! There it is. All the hard work of three months has really paid off. You know that feeling of, "Wow. I did it!"? That's how I feel right now. ;-)

Me with the completed dress at about 11:30 Friday night. ;-)