filmspiration friday: fruition

I actually have succeeded in taking one dress from filmspiration on the screen (TV) to actual sewn dress reality. (Other than that mess of a sweater recreation from this summer. I try not to think about it.)

It was my senior prom dress, inspired by the wonderfully-costumed Downton Abbey. I went from this dress that Mary wears in Season 1 (shortly before her scandalous tryst with that most-mentioned, yet shortest-living character Kamal Pamouk)...

To this final product...

Once again, sorry for poor picture quality. I've always meant to take nice pictures of this, outside perhaps, with good lighting, instead of the crummy one light bulb I have in my bedroom. Also with someone taking the pictures, instead of me armed with a stack of books on my dresser and a self-timer. But until then...

The dress itself is a combination of a couple of patterns: Simplicity 2252 (which was my original prom dress idea, until re-watching season 1 of Downton) and Sense and Sensibility's 1912 Kimono Dress, along with some so-so self drafted straps. I used the pattern for the bodice lining of the Simplicity pattern to make a princess-seamed, Empire-waisted bodice, which I then attached to the skirt from the Sense and Sensibility pattern. I did the same with the lace. I was planning to puzzle out that cute little v from Mary's dress...and then I went and saw Titanic in theaters essentially a week before prom. And this dress made me change my mind about the straps. 

So I made a last-minute change and went with lace straps to give a (albeit small) reference to the dress I would have made had I had the guts to attempt it. (sigh) Someday, my dear!

It was a lovely dress (in my very-biased opinion), and I had a lovely time. 

Me actually on prom night (cropped so I don't have
 to ask permission to put pictures up on the internet)