The "Belle" of the Ball

In March I was asked to make a prom dress that looked exactly like Belle's dress (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast). I wanted to wait until I had a picture of Heather in the finished dress before I wrote about it, but I've given up on getting one. Which is a bummer, because the gown was gorgeous but I never got to see it modeled once it was finished. I do have pictures of the sewing process, including her wearing it when it was almost done, so here's the story of the Belle prom dress:

The dance was on May 17, so I figured I'd have plenty of time. I spent a lot of thinking time, designing it in my mind, watching Beauty and the Beast, looking for fabrics, and generally figuring out how I'd put the dress together. I couldn't find any patterns that I thought would work; a couple of years ago I could have, but apparently this year that's not the stylin' thang.

The first part of April I started trying to actually get hold of Heather so I could get her measurements; that turned out to be a big phone chase, but I finally did reach her around the third week in April. She is tiny! I had one pattern with a bodice that I thought would work; it said she's a size 12--which I really doubted, but I decided I'd try it out. So I made up a size 12 bodice in muslin and had Heather come try it on. It drowned her! I could easily grab a fistful of fabric in the back, and still have more than enough room for the girl! So I pulled out my custom pattern-making kit and drew up a pattern from scratch. That one was much better; it would have been a perfect fit for a nice Sunday dress, but for this sleeveless, strapless dress it had to be a perfect, body-hugging fit. I pinned in the seams a little and told her the next time she saw me, the dress would look like a dress. Bold words for someone who's never made a dress like this one before!

My little girls fell in love with the slip. Jessica is modeling it.

I had to order in the yellow satin for the dress, and it was taking forever to arrive (I admit, I was really beginning to worry that I wouldn't get it in time). So while I was waiting on the satin, I started with the slip. To make it exactly like Belle's dress (as requested) it needed one of those full, poofy, wedding-type slips. You know, the ones with a stiff, crinoline under-skirt, and layer upon layer upon layer of stiff netting stitched to it, and then a crinoline over-skirt. However, those slips are not very pretty; and I happen to know that Belle's slip had at least one layer of lace at the hem. (Watch her dancing with the Beast--you'll see!) So instead of the crinoline over-skirt I made it of tulle, edged with 8-inch lace. I also put a small lace edging on the under-skirt part of the slip. I spent about 15 hours sewing it, gathering 18 yards of netting to make it; the whole slip used about 20 to 21 yards of fabric and could stand up by itself. It turned out beautifully. [I think that when my girls get married I'll have to make their slips so they can have pretty ones.]

The satin arrived with only a week-and-a-half to spare! That was OK. I was pretty sure I could get it done. I had to hold my breath and start cutting up the fabric. The bodice was of a gold-toned satin and went together pretty easily, but I debated whether or not I should ask Heather to come back just to be certain that it really fit. In the end I decided just to trust my measurements--mostly because I couldn't really try it on her without putting in the zipper, and the zipper really couldn't go in until the skirt was attached anyway. I just held my breath some more.

After the bodice, it was time to do the over-skirt. It was of a sheer, sparkly, yellow fabric--lovely! After studying Belle, I could see that each of the eight seams needed to be gathered in some way to create the draping effect of the skirt. It took me a while to decide how much too long I should make the over-skirt so that once it was gathered it would be shorter than the under-skirt. Talk about brain cramps!

Once I got the sheer fabric cut, I stitched a gold satin piece to the bottom of each sheer piece to create the drape that hangs just below her knees. Then I tried gathering the seams for the draping, but they bunched up too much. So instead I decided to pleat each seam all the way down; each one had about 20-25 small pleats. To keep the skirt from fraying apart I sewed every seam in a French seam. For those who don't sew very much, that means that I sewed a 1/4-inch seam, right-side-out, trimmed it to 1/8-inch, then turned it wrong-side-out and sewed a 3/8-inch seam, encasing the first seam. Was that explanation helpful at all? Anyway, what it really means is that I sewed every seam in the skirt twice. Each seam in the over-skirt took me 45 minutes to an hour to complete--I found that rather astonishing! Once the entire over-skirt was done I attached it to the bodice; now I was ready to finish the rest of the dress.

The under-skirt was easy--the hardest part was making the French seams again, and that's more time-consuming than difficult. I got it attached to the rest of the dress, put in an invisible zipper and it was ready to be fitted for hemming, and for any alterations it might need in the bodice. Heather came the Thursday before the dance (May 15) to try it on--fortunately it didn't need to be taken-in anywhere. I also measured her for the shoulder-drape at that time. [As a bit of trivia, this gown for this girl with a 26-inch waist used almost 20 yards of fabric in addition to the 20 yards for the slip. The girl is tiny, but the dress is huge!]

Heather looked absolutely beautiful in it! Our mutual friend, Nicole, was there for the fitting and she was just thrilled with the dress. She echoed my own thoughts: If it were white and had sleeves it would be a gorgeous wedding dress.

Well, after the fitting I only had to hem it, put in the lining and attach the shoulder-drape. Simple work, and it was done by Friday afternoon (the day before the dance). I am so very pleased with the way it turned out. I just wish I had a picture of Heather in the finished product.

And now, I absolutely must thank my kids, once again, for being so good and patient while I spent ten-hour days working on this dress. I barely managed to get dinner for them during that week, but they (the kids, not the dinners) were great!

Would I do it again? For one of my girls, if they wanted it. Would I love to see it as a wedding dress? For one of my girls, if they wanted it--but only if we had lots more time to work on it!