Latin “Fire” Ballroom dress

Last Dance showcase I was wearing a purchased Latin Ballroom dress and it was a little tight and I needed some help zipping up, so someone suggested I make my own latin dress since I had just completed the witchdoctor latin dress. As much as I like that dress, the color scheme doesn’t match with the red and gold dress. When thinking about what would match for makeup coordination, I also thought it would be fun to play with patterns. Hence the idea of using fire/flame patterns. I wasn’t sure whether these fabrics would go together, so I put them together on the dress form in sort of the semblance they would be in for the dress.

Red and Gold “Phoenix” Ballroom Dress

This is my first smooth ballroom dance dress. I wanted it to be red and gold, however, after watching a video of me dancing in it, I didn’t like the way that the skirt looked alternating the red and rose-gold sparkle fabric.

Original dress in the making

Original ballroom dress before the horsehair braid was added at the bottom.

I decided to unstitch all of the skirt panels and add a new panel of the overlay extending it down to the bottom of the skirt. I think it looks much better this way (before it reminded me of a circus tent, now it feels more cohesive)

White and Green Ballroom Dance Gown

The idea started with wanting to play with hotfix rhinestones and designing them onto a bodice. I decided I wanted to do a design of dark green on white. Fabric shopping, I came across the green sparkly fabric and wanted to add that to the bottom of the skirt, having it creep up towards the bodice like vines. I also wanted to add a sheer white for some movement and an ethereal look. So far, all I have ready is the materials.

Beautiful Blue and Black Dress for a friend

A friend of mine requested help with making a dress for a special event. I misunderstood it at first as a request to make said dress, when really she wanted to learn to make it herself, so as two overly ambitious creatives, we chose a pattern that was too difficult for a beginner. It came out beautiful though. We went fabric shopping, brought along some color inspiration to match components. I then had her pre-wash fabric, iron the pattern and the fabric, learn how to use patterns and of course, we frankenpatterned the skirt to have a bit more fullness, and she cut out the pieces.

The dress on a flat-ish surface

Started with the bust, loved the shine and the color of this blue.

I took pictures along the way to make sure the designs we were implementing were what she wanted, in this one, I wanted to confirm that she liked the sleeve lace to add some extra coverage, and comparing it with the waistline.

Seeing how the skirt fit with the bodice (not attached yet)

The overlay to the skirt. Because we were using the natural/bound edge of the lacey overlay, I had to make sure that it all lined up before sewing it all together.

Here is the dress on my dressform, just for the picture opportunity. My dressform is not the same size as my friend, so that’s why it doesn’t quite fit.

Ariel-Little Mermaid Blue Dress

I loved the movie the Little Mermaid growing up, and I really really wanted a dress like the one she wears going out on the town with Eric. I’ve always known I was going to create some version of it for myself, but someone gifted me some beautiful black velvet leftover fabric and I knew I had to make the bodice with it. (I have seen images where it is more of a navy blue than a black, which makes sense, but in my mind, it has always been black). So I set to making it.

Crime scene layout of the pattern pieces

Learned how to use my new grommet tool.

The skirt and the hairbow were a bit challenging in the sense that I had gotten this sparkly fabric on clearance shortly after Joann’s (RIP) announced the potential of closing. I had gotten the remainder off the bolt, so even though I wanted to do a fuller skirt, I didn’t have enough to. And then tragically, when I prewashed the fabric, all of the sparkles came off. Which wouldn’t have been quite as bad, if the glue that held the sparkles in place hadn’t left spots. I almost gave up, and I may still make another skirt, but I am glad I didn’t give up because cosplaying as Ariel was a lot of fun.

At the convention I was called Belle, Snow White, and Ariel, but it doesn’t matter.

The Color-Shifting Ball Gown

I found some beautiful, shimmery, color-changing fabric online (and then later at Joann’s) that I HAD to have, and thought it would be a wonderful overlay and I decided I was going to make a ball gown for the charity ball at Anime Boston. I also really wanted to try draping pleats on the bodice, so I created a black corset dress and used the shimmery, color changing fabric on top. the skirt looked beautiful:

The pleats however, were quite a pain because the fabric did not want to stay in place with being pressed or steamed. So instead I had to hand stitch the pleats, which then led to how do I make the design of the stitches look intentional. It was a major pain.

Eventually, I got it, but then trying to get that effortless, off the shoulder look was a whole new adventure that required quite a bit of measuring, cutting, seeing what it looked like on the dress form, cutting some more and accepting that it was not going to be perfect by any means.

Then came realizing that the stretchiness of the color shifting material meant that the bodice was pulling away from the waist making the dress look more boxy than intended. So, I had to cut that all off, and cut out the corset/bodice pieces separately in the overlay fabric and sew those all together and then place it on top. In the meantime, the skirt portion was starting to run (like stockings) from the weight of it. And I realized that I needed some kind of trim to break up all of the same fabric colors. I got the trim, had to accept that the fabric runs and does not cooperate like I wanted and I will not be able to rent this out. Also, in the process, I either gained some weight or had mis-measured the corset part and the zipper wouldn’t close so I had to change the closure to have it fit me. But it was finally done, and looked, more or less, like I imagined it would. Then we weren’t able to get tickets to the ball, so Muse and I did a photo shoot in the Prudential Center.

UPDATE! Finally got to wear the dress to Anime Boston’s Charity Ball 2025. Here is how it looked!

My dance shoes started to bother me, so I left the ball early and changed into comfy shoes before going to dinner.

The White Faux Fur Cloak

One Renaissance Faire trip I got it into my head that I wanted an all white, faux fur, full-length cloak. One that would have holes for my arms that would not be visible when not in use, and would have pockets on the inside. This way, I could keep my valuables close, and access them easily if I wanted to purchase something, and could just use the arm hole to pay instead of opening up the middle and exposing myself to the cold if the day is chilly. So I modified a pattern (I also recorded the process so that will go up on youtube at some point) and got some beautiful faux fur.

For the most part, aside from some learning curves (i.e. best way to trim and sew faux fur) it came out well, the pockets were added into the lining after measuring what I would need to carry with me.

Really grainy picture of the pocket

And then some issues with the decorative top-stitching not coming out at all the way I wanted it to, so I had to give up on that and do some regular stitches. But overall, it came out nice. It is very VERY heavy though, so due to the weight and the minor messes from trying to do the decorative top-stitching, this will also not be available for rent. However, I could be persuaded if someone really REALLY wanted/needed it for a special event. I do plan on making some shorter versions of this in the future though, so that it weighs less.