The Titanic Inspired Dress

The inspiration for this dress was the "Jump" dress from the Titanic. It is based on the vintage Simplicity Pattern #8399 with alterations and will be above knee length so it can be worn more places.

The base of the dress is made from cranberry taffeta. The overlay is black embroidered tulle trimmed in black Venise lace. In keeping with the original dress from the movie, I've selected a beaded vintage trim for the waist seam.

There will be a tremendous amount of hand work on the bodice. I have 500 jet black and 200 ruby 4mm Swarovski crystals ordered which hopefully will not be too long in coming. Fortunately for me; I actually enjoy beading. :)

The under bodice.

Serging the over bodice. 1/15/10

Lace edging applied to front panel. 1/15/10

Over skirt on the under skirt. 1/15/10
(Pieces not sewn together yet)

Beaded trim which will be applied at the waist seam. 1/15/10
(Pieces not sewn together yet)

I'm hoping to get the over bodice finished tomorrow. It needs to have the casing made, elastic inserted and then attached to the under bodice. The sequin trim for the under bodice hasn't arrived, so maybe it will be in tomorrow's mail.

At this point the main part of the sewing construction is finished. Then the labor intensive part of the project will begin with all of the hand beading.

January 16, 2010. The sequin trim came! Hurrah! I didn't get as much done as I had hoped but really got hammered with a headache. Hopefully I'll get the bodice sewn to the skirt tomorrow and get the zipper in. Then, I just need the Swarovski crystals to get here so I can start all of the hand beading.

Over bodice sewn to the under bodice. I have an applique pinned in place to be hand sewn.

Pinning the sequin trim to the under bodice neckline and arm holes.
It gives a nice shimmer and is "just enough" show through on the over bodice.

Detail of the neckline.

The skirt with the over skirt sewn to the under skirt.

Ready to have the zipper set in.

January 18, 2010

January 19, 2010

The Swarovski ruby 5mm crystals came today.
I'm applying them to the floral center of the flowers on the lace.

Here is the front of the bodice with the ruby crystals applied.
I ended up using 114 ruby crystals on the bodice front and back.

January 20, 2010

100 black Swarovski crystals arrived today. They did go on quickly as I didn't have to knot as much but didn't even do the accents on half of the bodice front. I'm using them to make the flowers in the lace pattern, the leaves and the buds.

Close-up of the beads.

Kaitlin modeling the dress outside. The shoes aren't here yet.

The bodice in progress.

Beading Detail.

Waiting for the rest of the beads to come. I'm guestimating that around 700 are going to be needed for the bodice front and back.

400 crystals sewn on January 28 (Total Now=614)

300 crystals sewn on February 1 (Total Now=914)
Bodice Front is done.

300 crystals came on February 4, Put on 200+
(Total Now=1114+)
Bodice Front and Sleeves are done.

Sewed on the remainder of the crystals on February 5
(Total Now=1214)

100 crystals came on February 8
(Total Now=1314)
200 crystals came on February 12
Dress Completed (Grand Total Now=1492)