SHANNON'Sdresses

EDWARDIANdress

2004

The photos for this dress were also taken with my manual camera before I got my digital, so they're not in the greatest shape either. I may take better ones one day, I don't know. This dress, as you may have guessed, was inspired by the film Titanic. I had an idea of an Edwardian style costume I wanted to make and my idea was cemented when I found a beautiful and classy Titanic-era dress in a costume hire store. It was the same colour too, of the fabric I had in mind. This dress is not based on the one Rose is wearing in the picture, but it shows a similar kind of style. When I went back to the DVD to find the costume that had sparked the insipiration in the first place, I couldn't find what I thought I was looking for. So Rose's 'swim dress' will have to do in the meantime.

The overskirt is actually made out of an old satin nightshirt, of which I cut off the sleeves and shaped to fit my hips and waist, and gathered up the bottom a little. I then attached this to an old Glassons top, which I used for the bodice and the main shape for the dress. Over this, I used bits of another old cut up Glassons top to construct the capped sleeves, and blanket-stitched the edges to prevent them from fraying. I then covered the seam between the overskirt and the bodice with a strip of black lace, and finished up the back with a zip and buttons. The underskirt is just a long skirt I found lying around.