While I kept this as individual blog/diary entries while we made the dress, I’m moving them here into one long archived post so it’s easier to find all the information in a web search and I can finally close my old blog. You can find FAQs at the very end of this post.
Our Finished Dress
It took us almost 9 months of Tuesday evenings to create her Love Story dress. There were weeks when Melinda and I thought we’d never finish. But the final product was so rewarding I’d gladly do it all again.
We had such great times and good memories. M says she plans to wear the dress when she gets married — whenever that days comes. Until then, it’s a love story just waiting to be told...
Our Love Story Dress Diary
Two summers ago a teen friend and I whipped up a dress. We talked about getting together and doing more sewing, but it just never happened. About a month ago she called me and asked if we could get together because she had a project she wanted me to help her with. I said sure and invited her over for dinner.
The evening she showed up she said, “Janel, you have GOT to see this dress!! You are soo going to love it!” Then she showed me the YouTube video of Taylor Swift’s Love Story. The dress is the one she wears standing in her “castle” pining for Romeo.
Although I had never heard of Taylor Swift or seen her Mr. Darcy fantasy before, I was smitten. It’s a gorgeous dress. I do love it! It’s got all the elements that make a dress amazing. Wispy look, corset, back lacing and skirt with flutter power and train. You really can’t ask for more when it comes to romance and beauty in one garment. Works for me. I told her I would love to help her make it.
We did some sketches, talked about how she wanted the dress to be just a bit different, poked through my patterns, discussed fabrics and plotted our shopping trip. We ended up skipping the shopping trip because I stumbled on the perfect fabric at Wal-Mart for $2.50 a yard! And I got enough to have some left over for me. hehe : )
We got together tonight and made our first mock up of the corset. I have never made a corset before, so just getting all the pieces going the right way was an adventure! I am so glad we numbered each piece and marked it right or left. We would have never gotten it together otherwise! Note to novice corset makers: number and label, label and number, noting rights and lefts on each piece of the corset!
Corset Beginnings
So these are the humble beginnings of one of the sweetest dresses I’ve ever laid eyes on... (Sounds like I should be starting a Lord of the Rings type of adventure. Maybe I am??)
After digging through my pattern stash, I found myself at the good fabric store two weeks ago having a conversation with myself about corsets and this dress. In my defense, I tried discussing it with Josh, but he just rolled his eyes. I think they had every corset pattern that the Big 3 have ever made. It was nice to have the selection, and have it cheap.
We need a non-gusseted corset and I couldn’t remember if I had a pattern for one or not. Oops. I decided to take advantage of the $2 pattern clearance and grab the non-gusseted Martha McCain’s Simplicity 5726 for our base. We’ll ditch the busk, cut the front on the fold and be able to use some kind of pretty lace insert. The only other thing we’ll have to do is lengthen the bottom to fit over her hips.
Oops number one. I didn’t line up the pieces in order before we cut them out. I managed to add the extra length for the hip extension to the TOP of EVERY piece but the center front and center back. ugh We laughed, but that means we have to make a second full mock up to get the hips in place. bah humbug Better keep laughing...
Note to self: whenever making a corset, line up the pattern pieces and mark tops and bottoms as well as numbers and rights and lefts. e’hem
Because she’s a size 12 through the hips and a 10 up top with a full bust, I decided to cut out the size 12 the whole way and fit it from there. My bad. We had a lot of upper fitting to do, but we had plenty of full bust room! We’re both happy with the current fit. I realize we’ll have to do another fitting after the under dress is made. I took that into account with what we have. I think it will work as is.
As for the back, we’re going to eliminate the center back pieces to have more room for lacing details. We talked about finding the perfect ribbon, but we may make the laces ourselves. We’ll see how things go and how ambitious we’re feeling down the road.
Please note the black lines on the fabric. I deliberately cut each piece bigger and longer so we could fit the hips. After the pieces were cut out, we used black marker to outline the cutting lines on the pattern pieces. That way we would have a stitching line reference and a bit extra fabric if we made a mistake on the size. It worked great, except for the whole “oops I added the bottom fabric to the top” fiasco. We’ll definitely do it for the next mock up as well.
Melinda and I decided we can only handle one week of corseting at a time. We’re going to work on the under dress next week. (Read: Instant gratification.) It should be easier. Note I said should. lol
Under Dress Bodice Mock Up
I was hoping that last night’s sewing session would be easy. It was (almost) instant gratification. Melinda agrees.
We got the mock up of the under dress bodice done. I’m happy. Very happy with the results!
Although Melinda loves the original dress, from the very beginning she said she wanted to create something with straps. We talked about adding straps to the corset, but I suggested creating a full under dress that attached to the skirt. (I’ve learned a lot from my Civil War reenactment buddies!) Creating an under dress would 1.) keep the corset clean on the inside; and 2.) make wearing the corset more comfortable. (And #3 make it more modest!) Melinda agreed.
When we first looked at the pattern cover for the corset, M commented that she loved the look of the chemise under the corset. After we decided on making an under dress, I suggested we use the chemise as the bodice for the under dress. She liked that idea too. That’s what we did last night. Overall I’m please.
We made and will make a couple changes from the original pattern. First, we took in the side seams to reduce bulk and make it possible to wear the dress with out the corset — not likely, but possible. We may throw in some darts. Secondly, we decided the back gathering is too full. We’re going to take about 3.5 inches out of the top gather on the back. It’s really full and we don’t need that fullness there. That said, we’ll leave the bottom alone, it works. Next we cut off about 2 inches from the underside of the sleeve. She also wants to take the front down about 1/2 a inch. Finally we’re going to sew shoulder seams instead of using buttons like the pattern calls for.
All in all, last night was a very productive session. Next week we’ll probably work on the skirt.
As usual, the kids thoroughly enjoyed having Melinda over. Miss Ana was right in the thick of everything with comments and commentary. The boys were there as well and interested in the process, but made testosterone-like remarks when us girls made note of some girly dress factor. It’s really a hoot and I’m lovin’ it.
Before I go, I have to share a link. This spring I stumbled on a gal who draws the most incredible paper doll dresses. Ana has several paper dolls and a whole wardrobe of Liana’s dresses. Liana loved “our” dress too and decided to make her own version! You’ve got to pop over and see it!
Since what Melinda and I are doing is a bit different than Liana, she ended up doing more research. As a result, she found better photos that helped us immensely. Liana found a full length shot that changes what we decided to do for the skirt. M and I agreed on the changes last night, and actually, I like this plan better. More on the new plan next week.
Corset Mock Up #2
Melinda and I started corset mock up #2 on Friday night.
I’m so proud of us. We managed to get all the pieces going the right way this time and added the extra hip fabric on the correct end! Life is good. lol
Because we were short on time, we only got the pieces cut out and the basic line of the corset basted together. I’m so happy that it only took half the time of the first! In the process, I noticed a couple mistakes on the first mock up and remedied the situation on this one. Things went together much smoother this time. Experience helps too, I’m sure.
The current plan for Tuesday is fitting the hips and adding some boning to double check the fit. A professional sewing friend suggested I add the boning for exact shaping. We’ll do that next time.
While we were pinning, cutting and marking, Melinda said, “Janel look!” and pointed. The photo to the right is what we saw. Miss Ana was having herself a good old time wrapping up in the fabric. Silly little girl!
Very silly, but very content.
P.S. The peach fabric is one of the rolls I picked up for $1! We’ve easily used 5 yards on this project and had another 8 pulled out without it looking dented. I’m wondering how much fabric is on there!
Corset Mock Up #2 — Part B
Although I’ve dreamed of getting to it one day, I have never made a corset before. This project has me learning all kinds of new sewing things — besides the very necessary Type A labeling strategies! I won’t complain because it’s been a lot of fun. Let’s just say that I’ll do the next one differently... e’hem But mainly I’ve learned that although corsets have a lot of pieces, they are nowhere near as scary as I first thought them to be. It actually went together rather quickly — once I had all the pieces going in the correct direction. {blush}
The moment Melinda put this on, some part of the fairy tale dress just came alive. The weeks of crawling work with no tangible progress took on a life of their own. It was wonderful to see the joy in her eyes. You know, the thing that make the drudgery of life soo worthwhile?
If you’ll remember from last time, we had the hips to fit because we lengthened the original corset pattern. That was the first thing we did on Tuesday night. It went smoothly — and I learned another thing or about draping!
If you look at the photo on the right, you’ll be able to see the #1 and #2. The lines on #1 were the original corset pattern cutting line. Arrow #2 points to the extra fabric we added and draped. (click photo to enlarge)
To be quick and dirty to see how the boning fit, I simply sewed down the seam allowance. It was so easy, unless one of you gals doesn’t think it’s a good idea (please let me know!), I think I’m going to do the same thing on the real one. We’re using heavy duty wire ties from the electrical department at Home Depot for the “boning.” They seem to work really well. We rough cut them so we can use them in the final project too.
After we got the channels and boning in the mock up done, we had about 30 minutes before M’s ride came. Because I (still) need to wash the main fabric, we couldn’t start the under dress. So we worked on cutting out the tiers of the pettiskirt instead. Isn’t that a lovely shade of lavender?
Since the skirt of The Dress sometimes has poof and sometimes doesn’t, we decided that a hoop wouldn’t work. At the suggestion of my online sewing acquaintances, I started looking for a bridal petticoat on ebay. I didn’t get very far. I found myself surrounded by fabric in Wal-Mart.
While measuring out the 14 YARDS of this lovely lavender tulle priced at $1 a yard, the gal at the Wal-Mart fabric counter mentioned Martha Stewart’s segment on making pettiskirts. After watching the video, I was hooked. I knew it was exactly what we need to make the skirt poof or not poof properly. More on the pettiskirt later. As a side note, Ariana wants one (and so do I! lol) Don’t they look ridiculously cute?
So, the adventure continues next week. I think we’ll start with the REAL bodice of the under dress. If we have some time leftover we can fill it in by working on the pettiskirt. For gathering 10 billion yards of tulle, I think I’m going to pull out my great auntie’s antique ruffler. It will make things soo much easier.
Under Dress Bodice
We finally started the real dress!
Last week, we worked a bit on the lavender pettiskirt. I struggled with it and ended up stopping to start working on the under dress bodice. Once we started sewing the bodice fabric, I realized I had dropped the feed dogs to do buttonholes for a previous project and forgot to put them back up. Yup, that would make it challenging on the net... e’hem So we’ll pettiskirt another day.
Ana lacks several curves to fill out Melinda’s bodice, but hopefully you get the idea. We were about fifteen minutes from finishing it when her dad came last night. I put the final seams in after she left. The main skirt will be attached to the bottom edge of the bodice.
I found our wonderful cotton blend at Wal-Mart for $2.50 a yard. It’s a generous 60 inches wide and has a gorgeous drape, but also has body enough to keep it from rolling over and playing dead. It has a damask weave and is almost impossible to tell which side is which in anything but bright sunlight. I’ve had to tear it apart a couple times... {click the photos to enlarge}
We made the modifications I mentioned in the mock up post. We took out about 3.5 inches out of the back and its gathering matches the front’s without excess. The sleeves turned out nicely too. We’ll do the final fitting next week after M’s here to try it on. Then, we will work on the skirt.
We’re still stumped on the embroidered piece for the front of the skirt and corset. I’ve looked several times at the different fabric stores and haven’t found anything suitable at any price. I started looking in thrift stores for something to tear apart and found nothing there either. The sheer curtain in my sewing area would be perfect, but I like it where it is thankyouverymuch. I guess we still have some time.
Under Dress
After all these weeks, the dress looks like it’s finally starting to come together. Finally! It was so wonderful to attach the skirt onto the under dress bodice last Tuesday. I see princesses again...
Melinda fits in the bodice so much better than Ariana. :grin: It actually fits her perfectly (like it’s supposed to!) I almost feel like I’m getting this fitting thing down. It’s been quite a learning curve.
Melinda picked out purple buttons to close the shoulders. Right now we have them pinned. With taking 3–4 inches of bulk out of the back, it looks just like the front. I’m very pleased with how the under dress turned out.
The skirt pattern is nothing fancy or complicated. I simply cut two lengths of fabric, put them right sides together then stitched up the sides and attached it to the bodice. To determine the length, with Melinda in the bodice, I measured the distance from the bottom of the bodice to the floor and added 4 inches for seam allowances and hem. I do this with Ariana’s dresses all the time.
To attach the skirt to the bodice, I pleated it. We want a full skirt, but also don’t want a bunch of bulk under the corset. Pleating it will keep it flat and do away with the bulk. I didn’t get fussy about measuring the exact size of the pleating. I had Melinda stand, I halved a section of skirt and pinned it on to the bodice in the middle of the corresponding section. I repeated that action until I had about an inch between pins. Then I noted the direction of the pleat on the outside and folded them over flat, pinned and sewed. (If that doesn’t make sense, sorry. It’s much easier to demonstrate that explain with words.)
Because the fabric is 54 inches wide, the hem width is about 105 inches. With the soft drape of the fabric and the width, the skirt has beautiful movement. In the photo, Melinda is wearing my 1950s poofy petticoat so we could get a feel for what it will look like with the pettiskirt. Nice, very nice.
The orthodontist preempted our sewing session this week, but next week we plan to finish the pettiskirt. We need it before we can hem the skirt. Making it helps me drag my feet, because after that, it’s onto the corset... All four layers of the real one. It should be an adventure.
The Poof
While the original skirt hangs rather flatly when standing, you must, must, must Rock The Poof while running down the stairs to meet your true love. After contemplating our options, including buying something off eBay, we settled on a a basic tiered petticoat design. What we ended up with works mighty fine.
As I shared before, we used the pettiskirt pattern from Martha Stewart as the basis of our poofy petticoat. It looks cuter on a four year old with 15 inch legs, but since we were after form in this case, it works perfectly. The soft net compacts when hanging, but as soon as the air starts flowing those layers catch the wind like a sail. woo whoo! {happy dance}
For the record: netting is MISERABLE to sew. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I had a little feed dog incident that launched the petticoat project to a rough start. Melinda will tell you I put off finishing it until I ran out of excuses and things to sew. It sat unfinished from mid-January until about 3 weeks ago. :blush:
I had planned to use my ruffler attachment, but found that it ate the net. (Repeatedly digging net out of feed dogs and such isn’t pleasant.) There was no way I was going to hand gather 20+ yards of netting — or even half that with help. No, no, no and nooooo. I ended up manually wadding the top layer of net under the needle and letting the machine pull it through with the bottom layer. It actually worked really well.
Now, somebody has got to be curious about the white and purple and what ‘s up with that. If you’re not, smile and play along, please? While Melinda loves the original dress, she really wanted it in a soft lavender. When I originally started thinking about suitable fabrics and costs, I felt a bit dizzy. I was really hoping to spend less than $50 in materials.
When I stumbled on the translucent white fabric in Wal-Mart and then the lavender net, I thought using a colored petticoat under the white fabric would give the white a tinted color that would work perfectly. My hunch was right. When M stands in the sun, the skirt glows a lovely shade of lavender. We plan to place a double layer of netting under the white on the inside of the corset as well.
Again, to keep the bulk under the corset down, we made the top panel of the petticoat fitted. I simply cut a swatch of fabric and fitted it to M’s bee-hind with sewn down pleats. I used a row of twill tape around the top to keep it from stretching and finished it off with bias tape and a button.
To dispel the need to gather extra net on net, we (I!) chose to use two tiers of our white fabric for the top of the petticoat. I used my wad and stuff method to put a double layer of net over the second fabric tier. It poofs the skirt out just a bit more and keeps the white from showing through.
You can’t have poof like that without just a little bit of sass. : ) There are two sets of net tiers to play with. We both love the 2 inch ruffle on the hem. It adds serious cuteness.
We have the inside layer of the corset cut out — only 3 other layers to go! Since we couldn’t find suitable fabric, we also came up with a solution for the embroidered panels on the dress front. I can’t wait to show you.
The Embroidery
I’ve looked high and low for fabric that will work for the embroidered front pieces. I’ve found a couple pieces, but nothing that sparked Melinda’s imagination. Because I’m a big believer in God’s providence, I figured what we needed would turn up eventually.
With the embroidery bug that hit me a couple weeks ago, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier. We’re going to make our own embroidered panels! My Janome 9000 came with a wonderful leaf stitch and the perfect little flower. I’m going to trace the corset piece, add swirly lines, stitch and then embroider with flowers.
The photo above was a test run and some test stitch samples to see what would show up best. I’m excited.
Inner Corset Progress
This is the inner layer of the corset. It’s the first of four, the base. It’s coming along...
The glow of the purple petticoat is amazing! And just what we wanted.
Embroidered Front
Melinda has finals this week, so she showed up for a late lunch. After we made pies and started supper, we headed upstairs to work on the corset. We realized that we can’t finish the channels on the inner corset until we have the outer one made.
And in true Give a Mouse a Cookie style, we can’t make the outer corset until we have the front piece embroidered. We can’t embroider the front piece until we’re sure how big we want to make it and we can’t be sure how big we want to make it until... So we spent the first part of the afternoon debating front panel size and what we wanted to do about it.
In the end we decided to tape the 3 front pieces together, cut out the real piece and went for it. We’re only about half done with the embroidery because it takes awhile, but we are both really excited about how great it looks! We’re going to finish the embroidery next week and then look for another cookie.
Cutting Out the Inner Corset Layer
After fitting the final corset mock up, Melinda and I used a permanent marker to trace the seam threads/stitching lines. Then we carefully took out all the basting stitches. With what we had left, we trimmed the pieces down to the black lines we traced over. Finally, I numbered each mock up piece from left to right with a distinct number in a diamond. We didn’t need to mix up the pieces! They fit together left to right from 1 to 11.
To make the inner corset layer, we used tailor’s chalk and individually traced each piece. I added unique notch markings to each piece so there would be no confusion. We cut out each piece with about an inch for seam allowances and in case we/I had messed up.
To make sure we had the fit correct, I stitched on the chalk lines. It fit pretty well. We needed to adjust for the bustline, but nothing major. Then, in pink to make it easier to take out, I machine basted in the channels for the “boning” to get a final fit. Perfect! {aaaah! bliss}
We took pictures and then proceeded to rip out the pink basting! Vanity, vanity all is vanity... Doing the corset this way has worked really well so far.
Continuing Progress
Melinda has been here for the last two days and we’ve been doing some serious sewing. Tuesday we finished the inner corset, adding the bones and reinforcement and cut out the outer corset layers. We also played with a mock up of the outer skirt. Yesterday we created the embroidery for the outer skirt front panel to match the corset, made the outer skirt and took the under dress skirt off and put a full circle skirt in its place. That’s major progress — finally.
In the photo to the left, we pinned the embroidered panels to the inner corset and outer skirt to get a flavor for the finished product. She likes it! : )
After some design detail related discussion about the skirt Wednesday, we stumbled on The Taylor Nation website. If you go to the mosaic and zoom, you can get a pretty large, detailed photo of the dress. The way the two skirts hang is very similar.
I am in love with this over skirt. It is perfect and fabulous and swishes beautifully. I’m so happy that it came out so close to the real thing!
Not being terribly skilled at pattern drafting, I have been racking my brain for ideas to make the over skirt fall correctly. Sometime Tuesday afternoon I got the idea to simply cut a circle skirt and leave tails on the back. The idea was Divine Intervention, without a doubt.
Those train tails are amazing. If spread out flat, the piece looks like a rectangle with a rounded narrow edge. When you put it on, you get a lovely pointed train to gracefully glide behind you down the stairs.
When we created the under dress in February, I was significantly struggling because of my brain injury. What we did at the time was the best I could come up with. The way we made and attached it worked well and I was OK with it. But as the months have progressed, I’ve been less and less happy with it.
After seeing how beautifully the outer skirt hangs, I knew we had to tear the under dress apart. To get twirly fullness, we attached a circle skirt to complement the over skirt. I’m so glad we did.
What’s left?
* outer corset — it’s cut out, just needs to be stitched
* putting the inner and outer corsets together
* creating the corset lacing
* waist band for the outer skirt
* tack down the top row of fluff on the petticoat — it rides up a bit
There is light at the end of the tunnel. I actually think we’re going to finish this project!
And finish it we did, the very next day!
Frequently Asked Questions
I have had tons and tons of search hits from folks (I’m assuming girls — hello and welcome!) who are looking to find more information about Taylor Swift’s Love Story music video dress.
I thought I would answer the most common search questions and emails.
Who made the dress? Sandy Spika. (She’s made a lot of Taylor’s dresses. I LOVE her style!)
Is there a Love Story dress pattern? Not that I know of, although patterns like Simplicity 3878 or Vogue 2810 could be used with modifications. We’re using Martha McCain’s Simplicity 5726 for the corset. We’ve made modifications to the corset pattern and are draping the skirt pieces from scratch. (Draping is creating an article of clothing by “draping” fabric on a dressform or real person to get the desired shape.)
How hard would it be to sew Taylor’s dress? It depends on your skill level and how determined you are! The most challenging part of the dress is making the corset and getting it to fit correctly. I’ve been sewing for 20+ years now. The first corset mock up we made was really challenging for me. The skirt should be fairly simple, there’s just lots of it.
How long would it take to make the dress? Again, it depends on your sewing skills. From start to finish, including making mock ups and fittings, I’m guessing it would take 25 to 30 hours at my skill level. So far, Melinda and I have had 6 sewing sessions that have been 2 to 4 hours each and we’ve only just finished the under dress bodice. Please note that I’m teaching Melinda sewing techniques as we go, so we’re progressing slower than if I were doing it myself as a normal project.
Can you make me a Love Story dress? As much as I would love to, no I can’t. My life is too full right now to take on another project of this magnitude.
I MUST HAVE THIS DRESS! Um, well, you have a couple options — none of which include me being able to sew anything for you.
1.) While you could contact Sandy Spika to see if she would make you one, I don’t think you’ll meet with success. That said, on the slim chance she should agree, be prepared to pay a lot. $1500-$3000 wouldn’t be unreasonable for custom sewing of this magnitude.
2.) Find a competent seamstress and have her custom create it for you. Give her the link to my dress diary for help getting started. CHECK HER REFERENCES and look at her portfolio to make sure she has the experience and skills to do it. Also, please understand that a decent seamstress who will make a dress that you will be pleased with, will probably charge $20 to $35 PER HOUR for labor PLUS the cost of materials. At an estimated 25 hours to sew the dress for $20 per hour, that will be a minimum of $500 for the dress before material costs. You could end up paying upwards of $1000 to recreate it. You can find people who will do it for less, but be warned, it could be a huge mistake that costs a lot of money.
3.) Ask (or blackmail) a grandmother, aunt or friend, who knows how to sew. Offer to pay her back in help around the house or some other chore. That’s what Melinda’s doing. : ) Cost FYI: With my bargain fabric shopping savvy, Melinda and I will have about $50 in materials by the time we’re done with the dress.
4.) Sew it yourself. There are many great tutorials and resources available.
5.) Go to a bridal store, online, eBay, thrift shop or second hand wedding store and buy a plain corset wedding dress with a similar shape. Go to a fabric store or search online for embroidered lace fabric that is similar to that on the Love Story dress. Take it all to a seamstress to alter for fit and add the embellishments or try to do it yourself.
I hope that helps. If you have anymore questions, feel free to comment or email me.
Photo credits: Dress images, but be warned, there are objectionable comments under some or most of the photos. GACTV. Click any image for a larger image.
