When it comes to sewing, one of my favourite things to make is a huge, beautiful ballgown made to fit perfectly, using top quality Dressmaking Fabrics from Calico Laine. Nearly every girl likes to feel like a princess and I am no exception! As such, one of the newest costumes that I have been inspired to make is an amazing dress that caught my eye in the 1997 animated movie, Anastasia. Produced by Fox Animation Studios and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, this movie is a re-telling of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, albeit with a much happier ending.
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Anastasia's sparkling ballgown.[/caption]
Although I fell in love with many of the outfits that the titular character wears throughout the movie, my favourite is most definitely the sparkling gold ballgown that she wears later in the film. I instantly knew that fabrics from our duchess satin range would be absolutely perfect for creating this dress in real life, as it has a wonderful weight and would sit over a large hoopskirt beautifully. It is also one of my favourite fabrics to work with, and is available in all of the colours I would need (including the alexandra pink parts of the skirt and the cornflower blue of the sash). For the sleeves, I wanted something with more of a drape to it, but I still wanted the fabric to remain opaque. After much consideration, I settled on our super soft duchess satin in ivory, which has the same appearance as our regular duchess satin but has a lighter weight and drapes really well. To anyone else who wanted to make this dress, I would recommend lining the sleeves to prevent the wrong side of the fabric showing, as the sleeves are open at the front and expose both sides.
For extra glamour, I decided I wanted to try and replicate the glittery appearance of Anastasia's gown. To achieve this, I used our diamond and pearl organza in ivory as an overlay on the cream parts of the dress. I really love the way that this looks, and also how the fabric catches the light and sparkles. It is an easy way to make a garment look more interesting than just a flat colour, and I love to add texture to my sewing projects so I felt that this fabric was absolutely perfect for the job.
I can't wait to get started on this project, and plan to wear it for an event that I am attending in October. I hope to upload photographs of the completed gown right here on our Calico Laine blog, but if you have any similar sewing projects of your own then we would love to see pictures of them on our Facebook page!
If you are stuck on what fabrics to choose for one of your own sewing projects, then contact our friendly sales team either by email or by telephone on 0151 336 3939 and they will be happy to help.
Anastasia's sparkling ballgown.[/caption]
Although I fell in love with many of the outfits that the titular character wears throughout the movie, my favourite is most definitely the sparkling gold ballgown that she wears later in the film. I instantly knew that fabrics from our duchess satin range would be absolutely perfect for creating this dress in real life, as it has a wonderful weight and would sit over a large hoopskirt beautifully. It is also one of my favourite fabrics to work with, and is available in all of the colours I would need (including the alexandra pink parts of the skirt and the cornflower blue of the sash). For the sleeves, I wanted something with more of a drape to it, but I still wanted the fabric to remain opaque. After much consideration, I settled on our super soft duchess satin in ivory, which has the same appearance as our regular duchess satin but has a lighter weight and drapes really well. To anyone else who wanted to make this dress, I would recommend lining the sleeves to prevent the wrong side of the fabric showing, as the sleeves are open at the front and expose both sides.
For extra glamour, I decided I wanted to try and replicate the glittery appearance of Anastasia's gown. To achieve this, I used our diamond and pearl organza in ivory as an overlay on the cream parts of the dress. I really love the way that this looks, and also how the fabric catches the light and sparkles. It is an easy way to make a garment look more interesting than just a flat colour, and I love to add texture to my sewing projects so I felt that this fabric was absolutely perfect for the job.
I can't wait to get started on this project, and plan to wear it for an event that I am attending in October. I hope to upload photographs of the completed gown right here on our Calico Laine blog, but if you have any similar sewing projects of your own then we would love to see pictures of them on our Facebook page!
If you are stuck on what fabrics to choose for one of your own sewing projects, then contact our friendly sales team either by email or by telephone on 0151 336 3939 and they will be happy to help.