DIY Romantic Eyelet Dress - Latina Fairy Core (Mirror Palais Inspired) Patternmaking + Sewing

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, hello! My name is Caroline and I make sewing tutorials and sewing patterns to help you along your sewing journey and today's video is actually something that you guys chose. I was kind of running out of ideas and I decided to ask you guys what tutorials you'd like to see here and you guys came through. I received so many comments and it was really interesting to see your ideas and I picked some options from what you guys sent, stuff that I already had the materials to make here at home. I created a poll event for you to vote here on YouTube and on Instagram and you guys chose the Maria dress by Miropalais. I already had this dress saved on my Pinterest inspiration board for months now. I think I actually saved it last year but I didn't know if you'd be interested in it too so I was a bit reassuring that I wasn't the only one obsessed with this dress because it's honestly so gorgeous. The silhouette is so sexy and it's something that I've never actually done before. That skirt shape that has kind of a mermaid style at the bottom, the deep neckline with the ties, so I'm really excited to try it out. I've actually had the perfect fabric for this dress for a couple of months already. I bought it at the Fabric District in Sao Paulo when I traveled there to see Twice. There's a video about that on my channel, I'm going to link it in the description if you guys want to see. I made two dresses for the concert, one for me and one for my friend. And at the end of the video there's a little vlog part of the trip. I kind of wanted to film at the Fabric District because I think it would make a lot of sense since this is a sewing channel but I went alone. I didn't know anywhere and it's not the safest neighborhood ever so I ended up not filming. I barely found anything with prints that I liked because most things looked a little bit tacky. I didn't really know where the good stores were. But I got two cotton eyelet fabrics, this white one that has this flower design, and this black one that also has a flower design but the flowers are way smaller. And both of them were around 20 reais per meter which is around four dollars, which is way cheaper than I'm used to paying for cotton eyelet. I don't know about the quality though, it's definitely not the same quality as the ones Miura Palais use for sure. But it seems okay. And when I was separating them for the project I realized the black one has a very similar design to the one Miura Palais used for the black one. The white one doesn't, it looks nothing like the ones they had. And it's also very thin. I'm still not sure which one I'm going to use. I honestly prefer their white dress instead of the black. Not exactly white, it's the creamy one, like the off-white creamy one. But this looks nothing like it so I don't know if it's a good idea because I would have to line it. It's too sheer for me to even consider making this without a lining. And I really don't think it's going to look as chic once I add the lining to it. So to be honest I'm thinning more towards the black one instead. But I still haven't decided. I don't know how the fabric market is like where you guys live, but here in Brazil one issue that I always have is trying to find fabrics with prints that I like. Even at the Sao Paulo fabric district, which is probably the biggest in the entire country, I could barely come out with any printed fabrics that I like. The only one that I bought was this one. But it's so rare to find those dainty little flowery ones that are basically what I like the most. So in the beginning of the year I set a goal for myself that was to learn how to make those prints. I mean I already learned how to make sewing patterns, why not learn how to make surface patterns as well? I just didn't really know where to start so I just kept postponing it until now. And that's why I'm so excited to talk about today's sponsor, Skillshare. You've probably heard of Skillshare before. It's the largest online learning platform for creative people like us, with thousands and thousands of classes led by industry experts. And it's a great place for you to learn almost anything. You can find classes on illustration, cooking, video editing, photography, and so much more. And Skillshare has also designed what they call learning paths, where they present to you hand-picked classes about a certain topic that kind of build on top of one another to take you from beginner all the way to a pro in whatever subject that you're trying to learn. And after searching for like one second, I found the perfect learning path for me called Become a Surface Pattern Designer, which was so helpful. This learning path has eight classes and at the end of each class you create a project. And I'm so excited about finishing all of mine so I can have my own portfolio of surface patterns that I can use later to make my own clothes with them, which will definitely happen in the future. Expect a video about this coming soon. And if you'd like to have access to all of those classes, the first 500 people to use my link in the description to sign up for Skillshare will get an entire month for free. It's more than enough time to check out the platform and learn as much as you like. And if you like to join me and learn about surface pattern design, I'll also leave the link to the learning path that I mentioned so you can take the same classes that I'm taking. And now let's learn how to make the sewing pattern for the dress. I have transferred the basic bodice block to another sheet of paper. And the dress has a quite plunging neckline, so from the neck down I'll measure 14 centimeters. And for the tie detail, I'll also measure another 13 centimeters. I'll make the shoulders around 5 centimeters wide, which in my case ended up being right at the dart, but not always. And now I'll free draw the neckline. And this dart right here is going to be ignored, so we don't have to worry about this. We can just draw on top of it, we don't have to transfer it anywhere else. I drew a guideline to where the neckline is going to start, and I'll curve it around three centimeters upwards. And if we just ignore the dart here, it's going to end up gaping a little because it's not super tight. So to the side, I'm going to enter around one and a half centimeters. If you have a bigger cup size, it might be better for you to enter a little bit more. And I'll connect it to the point. And now we have to make sure that this length right here, from the apex all the way to here, is the exact same length as from here to here. And this dart right here will be eliminated because we're going to separate it into two parts. And now for the detail of the tie, I'm going to enter around one and a half centimeters. And the seam allowance for this part should be a little bit smaller because otherwise we're going to lose the shape. So instead of adding later one centimeter here, I'm going to add half a centimeter. So instead of three-eighths of an inch, I would add five-eighths of an inch. So we can sew this and keep the shape. And if you want to make this more form-fitting around your bust, you can measure from the apex all the way to under the curve of your breast and enter a little bit. This, honestly, I would recommend trying it on and pinning it, so you know exactly where, and then transfer into the pattern. But if you have already made this before, you kind of know where exactly that is. So you can just make a shape that fits better around your breasts. And this will depend on the shape as well, so that's why I say it's a good thing to try it on beforehand. Now for the skirt, we're gonna have to go in parts because it doesn't fit all the way on my table. But from the waist down, I'm going to measure my hip height, which is the vertical distance between my waist and my hips, which is the widest part of my hips. And from that point, I'll square to the side on the right angle and mark my hips measurement, divided by four. And I also added one centimeter to this result, so I can have a bit of an ease. So it's not super tight. If you want more ease, you can add more than one centimeter, but I think one is going to be enough. And another important point we need to have is the knee, because this skirt is form-fitting up until it reaches the knee. It only starts flaring out at the knee. So measure also from your waist all the way to your knee line. And I also square to the side and mark the exact same measurement of my hips. So hips divided by four plus one. I am extending the central waist dart all the way down, around 20 centimeters. And I'll connect both of those points as well, to form kind of like a diamond shape. And I'll connect the waist to the hips with a curve, and then connect the knee line to the hip line with a straight line. I'm afraid it's a little bit pointy, so I'm going to try to make it smoother. That's because I have a little bit of a big difference between my hips and my waist, just so it ends up being a bit smoother and doesn't have like a pointy side here. And I also prolong the center dart seam all the way to the knee. This is where we're going to start flaring it out. And I'm sorry that it's so divided into sections, into parts, because the entire dress doesn't really fit my table. So here's the waistline, the hip line, the knee line, and the hemline. Now I'm going to focus on this part right here, because the top is already done. I'll also connect that center waist dart all the way to the hem, because this is where we're going to use to flare out the skirt. And I'll also elongate the side of the skirt, so far as a straight line. Here's the knee, and here's the hemline. And to flare out the hemline, I'm going to go to the side around nine centimeters. And this is just a guess. You can check the end result later and see if you would like to make it more flare or less flare, but I'm kind of guessing. And from this point, I'm going to connect it to the knee. This is not the only flaring that we're going to do, but I'll have to flare each panel in the center, and we don't have space here, so I'm going to do that when I add the seam allowance. And since it's spread apart nine centimeters, it's kind of a rule of every 10, you go up one, because otherwise it's going to end up being a little bit pointy. So this is what I'm going to do, just so the skirt doesn't get pointy later. And now we can cut here on a straight line, all the way to the hip, and then you'll follow the dart. And here we have the center front and the side front, and now we're going to make the bottom of the skirt more flared out. I added seam allowance all around. This is the side front and the center front. I just didn't add a seam allowance at the middle of the center front, because this will be cut on the fold. That's what this little triangle that I usually put on my patterns mean. This is where you're supposed to place the pattern on the fold of the fabric, and the pattern was like this. It was a straight line here, and instead of nine centimeters that I flared at the side, I don't have the line here because I transferred it to another piece of paper, but here at the side I flared out nine centimeters, and here at each of this side I flared out four and a half centimeters, which is half of nine to each side. And then I added the seam allowance, and as you can see I connected it to the knee line. And the back is a little bit more simple. I also transferred the basic bodice block. I marked five centimeters at the shoulders, just like I did for the front, and I lowered at the center three centimeters, just so it's a little bit looser. I did a freehand here at the curve of the neckline, then I extended the center waist dart all the way to the neckline. It's this line right here, the one in the middle. I extended it all the way up, and I marked one centimeter to each side, and I drew it with a little bit of a curve, so it's smoother. This is the top of the back, and the back skirt is exactly the same way as the front skirt. You can go back and watch it again. I also flared out nine centimeters here, and I'm going to cut here in the middle. Flare out four and a half to each side, and add seam allowance all around, and I will also cut the center back unfold. For the sleeves I have copying a basic sleeve block. You don't have to worry too much about the rest of the sleeve, because we're only going to use the top part. I will measure around nine centimeters down, and I want it to be a little bit gathered at the top, so I'm going to cut here in the middle, and spread them apart around four centimeters from each other. I also added seam allowance all around. I added one centimeter at the top, and here at the side, and I added one and a half at the bottom, because we're going to sew elastic here, so it's better to give a little bit extra ease than to have too little. So just optional, but I added one and a half at the bottom. Warning, strong heat wave. Thanks for the warning, I hadn't noticed. So I also remade it using the same steps on my computer, and I also tested it out just to see if the fit was right or not. This avatar has the exact same measurements as me. It's pretty good, good to go. And now I just have to cut the fabric and sew everything up. Please ignore the mess. You guys remember when I said I had two meters of fabric, and it was definitely gonna be more than enough? Well, it's not. If you're shorter than me, then maybe the width of the fabric would have been enough, but as you can see, the back doesn't even fit. So I thought about two options to fix this. I am sweating so much, it's so hot. The first one would be to cut the dress right at the waist and make it a two-piece, like the top and the skirt pieces being separate. But I kind of wanted it to be like one whole thing, so instead of cutting it at the waist, I decided to make as if like the straps, not straps, like a yoke? Is it what it's called? Yoke? When you make shirts, like dress shirts, and they have a separate top and bottom of the shirt. So I decided to do that to the back. I'm going to separate the top part so I can cut the rest of the dress as one, and I'm going to sew it with a very thin seam allowance, so it's not super bulky or anything. And at the front, I'm going to cut it right here. Hopefully it won't be too noticeable and it won't be bulky, because I'll sew it with a very thin seam allowance. So I cut all of them separately and I added seam allowance, and I already sewed them together. Now I'm going to trim this and iron so it doesn't look super noticeable on the outside, but to be honest, it's actually fine. It didn't look as bad as I thought it was going to, because this fabric is quite thin. And I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I also cut the lining shorter than the outside layer, and I hemmed it already, because my plan is to place all the lining pieces on top of the shell, and then sew them together all around to consider them as one piece, instead of separate. It's kind of hard to show, because the dress is so long, that if I try to put the camera on the tripod on top of the table, it's going to cut it. So I'm just going to hold the camera in my hands. But here, as you can see, I finished all of the edges, and I also did the same to the front. Those are the back pieces, the center back, and the side backs. And I hemmed it as well, so all the finishes are done on the inside. I overlocked it all the way to the hem. Here's how it looks with the lining, and without the lining. If you compare it to the color of my skin and the lining, it's actually very similar. So I think it's going to give a really cool effect. And I'm just going to place them right sides together, and pin, matching the notches that were made before. And I'll sew it from top to bottom with one centimeter seam allowance. I have finished sewing the front as well. I sewed the center front to the side fronts, all the way down. And now I'm placing the back on top of it, and I'm going to sew it right at the shoulders. Five hours later, everything's ironed, and it's looking good. The fit is looking nice. I don't know if I want to top stitch all the seams, because I know it's going to take a long time to do that. And I'm afraid it might be too, like, unnecessary. It might be a bit bulky. But I think on the inside it would be better. But I don't know. But this is what we have now. The front and the back connected at the shoulders. And now I'm going to start preparing the sleeves, so we can attach them here. I'll sew this elastic here at the bottom of the sleeve. And my sleeve has a total width at the bottom of 26 centimeters. And I multiplied that number by 0.8. So I reduced that number by 20 percent. And I cut a 20 centimeters long strip of elastic, and I'm going to sew it at the bottom. I finished the edge here with an overlocker, and now I'm going to stretch the elastic and sew with a straight stitch. As you can see, I did a great job. And now I'm going to fold it inside, like this, and top stitch. So I've already sewn one of the sleeves, because I wanted to make sure the positioning was correct. And before attaching it, you have to run a basting stitch all around the top, because we're going to gather. So I put my machine in the longest stitch length that it has, and didn't backstitch in the beginning or the end. And as you can see, this is the wrong side, because it's going to be hard for you to see, because the fabric looks the same. But I can tell it's the wrong side, because the hem of the elastic is towards this side. And this is the right side. So the sleeve would be placed like this. And I also made a notch in the middle of the sleeve, so I could match it with the shoulder line. I'm going to start by matching. And I already gathered a little bit, but I'm going to concentrate the gathers only here, at this part of the top. And the rest, I'm going to distribute the sleeve all the way to that mark that I told you about. I'm sorry about the noise in the background, because it's just too hot in here, and I just cannot handle being without a fan. I'm really sorry. And here's the middle, so I'm going to concentrate the gathers around this area. So I pinned from one side to the other, and now I'll gather this part until it has the same measurement as the cap. And now I'm going to sew it here, one centimeter away from the edge. It's been a couple of hours. I have eaten lunch, and I've done a few things off camera. The first one was to cut the bias binding for the neckline and the armholes, because I'm going to finish with bias binding. You can use store-bought bias binding, but I just cut a strip on this black rayon that I had left over here, and I ironed it in the middle. And I have also made the ties that I'm going to use at the bust, at the neckline. I made them with the same fabric as this one. I cut extra bias strips, and since they were cut on the bias, they're kind of stretchy, so it's easier to turn them right sides out. That's why I was able to make them super thin like this. But if you want, you could also use satin tape. What is this called? I don't know. Like store-bought already. Ribbon, ribbon. You can use store-bought ribbon if you prefer. But I thought it would look better like this, because this one is kind of light, and it looks a bit cheap. So I thought making it like this would look better once I tie it. And I'm gonna start by placing the ties at the neckline. So around here, I will make three ties, and I'm going to place them a little bit over one centimeter from the actual neckline, and then four and a half centimeters from each other, and then four and a half centimeters from each other again. I stitched it in place just so it wouldn't move. And I'm going to take one of the bias binding pieces, and I'm sorry it's black and black. It's really hard to see, but if I use another color, it's not going to be a good match. And I'm going to pin it with the open side of the bias binding. You see I'm folding it in the middle, so I'm going to place the open side towards this side, and I'll pin all around here, making sure that the ties are not in the way. And I'm going to sew it here one centimeter away from the edge, as you can see from the inside. And I'm going to trim the seam allowance in the middle. And now what I'm going to do is flip the bias tape inside, like this, and I'll top stitch it all around here. I also did the same thing to the neckline, from the front all the way to the back. I sewed the bias binding to it, and I trimmed it and left only half centimeter of seam allowance. And I'm also going to fold it inside and top stitch. The only difference is that at the center part of the neckline, you just don't only fold it down. You fold the bias binding inside first, and then you fold it down. And you can top stitch all around. And I will also finish the armholes with bias binding. I already did it in one side. I sewed it on, which will do the same thing. We're going to fold it inside and top stitch, but because this could be a little bit more confusing, I'm going to show you on camera how I placed it. This might be a little bit difficult to visualize because it's black fabric, but here is the right side. This is the armhole, the front, and the armhole. I'm going to place the sleeve upwards, like this. So here's the inside of the sleeve. The sleeve usually stays like this. You pull it upwards to reveal the seam that's connecting the sleeve to the shoulder. And I'll start pinning the open side of the bias binding to the right side of the armhole. I'll leave a little bit of a tail, and I'll place the bias binding on top of the seam allowance of the sleeve and armhole. So this is the wrong side of the sleeve. I'm not sure if it's too confusing. And now that it's all pinned, I'm going to sew it one centimeter away from the edge. Now, before finishing the armhole, you have to choose which side you would like to place the zipper. Now, the side that you don't want to place the zipper, you just have to put it right sides together. I will place the bias binding down, like this, on both sides, placing right sides together. And I'll sew the sides from top to bottom. But from what I could see from the dress, the side has a slit. It's not sewn all the way to the hem. So I'm going to leave a little bit of space. I don't know exactly how long I'm going to make the slit. I'm gonna sew something and try it on. Then I'll tell you the height, but maybe a little bit below the knee. So you have to sew the side. Then I trim the bias binding. Open up the side seam. And now we can turn... Oh! I made a mistake. Guys, don't do that. The bias binding should not be placed downwards. I'm going to seam rip this and I'm going to place it in a way that it doesn't get sewn together. It should be facing upwards. It was my mistake. But after I do that, I just have to fold the bias binding down and also top stitch all around the armhole. But I'm going to have to seam rip this part. And to the other side that we didn't sew, we're going to place the zipper. you