I made an 1890's Aurora Borealis Ball Gown! (It Got Out of Hand)

It is 1898 and you have been cordially invited to a ball. You have approximately $0, a personal vendetta against boring gowns, and one unhinged idea. What if the Northern Lights were a dress? Congratulations, you are me and this is your problem now. Ha ha ha ha ha. So if you've been following along with the series, first off, thank you, you're amazing. You already know that we've tackled the foundation skirt and train layers, the bodice design, and approximately 10 million miles of froofy fabric strips. Say that 10 times fast. But this video, this is the one I've been losing sleep over because I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of just recreating an existing fashion plate or extant gown for the Baldezar in Chicago, I wanted to create the ultimate artistic vision. Except, you know, this is Fantastical Follies and your girl jacket with an eye can't just do something half-assed. Oh no, she's got to overcomplicate everything. And this project morphed from a simple artistic vision to a full-on beaded menace. Oops. In this video, we're covering the full construction of the ball gown and the very fun but very complicated process of taking boring old white silk and turning it into the night sky made wearable. Because yes, there is a method to this madness. Sort of. Maybe. Okay, maybe a little method and a lot of coffee. I'm using the trumpet skirt pattern from Oralyn for this. And the first thing we need to do is modify it. I don't 100% recommend this pattern. There are a couple of things in there that are game changers for me. The one big thing that I don't like about this pattern is it does not have seam allowances on it. That's great for a corset when you need to be as precise as possible. But when you're doing a skirt, which is supposed to be fast and easy, having to spend an extra half an hour hand drawing every single freaking seam allowance is a complete and utter waste of my very valuable time. Especially because each skirt, the walking length, the floor length and the extended length are all separate pattern pieces. So if you did a wearable mock-up in the floor length, you still have to put together the extended length to do your ball gown. Also a quick note about this pattern. It is very short. The floor length on me is just at ankle length. I am five foot three. I'm shorter than the average person. So you need to be aware of that if you're going to use this pattern that more than likely you are going to have to modify the length. Next step is to modify the back. Now we need to make this wider as well as longer to extend the train. As you can see here, there is only one one inch box pleat on the back of this. This is the center back here. And that is just not dramatic enough for any skirt of this era, but especially a ball gown, we need to up the drama a little. So we're gonna widen this. I want three pleats. So we're gonna widen it this way about four inches. If you line up the grain line with the pleats, they are basically on the same line. So that leads me to believe it's probably smarter to cut it and widen it along the grain. That will widen it over here as well, which will give me more length in the train. Here is my widened panel. Scissors, scissors, scissors, scissors. Okay, I've been putting this off for two weeks now. So we're going to turn the camera off, take a deep breath, and cut the skirt out of my silk satin. Because of all the dye work, painting, embroidery, and beadwork I've planned for this gown, I really needed fabric that was going to hold up to all the abuse. Silk satin is very expensive, but it was definitely the tool for the job. Luckily, I have friends who have access to real fabric stores, and I managed to get a slamming good deal. Not a hundred percent sure what the actual total per yardage was, but I think it was somewhere around $22 a yard for duchess silk satin, which is like less than half what they charge on Silk Baron. Cheers to that. One of the first things I knew about this gown was that I wanted the skirt to be dyed like the night sky. And that was going to evolve a new technique, ombre dyeing. She's got the shirt on, she's got the shirt on, and you know what that means, it's dye day. That's right, today we are ombre dyeing the skirt. I have been putting this off for two months, well, practicing for two months, and now it's time to rip off the bandaid and just do the thing. Now I want to be clear, this is not an ombre dye tutorial. That merits its own dedicated video. Ombre dyeing is an advanced technique. I am about to dip the nicest fabric I have ever worked with in my life in an almost boiling vat of dye. There is zero room for error, and I'm terrified. Instead of doing this in two batches like I had hoped, I'm going to have to do it in five. And I'm anticipating it taking about three hours from start to finish. Welcome to my very beige, very unappealing and unesthetic kitchen. Meet my brand new dye pot. One of the many things I love about acid dyes is that they can be batched up in advance. Also a good opportunity to clean out my fridge. Why do I have so many jars of applesauce in there? At this point, we'll also add the citric acid. Casual dyers can just use white vinegar as your mordant, but citric acid is more economical for larger batches like this, and it doesn't stink up your kitchen. I'm starting with one of the side panels, which means I need to first measure out half of this batched dye, since this holds enough for both of them. To get the ombre, you want to add your dye in small increments. Here goes nothing. We're starting with the sapphire blue, which is the middle color, and therefore going to be the most cumbersome to dye. Eight hours and 45 minutes later, this is going to be fun to clean up. Last one. Today is the day that we add the Aurora Borealis to the Aurora Borealis gown. I have been putting this off for eight days, partially because the transferring, the chalking, and painting to green, at least, has to be done on the same day, so I had to wait for a weekend to do it, and two, because I'm terrified. I've redone the design for this three times, and I'm still not 100% happy with it. I almost wish that I hadn't committed to the Aurora Borealis, and was just going to leave the skirt as is, because it is so ding-dang pretty. I keep having to remind myself that these gowns were exquisitely decorated, and it's going to add to the design, not detract to the design, and I just need to trust in myself as an artist. So let's do it. I drew out one half of the design onto paper, cut into the shape of the bottom of the skirt. Then I'll use tracing paper and a tracing wheel to lay out my design. It's going to be very faint, so I'll go over it with chalk, but all in all, this is going to require some very good lighting to see. The final design is inspired by the whiplash curves that are quintessential to the Art Nouveau aesthetic. There's just something about the Aurora Borealis that was screaming for whiplash curves. Took me about an hour to get all of that transferred, and now we're ready to paint. This is the brand of paint that I'm using. Maybe if the camera could focus. Just going to have to do it like this. All right, so this is a set of color. This is a pearlescent metallic green. I'm going to use the straight green just for the lines, and then I'm going to save the yellow to mix in with the green for the actual streaks of light. I'm going to get all of the lines done first, let that dry, then that'll give me some time to rest, and then we'll go back and add the streaks. I can do this. Y'all, I need you rooting for me. We cannot mess this up. Here we go. Once it was dry, it was time for the fun part. First, the embroidery. We're doing a simple stem stitch here all along the original lines of the whiplash curves. Then, when that was all done, one million beads. First, I used friction pens to mark out my design. Then the beading. I'm using a combination of seed beads and bugle beads. I found the best way to do this is to move from the base of the aurora borealis to the top and then back down to help prevent the fabric from puckering. When I said in the beginning that there were 8,000 beads, I was not exaggerating. Y'all, I did the math. Well, Excel did the math. She's gonna be doing that every night, parked on her sofa, hating life for the next three weeks. So while Past Jackie begins frantically beading, perhaps it's time to build the bodice. And since Editing Jackie is in full introvert mode post-event, let's do this in an 80s-style montage. Y'all, this ball gown was so epic, thanks in no small part to excessive procrastination and my own imposter syndrome. But I really appreciate you for following this journey and just coming back video after video to enjoy the chaos. If you're enjoying this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up and saying hello in the comments. These quick little things go a long way into getting this video out to people like you. I'd also like to say a huge thank you to all of my Ko-fi supporters, without whom I would never have been able to make this gown, whether I got a good deal on the silk or not. Thank you for helping me keep this channel going. I've linked below if you would like to help contribute. Time for Sleevels, made extra evil by French seams. You're working with silk organza, Jackie. It's the only way to finish your seams. Oh, don't make me, I don't wanna, I don't wanna. It'll be ugly if you don't. All right, I'll do it. Here's our flat lined undersleeve. It's important to hem this before attaching the oversleeve and the undersleeve together. Since it'll all be covered in trim down the line, I have no qualms about using the machine for this. Here's everything gathered and basted. If you watched my bodice design video, you know I was having issues with the shoulders and them being weirdly tight like this. The other side, I cut into the shoulders and it's working much better. Yay, narrow shoulders. Meanwhile, last night we had a minor setback. I was embroidering the back. I got to here, which means I have this tiny bit left. Like this is it, that's it, that's all that's left. And this is all the embroidery floss I have left. And guess what Michaels has been out of for weeks? Both stores that are even remotely close to me. Luckily, I have friends. My awesome friend took the time while she was at work today to go pick up a couple from the one on the other side of town since it was near her. Emergency averted. Now I need to go back to beading. The neckline of the ball gown will be mostly hidden by frou-frou, but we'll first finish the edge with some piping. Don't be like me and not even think about how you're gonna finish your neckline until your entire bodice is together and then you're like, oh, I forgot to get piping. And you have to make an entire Wawak order for $3 worth of piping. Now it's time to bone the bodice. You want to add boning on all seams, plus on each dart and at the center front, plus a waist tape to keep everything smooth and in place. Things are looking okay. The fabric is wrinkling more now than it was before, but I don't really have time at this point to fix it, so we're gonna have to deal. Hello. It is Friday afternoon and this time next week, I will be physically in Chicago. Guess we better get this ball gown finished. I am a little stressed about all of the things that I need to get finished before that time, so I decided to take a page out of Newell's book and put it down on my whiteboard. Now, if you're looking at this thinking, that looks like a lot of stuff you gotta get done, Jax, you would be right. Obviously, the most stuff needs to be done with the skirt first. Luckily, most of this is pretty low labor. It's just a lot of little things that add up, except this, which has been the monster. I'm on the very last back panel. Unfortunately, the back panels are huge. Now, in the meantime, I've hemmed my organza ruffle, so even now, I can take that off the list. So yeah, this is all of the stuff that we still gotta get done. Let's get working. Let's tackle the PETA first, the organza ruffle that goes over the dust ruffle on the foundation skirt. This could have been a very simple task if I'd ripped these strips on grain, but I, being an absolute idiot, opted to use the rotary cutter instead, and so they're not on grain, and turning up the hem was miserable and took more than an hour. But with that finished, zipping the hem on the machine and gathering the other side was quick and easy. Now, we need to prep the bodice for Fru. If you missed the design video, in short, we're going to line the neckline with puffs of silk organza and then do a pleated V in the center front to add some visual interest and a landing spot for more trim. All will be done with on-grain rectangles. These are neatly hemmed on both sides and ready for placement. First, let's test a couple of options and see which looks better. What do you like best, pleats or puffs? Meanwhile, drum roll, please. After three weeks, every single episode of Game of Thrones and 8,000 of these tiny little suckers, I present to you the last f***ing bead. It's done, the beading at least. I had to stay up like two hours after I finished beading last night and it was almost three before I got to bed. I am so tired and all I wanna do is like chill out and relax for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, that is not on the cards for us because there is still so much to do and really only four days left to do it. So, instead of sitting at the computer playing The Sims for the rest of the day, let's finish up the coffee and go look at the list and see what we can tackle. So much left, where do we even start? Let's tackle a couple of easy things first to try and get us into the swing. First, attaching the ruffle. I cannot for the life of me remember why past Jackie decided to put this ruffle on other than for purely aesthetic reasons, but I do know it was based on some period research that I may or may not have misinterpreted. In any case, it's done, so let's move on. Next, the waistband. I'm preserving as much of my leftover dyed silk as possible for future fixes or alterations. So this is sateen on one side and silk on the other. If you watched the foundation video, you know that I ran out of time to finish the belayus for that video, so here you go. In all, it's ruffly, ruffly glory. Now we need to attach it to the back. The best way is by sewing buttonholes on it at the seams and attaching it to buttons sewn onto the foundation skirt. I don't have the time for that, so I'm just tacking it at the top and bottom of each skirt seam. Because I am chaos, this did end up catching on my shoes a few times at the event, and I ended up having to bum a safety pin to keep it on, so I'll probably go back and do the button thing at some point before I wear it next. Hello, it is Monday evening. Last night I was able to get a lot of the real fiddly tiny things done, most specifically adding the rest of the hooks that I needed to add, doing a little bit of hemming, and more importantly, hemming the entire silk portion of the skirt. That was a nightmare. But with that done, now things are starting to look a little bit more approachable. So the goal for today, first of all, is to permanently attach the frou-frou at the neckline, and then we are going to translate into beading the sleeve. If we can get that done, and we can at least start sewing the trim on the base of the skirt, we might actually get this finished. We've finally made a decision on the neckline frou-frou and gone for puffs all around for the sake of consistency. So let's get started tacking that down. Okay, that's done. Let's move on to the sleeve beading. Highly recommend you do a practice round first with this. Make a little strip with the hem and practice on that before you start the real thing, because it's trickier than it looks. Okay, so here is how the edge is gonna look. Okay, so I'm gonna start with one of these bigger beads. So I'm left-handed, so this might look backwards to you. If it looks backwards, just reverse it. So I'm gonna go in about a bead's width away from my working beads. Take my bead, and then I'm gonna stick my needle in. And when I do this, I'm not gonna go straight down like you would normally do when you were sewing. I wanna go angled in from the top and out. Right along the edge. I find it's a lot easier to go back in order to get the beads butted up against each other in a nice straight line. My earlier attempts, not so nice. But those are under the arm. You won't be able to see it. So now that I've got my big bead, we're gonna do six of the small seed beads. And again, I'm gonna go a bead's width around. Take my bead. Something about this particular brand of beads, like every three is a reject, which I'm not happy about. It's making it take much more time. And we're gonna do the same thing, but we're gonna do six of the small beads. So even though this looks much simpler than the beading on the bottom of the skirt, it's actually much more difficult and took me a good hour to get a handle on what I wanted it to look like and get it to look like the way that I wanted it. You know what I mean? Through edge. Boom. Okay, so there's our six beads. And after this strand of six, I'm gonna knot it. I won't cut the thread off, but we are going to knot it so that if part of the thread breaks, we don't lose all of the beads. Somebody would die. And now it's time for butt pockets. That's right, my friends. If you watched the foundation skirt video, you know I was trying to put the pockets down low on the hips, but that looked horrible. So we're going to put one big pocket in the center back. Now, I've known for a long time that this is something that was done historically in this time period for the pockets so it doesn't ruin the line of the hips, but I have not been able to visualize what that actually looks like. And as somebody who's super visual, you can tell me that the pocket is laid into the placket in the center back as many times as you want. I understand that concept, but I do not know what it looks like until I physically see what it looks like. So shout out to my friend Tiffany who figured this out. We were noodling about it for quite some time. She took a picture for me. I was able to visualize it, and now I'm going to let you visualize it by showing it to you in detail. Let's get to it. This side of the skirt is faced. The other side of the skirt we're going to pretend is the side panel of a regular skirt. And we've put in a pocket piece like we would normally do, right sides together, flip open, and understitch. However, tonight the role of the other skirt side will be played by the placket. And the pocket will go into this opening here. So let's place the other side of the pocket bag. Okay, so now we'll treat this part of the placket like the side seam on a normal skirt. There you go, a pocket inserted. Not my favorite method. Easy to mistake placket hole for pocket opening, but it worked good enough. It was at this point, on like Tuesday night late in the evening, that I had to shut off the camera, gird my loins, and get her done. And while it's true, I was still finishing up my French texts at the hotel the day of the event, she did get. So without further ado. It's done. Oh my God, it's done. I'm starting on next year's this summer. I don't care if it's too hot. This was too epic a make to squeeze into such a short period of time. Never again, she says again. I do have some issues with the finished gown that I'm going to need to fix before I wear it again. Like the weird wrinkling at the center back that wasn't there when I had everything just basted, as well as more beading, because for some reason, the first couple of panels are way more sparse than the back of the gown where I finished. You'd think it would be the other way around where I'd get tired and get less and less beading, but no, that's not how it worked. Otherwise, I'm super happy with the finished product. I think it looks amazing, especially that super long train, which only got stepped on once the entire night. I had such a good time at the event and I was so glad that I got to meet some of you. I really love when people come up to chat with me. So please, if you ever see me at an event, come and say hello. And hey, if you enjoyed this video, why not check out the rest in the series? And if you're awesome and are already caught up with the series, YouTube is telling me you would love to see this video. And that's about it for me. I am in full-on introvert mode over here and I need to do nothing but stare at the walls for the next like three weeks. Thanks for watching. I love y'all and I'll catch you in my next video.