The Liesel Dress

I love watching musicals.  Naturally, I have seen The Sound of Music multiple times.  And every time I watch it, I notice the Liesel Dress.  You know, the one that she wears while dancing in the gazebo with the telegram guy?

Yeah, this one:

You love it too, right?

Making one of these dresses has been on my bucket list for a few years now.  I found a pattern online, but I didn't want to spend $15.  So, I invented my own.

Pattern details:
Pattern:  Butterick 6838
Size:  M  

Fabric:  Basic cotton fabric, with matching chiffon.
(For reference here are my measurements:  Hips, 38".  Waist, 26".  Bust, 34")

Yes, for the basis of this pattern I used a nightgown.  It was perfect.  The neckline matched Liesel's with a bit of modifying, and the loose fit of the nightgown allowed for some nice gathering.  In fact, it allowed for a little too much gathering. 

First, I made a muslin- the first official muslin that I have ever made.  I made the top half of the nightgown and added some gathers.  I made some adjustments to the neckline and cut out some new modified pattern pieces.

I cut two sets of pieces from the cotton.  I used the first set for lining the dress.  I paired the second set with the chiffon pieces.  Because chiffon is so see through, the seams would have been very visible.  So I stacked the chiffon piece on top of the corresponding cotton piece and treated them as a single piece.  

I used a sleeve from one of my other patterns- a pattern for a shirt that happened to have billowy sleeves.  This probably isn't necessary- I could have simply taken the nightgown sleeve and made it extra wide.  I gathered the top of the sleeve- if I made the dress again I think that I would gather it even more- and it IS possible to make elastic casing with chiffon.  Difficult, but possible.

The skirt is made out of one layer of cotton and two layers of chiffon.  I made a simple circle skirt and attached it to the bottom of the bodice.  The circumference of the circle skirt was only slightly bigger than my waist.  If I made the dress again I would allow for a lot of skirt gathering so that the skirt would poof out more.  Still, the skirt is VERY fun to twirl in.

Because I don't have a serger, I zigzagged the hems of the chiffon skirt layers.  Then I melted the edges.  With a candle.  It is extremely cool.  Here is a link to a video if you are interested:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfnQcn_SAGM

So....Does anyone have a gazebo that I can borrow?  Or know of a guy that wants to get all dressed up and jump off of park benches? :)

****NOTE:  If anyone wants more details or has any questions I will be happy to post more pictures and more thorough instructions.  Just let me know in the comments!!