2015 Cinderella Ball Gown Endeavor

I've decided, upon the drop of the official trailer, that one of the costumes I'll be preparing for D23 2015 is Cinderella's blue ball gown from the new Cinderella film. This is planned to be a construction-updating thread for my endeavor. This will be the second costume I've ever made on my own, and by far I can tell it will be the most complicated. I'd like to get it as close to film-accurate as possible, which seems like it will be a fun challenge. I've already gathered up a helping of pictures to reference, and my first step is determining the fabric to use and pattern-wise if there's anything similar I can get to riff off of, or if I'll have to go in completely DIY. Yeesh. This is going to be interesting.

One of the first things I noticed, upon comparing the photos to the trailer, is that the upper skirt looks like tulle, or something very similar. Chiffon, maybe. The underskirt is another area of frustration, as I can't tell if it's supposed to be blue or white. In the trailer it appears to be white, but in the photos (especially the poster above), it looks like a blue similar to that of the dress.

Any good stores to look for fabric? My local Joann's doesn't stock much that isn't tacky costume fabric. Hobby Lobby seems like an okay start, but even they don't have that large of a selection. I'd prefer to see fabric in person, rather than ordering it, but if push comes to shove, I'd rather order than be stuck with something that feels like it belongs on a costume from Party City. Another thing, I can't tell if she's wearing a hoop skirt. In the third picture, her dress seems oddly poofy, but when she twirls and runs about, it doesn't seem like there's anything stiff under there. Is that underskirt/petticoat enough to keep it that fluffy, or is it likely there's something else stuck up under there with it?

Bearing in mind that I am not a seamstress, what about something like a glitter organza (not the right colour, but: https://www.fabric.com/buy/en-446/glitter-organza-silver) for the top layer of the skirt (it looks quite sparkly to me in those pics) and an iridescent organza (wrong colour again, but it gets the point across: https://www.fabric.com/buy/0371398/irridescent-organza-pink-crystal) for the shiny underskirt?

You can maybe get away with a petticoat to make it that floofy, but it would be an epic petticoat. It would still be easier to deal with than hoops, especially if you want to get through doorways and crowded conventions. I do suspect, given the way it moves as a whole unit in some of the scenes (when she's walking towards the swing in the garden) that there is a hoop under it in some (but possibly not all) of the scenes, but you may be able to get away without one if you can buy/make an amazing enough petticoat. You may also consider layering a few petticoats under the skirt instead of trying to make one that huge.

Here is some info about the dress:
http://www.vogue.com/4463911/cinderella-movie-2015-sandy-powell-costume-designer/

As for the Dress—the magical raiment that arrives courtesy of Cinderella’s scatterbrained fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) on the eve of the royal ball—it’s a cerulean gown with a voluminous skirt composed of more than a dozen layers of gossamer-fine silk in different shades of pale blue, turquoise, and lavender. “When I first put it on, I felt both empowered and scared,” James recalls. “How could I live up to this? Then I realized I could use that fear to show me how Cinderella would feel at that moment.”

I can't wait to see this develop!

Thanks for the fabric links, and thank you for the Vogue article! The picture on there was very helpful, as well as the blurb. Silk, huh? Not sure if I can afford that. XD Still, I'll see what I can find. Organza has always screamed 'costume-y' to me, but that shiny kind looks pretty nice. Fabric.com has been helpful, in my experience (ordered from them before).

I've done a little more planning and I might attempt a form of hoop skirt that I'll have to fashion myself, with a hoop up relatively higher, towards the top. I think hoops at the bottom would take away some of the swishy-ness that I want to keep. Then I'll have to make a pretty crazy fabric petticoat to go underneath. I'm quite excited about this. I noticed that the dress appears to have little semi-transparent butterflies on the ruffled bit across the chest. I wonder if I'll have to make those too.

The first thing consider with movie costumes like this is that there are multiples of the costume that are all slightly different depending on what they need it to do in a given scene. And all of them have gone through post. So, I would recommend you pick one reference and stick to that. Then, use the others for things like seams and closures and general lines. You'll drive yourself mad trying to reconcile every different piece of media you see (especially about the under skirt). That said...

Check out info on farthingales. That's probably the skirt foundation you want to go with. The ribs are higher on the hips and make more of a 'bell' shape than a funnel (like a typical bridal hoop) depending on how you structure it. You're going to need the ribs to go to the bottom or the shape will not come out right. I would say do it as a 'cage' rather than a solid skirt-with-ribs. You'll get the swing and movement and lightness with the cage version.

As for fabrics, I would say try to stick to natural fibres as much as you can. Thai Silks is a good and not too expensive option. Also, depending on where you are, you can check with local bridal shops and ask after their fabric sources. We have a fantastic shop here in Atlanta that sells silks for $8-12/yd. if you look around and pick the brains of people in the industry, you can find reasonable sources. I think JoAnns and Hobbly Lobby are a lost cause for this one, honestly.

For the pattern, I think an antebellum would translate well. There are some very nice commercial patterns available for this style or try Patterns of Time.

Cheers and good luck! It's a beautiful dress.

Would horsehair braid be an option for the petticoat? Or plastic boning? It would leave the hoops much more flexible.

Not sure if you've already seen this, but here's another promo image: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Cinderella-Ella-and-Prince.jpg

Yrien said:

Not sure if you've already seen this, but here's another promo image: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Cinderella-Ella-and-Prince.jpg

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Thank you so much and forever! I hadn't seen this, but it will definitely come in handy.

Not to go all AWOL on the forum, but I've been a little busy with school. Though, during free time, I have been compiling a list of supplies for Cinderella's dress. I think I am going to go with organza, and after seeing that new picture, I may just end up gluing on rhinestones to the top layer (ah, rhinestones, my mortal enemy. We meet again). I'm still pondering over wig options. I'd like to avoid a lace-front wig (bad experiences), but I can't seem to find many longer, similarly-blonde wigs that don't have bangs. Arda, my go-to for wig hunting, doesn't seem to be giving me much luck.
On a separate note, I'll be updating later with a much more thorough list and detail, but I'm thinking, after giving her gown some studying, that I'm going to go with an 1800s era pattern, probably mid-century. I found an elliptical skirt pattern that I think I might try, as her skirt looks to me to have a slightly elliptical shape, as shown best in the third picture from my first post. Most mid-1800s patterns have that perfect triangular bodice area where it attaches to the skirt, and I should only need to alter the neckline. I'm fine with Frankensteining a few patterns together if need be to get the perfect shape. :thumbsup

Here's a bunch of wig sites I have bookmarked because they've gotten good reviews online, though so far I've only ever used Arda.

http://www.rockstarwigs.com/
http://www.epiccosplay.com/
http://www.wigisfashion.com/
http://matchwigs.com/
http://www.lucaille.com/

Good luck with your Frankenpatterning! I don't know how to read patterns (yet!) so that sounds super intimidating to me, lol.

Yrien said:

Here's a bunch of wig sites I have bookmarked because they've gotten good reviews online, though so far I've only ever used Arda.

http://www.rockstarwigs.com/
http://www.epiccosplay.com/
http://www.wigisfashion.com/
http://matchwigs.com/
http://www.lucaille.com/

Good luck with your Frankenpatterning! I don't know how to read patterns (yet!) so that sounds super intimidating to me, lol.

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Thank you again! Haha, you're very helpful. Wig is Fashion looks to be a winner. I have several wigs now on my list from there, one in particular being the forerunner. I'm not the greatest pattern reader myself, but since I had to draft one of my own for Halloween, I'm sure I could probably figure it all out on the way.

So far, for fabric, I'm considering buying undyed organza from Dharma Trading Co. and hand-dying it myself. I found some newly-in-stock organza in a color that appears to be similar to Cinderella's gown on Fabric.com, but they only have 14 yards in stock, and thought it says re-orderable, I'm a little hesitant. I don't know how much I'll need and if it is indeed re-orderable. At least with the Dharma, I won't have to worry of not ending up with enough fabric, it'll just be more of a pain trying to dye it all. They do appear to have a dye in a pretty accurate color though. Now I just have to figure out about those butterflies...

jennathewriter said:

Thank you again! Haha, you're very helpful. Wig is Fashion looks to be a winner. I have several wigs now on my list from there, one in particular being the forerunner. I'm not the greatest pattern reader myself, but since I had to draft one of my own for Halloween, I'm sure I could probably figure it all out on the way.

So far, for fabric, I'm considering buying undyed organza from Dharma Trading Co. and hand-dying it myself. I found some newly-in-stock organza in a color that appears to be similar to Cinderella's gown on Fabric.com, but they only have 14 yards in stock, and thought it says re-orderable, I'm a little hesitant. I don't know how much I'll need and if it is indeed re-orderable. At least with the Dharma, I won't have to worry of not ending up with enough fabric, it'll just be more of a pain trying to dye it all. They do appear to have a dye in a pretty accurate color though. Now I just have to figure out about those butterflies...

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Good luck!

For the butterflies, maybe craft stores? I'm sure I've seen similar ones before.

jennathewriter: Just wondering how the Cinderella ball gown endeavor is going? I am a costumer for an area middle school. We are doing Cinderella and I'd love to re-create this look for the musical. Just wondering if you came up with a pattern or possibly franken-pattern compilation? ANY help would be most appreciated!
LeeAnn

Hi there I would also love to see how you are going, i am considering making this dress and I would love to see your progress

Hello all! It's been, sigh...ridiculously too long. A lot has happened in my personal life since beginning my Cinderella gown endeavor but I'm happy to announce I'll finally be resuming progress here pretty quick. On a creatively-positive note, I'm going to see an early showing tomorrow night! I've been holding off purchasing any patterns because I want to see how Ella's fluffy underskirt works (as I think I'm going to go with a fully petticoat supported version, rather than one with a hoop skirt, as I loathe hoop skirts and would rather not have to wear one (especially considering as I plan on wearing the gown to D23 this year and am not too keen on the idea of riding in a car for 1.5+ hours in a hoop skirt. Once was enough for me and I'd like to never do it again).

On the topic of patterns, I've narrowed my selection down to these, I think, so far. Simplicity 9764, Past Patterns #704, Simplicity 5724 and 5726. I likely won't be using all of these, but they're, as of this moment, the most likely contenders for pattern choices. I am also eyeing some patterns from Truly Victorian, but those may require more frankensteining than I'd like to attempt. For fabric (again, this will depend what I decide post-viewing of the movie tomorrow), I'm leaning towards buying a full bolt of organza fabric from Amazon and making several layers of skirt with it (I read that there were up to 12 layers in Ella's gown skirt, but I'm not sure if that includes the petticoat or not, as some more recent pictures I've found make it only seem like there could be up to 5-ish layers above the petticoat). On the other hand, I may buy some silk organza from Dharma Trading Co. and using acid dye in the color 429 Alpine Blue to dye it. The Alpine Blue color appears to be relatively close, if not maybe a little too dark. This may depend on how experimental I'm feeling, considering I've never dyed anything in my life. I do know that the skirt will likely be the hardest part of the gown, as the bodice appears to be relatively straight forward with some of the patterns I've found, and the organza shoulder bit of the bodice shouldn't be too complicated either. It's all those layers, man.

I assume you've probably seen it (and I haven't watched the video yet so I don't know how helpful it might be), but I found this video about the costume design: https://youtu.be/lo9Anoexu-c

That is such a spectacular skirt - I can't wait to see how you tackle it!

Yrien said:

I assume you've probably seen it (and I haven't watched the video yet so I don't know how helpful it might be), but I found this video about the costume design: https://youtu.be/lo9Anoexu-c

That is such a spectacular skirt - I can't wait to see how you tackle it!

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I hadn't seen that video, but I had seen pictures from the exhibit, which I have saved under my dedicated Cinderella folder. But thank you, because that video lead me to another, which had a clip of Kit lifting/spinning Ella during a dance, in which she sort of kicked up her skirt and allowed me to see under it (in a totally non-creepy way). I have encountered somewhat of a problem. I'd assumed that during the ball, Ella didn't wear a hoop skirt, but seeing the clip in the video, I know that she wears both a hoop skirt and a heavily fluffy petticoat on top. Now, I'm a sucker for convenience, but also for accuracy. And I'm going to be completely honest, I'm not really known for my practicality either (I am the girl who wears 3 inch heels to Disneyland for Dapper Day). So, because my accurate side always has to win out, I'll probably be having to do a hoop skirt as well. Yipee. My next dilemma is figuring out how many hoops her skirt has. I would've guessed a high number (5-6), but since she also has somewhere between 6-10 layers of petticoat above that, I wonder if she'll actually need that many hoops, or if any less will still mess up the shape. *head desk* This is going to be fun. Hoop skirt, liner, thousand-layered petticoat, then gown. I guess I'll get that poof I was aiming for... By the way, here's the clip, in case anyone wanted to see it. It's about the Swarovski "glass" slippers, but you can see the fluffiness of the skirt at about 2:00. I slowed it down to 0.25 just to see it better, haha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGe-3y5EkoU

I'm going to see the costumes in person on March 26 here in London. I took some close up shots from the wedding dress last week and I will take a lot of pictures of this dress. Let me know if you want any specific shots and I'll try to get them.

What I can tell from this image is that the center 2 back pieces on the corset are separate from the actual corset bodice and they seem to cover up the eye lets, probably hooks and eyes to keep it closed.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141119151733/disney/images/2/2c/Cinderella_2015_4.jpg

Can't wait to see how this will come along!

Twananas said:

I'm going to see the costumes in person on March 26 here in London. I took some close up shots from the wedding dress last week and I will take a lot of pictures of this dress. Let me know if you want any specific shots and I'll try to get them.

What I can tell from this image is that the center 2 back pieces on the corset are separate from the actual corset bodice and they seem to cover up the eye lets, probably hooks and eyes to keep it closed.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20141119151733/disney/images/2/2c/Cinderella_2015_4.jpg

Can't wait to see how this will come along!

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Oh! Thank you so much, you're so kind! I just got back from seeing the movie (do yourself a favor, GO SEE IT! It's wonderful!) and, though I did spend a large amount of time trying to ogle the ball gown, it was hard to eyeball that and still watch the movie. I doubt you're allowed to touch the costumes (or if you even could for that matter. It depends on how "on display" there are I suppose), but I desperately need photos of the underside of the ball gown. As in the hoop skirt (I'd like to know how many hoops it has), the petticoat (I'd like to know how many layers it has. It looks heavily fluffy in the film), and how many layers above the petticoat there are. I sort of counted as best as I could in the catalog of pictures I've gathered, and from my best estimate, there appears to be 2-4 layers of multicolored, sheer fabric on the very top (in varying shades of the periwinkle blue (the main color), lilac, and turquoise), 1-ish layer of a white iridescent fabric beneath those, and then the petticoat (although there could be layers between the iridescent and petticoat. I'm not sure). Under the fluffy petticoat, there's a hoop skirt liner and then the hoop skirt. Besides undergarments, that appears to be it to the bottom half of the dress. If they have the glass slippers out for display, I'd love some photos of those as well, if it's not too much of a bother. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about making those either. My biggest challenge for now is the skirt-half. The bodice, I think, is going to be relatively straight forward. I may try drafting a pattern from scratch, as I had fair luck drafting my Halloween costume's bunny suit pattern. Again, thank you so very much for your offer!

As for dress progress, I'm probably going to whip up a sketch design, so that I have a reference for how many layers of fabric I'll need at the present time and extras like rhinestones (so. many. rhinestones) and glitter.

I have to wait another 2 weeks! Aaah! But I will probably go on the day it comes out. I can't wait!

They are not in glass cases, so that will help, however indeed, you are probably not allowed to touch them, so I don't think I can get any details from underneath. From the wedding dress I got some pictures from under, due to the set up. So who knows!

There are quite a few stories out there about the dress. 9 were made, 270 yards of fabric and 10.000 crystals per dress. 12 layers.

Let me see (at work) if I can find the article which had quite a bit of information.

What is also easy, use the image search on google with search settings for 4-10MP images.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150219175132/disney/images/5/56/Cinderella_2015_49.jpg

Have you seen Katmurz's Katniss Wedding Dress thread? http://www.therpf.com/f24/katniss-everdeen-wedding-dress-build-220739/

She also made a beautiful gigantic skirt recently.. maybe you can pick her brain or get some ideas from her thread.