Rococo Ballgown

Rococo Ballgown

My friend and I are attending a ball! And we decided to go as the iconic Barbie Princess & the Pauper duo. With myself wearing the Erika dress. However I decided to make it a bit more regal than the original design.

The Making Of:

The blue part of the dress was actually an old theatre costume I bought secondhand. It was very barebones. Unlined and absolutely needed a wash. Another thing, it was child-sized, wtih the waist being around 18 inches round. If you refer to the original desin above, I actually had intended to use a lace panel for the chest (and the design features the original neckline) placed over the dress. However when the theatre dress arrived, I was shocked to see how tiny it was. So I looked at my corset and I had an idea. I cut the dress straight up the middle, then proceeded to essentially double the circumference of the waist of the dress. As well as the bodice itself being tiny, so were the arms, so I used the offcuts of fabric to increase the size of the arms to accomodate mine.
All in all, I actually much prefer this neckline to my original design as it is more historically accurate appearing.
After attaching the dress itself to the corset, I attached a music themed lace around the dress. With the front fastenings on the corset, the dress actually can be put on like a coat.
The original dress shape intention. I am fond of the size, however I did not like that I couldn’t sit down wearing a hoopskirt. That and I also was not fond of the A-Line sillhuette it gave me
Originally, I had intended to use a giant hoopskirt with a thin petticoat over the top with gold trimmed netting over the layers to make it nicer quality, but in the end I opted to puff up the petticoat with as much lace as I could place on it, meaning I no longer need a hoopskirt underneath. Also when the dress was placed over the hoopsirt, it lost that poofiness at the top due to the weight of the fabric. That was out of the question!
After attatching the musical lace, I did a layer behind it of a 3-tiered lace pattern. Fastened by a gold pearl trim over a stretch lace trim in cream. Then finished off with some artifical roses placed along the top of it to bring more of the pink from the original inspiration dress
I hand created the bows using both white satin ribbon and a pink velvet ribbon, and fastened the bows to the left hand side of the corset. It does mean it’s slightly more fiddly to put on, but not imposible. The bows are also fastened to each other
I am a fan of litle details, so I got hundrds of tiny roses and bows and fastened them in places over the bodice and all over the skirt.
Originally, I had intended to use a giant hoopskirt with a thin petticoat over the top with gold trimmed netting over the layers to make it nicer quality, but in the end I opted to puff up the petticoat with as much lace as I could place on it, meaning I no longer need a hoopskirt underneath. Also when the dress was placed over the hoopsirt, it lost that poofiness at the top due to the weight of the fabric. That was out of the question!