Dressmaking : Kate Middleton’s Royal Blue Zara Dress
Dressmaking, Featured, How To | 9 May 2011 |
Kate Middleton, the talk of the country, can’t put a foot wrong when it comes to fashion.
For her first day as a Princess she choose to wear high street brand Zara, also worn by her sister Pippa and most recently the PM’s wife – the fashion label of the sophisticated ladies.
Naturally, when I heard the royal blue dress was from Zara I jumped straight on the website (as did my sister I later found!) to find it was sold out in all sizes.
End of that then. But no I thought, this is just a simple under dress with a pleated bit of float stitched on top. Simple I thought, I’ll make one!
Here goes the story…
How To : Make Kate’s Blue Dress
The actual dress -
Nicole’s beaufrog dress -
MATERIALS |
EQUIPMENT |
| 3 meters of Royal Georgette Polyester = £6.45 | Sewing Machine |
| 1.5 meters of lightweight cotton = £4 | Mannequin |
| 1 cute blue button = 11p | Pattern making book / pattern |
| Blue thread = £1.15 | Iron and ironing board |
| Scissors | |
| Lot’s and lot’s of pins! |
First of I had to understand the structure of the dress and plan the base. I used the bible that is Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear
This book allows to create the basic pattern for almost anything, it’s all about learning the basic block then adapting it for your design.
Traditionally a dressmaker would create the pattern on tissue paper but I created this one on the computer (in Illustrator) then printed it out across A4 paper and taped it together.
From this pattern, you can then create your basic underdress, tweaking the darts, shoulder, neckline and length on the mannequin.
Creating the pleats was the trickiest part of the make. I created 1 inch wide pleats on the sewing machine then ironed in the pleats while pinned down on the ironing board. Lot’s of effort went into creating them but I knew the dress just would not compete without perfect pleats.
I then attached the pleated material to the under dress sewing wrong sides together. The shoulders of the under dress had to be unpicked then re-sewn with the pleating. On the back of the dress there is a cute little button with a loop to secure it.
Finally, a hem was placed on the under and over skirt. Creating the hem allowed the dress to be more fluid and floaty.
Teamed with a smart blazer and belt, I have a dress good enough for a Princess!
So there you go, that’s my interpretation of the Kate dress.
Hope you enjoyed watching this come to life and look out for my follow up post where you’ll see the dress actually modelled.
Nicole @ beaufrog
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Tags: dress making, how to, sewing
Wow! This is outstanding, I have just found your blog and love it! What a lovely idea to create a dress. Nicole you are very talented, can you recommend any good fabric websites?
Thanks! The material for this dress was from Abakhans in Preston (Manchester store is good too). I on mission to find a UK equivalent of Mood…it’s gotta be out there somewhere!
you are a legend!
Well, if you say so!
Thanks dude
very cool! but im a very bad sewer. lol
Oh well, maybe there’s a need for some beaufrog sewing tutorials then? Ha, thanks
WOW – this is quite the successful project! Are you selling it??
You did a terrific job.
Not for sale, I’m keeping it for myself
thanks
Nicole this is brilliant! Found the fabric website but what type of fabric is it? Would also like to make it in black as well as blue. Thanks xx
Hi Anne, Georgette was the type of material I used, I’d love to see your version when completed!
Oops seen it at the top of the page! Will have another look!
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
I love it. You’re so creative. I just started picking up sewing. I hope to make this one of these day. I was wondering did you sew the pleated material on the sides to the undress. It doesn’t look like it, so I’m thinking that you cut out patterns of the pleated material and just attached it along the arms and neck area to the undress. Sorry, if this a really dumb questions.
Thanks! Yeah, it’s just attached around the neck line, shoulders and arms. I’m planning on running a stitched line around the waist to keep the pleats in line, it would be hidden by the belt. I literally pleated a lot of material then hung it on the mannequin and planned where to attach. You should give it a go!
Wow, what a great job you have done. Congrats. It’s perfect.
hi, what`was the software you used to draft patterns?
Hi, i used Adobe Illustrator as you can adjust the lengths and thicknesses of the lines really easily. I’d definitely recommend a vector graphics package for this kind of thing.
Hi
This is THE dress I want for my sisters wedding. I’m the only bridesmaid. Would you consider making another for the right price?? I can’t sew for the life of me. Please message me if this is an option. Thank you.
Fantastic, I’ll drop you an email