Remaking my prom dress

[Sonatine]

I first posted about this dress on TSF years ago when I was making it to wear to prom and it turned out that attempting a complicated pattern (or even a simple one involving so much fabric in the skirt...) during exams was not a good idea. I ended up going with the side seam pinned together and the neckline and skirt hem finished by melting the raw edge over a candle (I'm not joking) and the neckline details missing. Then I hid it at the back of the wardrobe and pretended it didn't happen.

But now I need a dress for a party so I've taken it out to see if it can be saved. It's V1094 and it really didn't suit me. I took two panels out of the skirt but even then it swamped me and the gathering on the skirt is uneven and messy. It also has a dropped waist which I would never normally wear, made worse by the fact that the waist was too loose and made me look shapeless. The internal construction is a mess and absolutely nothing is finished properly. I'm thinking the best plan of action is to take is to take the skirt off and remove the lining. I'm going to attempt to put the neckline bands on properly because that's the detail that originally drew me to the dress. I'm not sure whether to try to salvage the skirt by redoing the gathers properly or to try to cut a new one from the pieces - normally if I'm wearing a full skirt I prefer circles or part circles, and I could maybe squeeze panels to make a circle from the existing skirt pieces. I still have the two that never made it into the skirt plus some other bits of extra fabric. Whatever I end up doing will be attached on my waist instead of below it and hopefully the final product will be something I'm happy to wear without fear of it disintegrating if I move. And if it doesn't work then at least I was only trying to salvage an earlier disaster! I've attached a photo of it from the day of the prom as a before, and now the unpicking begins. Any ideas for ways to rescue it would be greatly appreciated!

[Vegegrow]

Sounds like a plan to me.. the skirt on the pattern is much fuller.. how much are you going to shorten the waistline by it'll make the skirt shorter?

[Sonatine]

I think there's definitely a lot of petticoat under the skirt in the pattern drawing and I wore it without one. I wonder if the dropped waist might work better if the waist itself was fitted closer and then I wore a petticoat to get it nearer to the original silhouette? Although then I sometimes feel self conscious in full 1950s style because it can feel a bit too much like being in costume.

If I do shorten the waistline it'll be by about two inches, I'm happy for the skirt to go a bit shorter as long as some of the fullness comes out, if the fullness stays I think the length needs to stay too.

Decisions decisions!

[Greybird]

I would keep the dropped waist - it might look out of proportion with the neckline if you raise it, and it looks to be a nice shape. Remove the skirt and then adjust the waist fitting. It shouldn't be too difficult to regather the skirt before sewing it back on - if you do two rows of gathering thread it should gather up evenly.

[Bodgeitandscarper]

Another vote for keeping the dropped waist, and re-gathering the skirt.  It's a super colour 

[UttaRetch]

A dropped wouldn't work for me, but the dress as far as it went looks fine on you.  I would concentrate on getting the dress finished in time for the the occasion rather than extensive remodelling.

[Sonatine]

Thank you so much for all of your comments! I tried it with a petticoat and while it looked much better, I felt incredibly uncomfortable in it. I'm not sure if there's actually going to be a way to get to something I'm happy with from the original pattern.
I'm tempted to leave salvaging this one for another time and just make something simple out of the offcuts for the party, I have a couple of tried and tested patterns I could run up quickly. Or the other option is a black strapless dress that only needs a zip putting in and hemming (started 3 years ago so not quite as old as the prom dress!). I don't really have much else in my stash or ufo pile that would do for this.
I have plenty of time to sew but I need to finish my partner's outfit too, although that can't be fitted until next week.

[Catllar]

Lucky to have options - in that case I'd finish the strapless number and go back to the blue when you really have time.

[Acorn]

I agree with Catllar - that is lovely fabric in your prom dress, and you will probably be very happy with something made from it if you have the time to think carefully about how to do it.  Black and strapless sounds good.   

[jen]

I actually love this as it is - have you thought of doing a bit of accessorizing or prettification around the neckline to banish the bad memories? Something like Vogue 1542?

[Sonatine]

jen I absolutely love the idea of doing something like V1542 on the neckline, that's beautiful! I've got plenty of the original fabric left to make embellishments for it.

The prom dress has been put away again until after Christmas to get it finished without a deadline, I really do love the fabric and I agree that it's worth fixing it properly.

I finished the black dress by hand (regretted that slightly with the 3m of hemming but it does look neat) and then found the dress I'd originally been planning to wear but thought I didn't have any more hiding at the back of my wardrobe! At least the black dress is finished though and it's the kind of thing that's always useful to have.

So now it's only my partner's outfit left to get made with a deadline, and then back on to the prom dress.