Steampunk Belle Dress & Accessories

Just finished my latest project, another commissioned steampunk dress. This time it was Steampunk Belle from Beauty and the Beast! My client gave me lots of input about what she was looking for and I came up with this sketch.

I looked around for a pattern that could serve as a base, and decided on McCalls 7050.

The pattern was very straight forward and simple to put together. I added a bit of chiffon to the bust, and raised the cutoff along the bottom a bit to match the sketch.

The skirt used quite a bit of fabric! Fortunately this silkessence fabric was very light and pretty easy to work with.

I played around with placement of the chiffon wrap around the hips and sleeves before proceeding.

Once I was satisfied, I added a petticoat underneath, which added that volume I was hoping for!

Then I started playing with pickups on the front, as well as a fabric rose embellishment.

Finally, I was able to start adding the final details. One was the Belle "swag" on the skirt, which took me a little while to figure out. I had planned on using the chiffon, but when I tried it out I just didn't like how it was hanging, and found it distracting.

So I went with the same gold fabric and liked that much better.

Then I added the sleeves, and started adding the steampunk details with gears and such at the center bust, on the swag pickups, and in the center of the rose.

And then she was done!!

I also made some gloves to go with it, using McCalls 7397 as a base.

Now, we had talked about these being made of brown lace. Guess what I couldn't find anywhere?? So first I had to dye some lace, which worked perfectly!

The pattern again was simple to follow! I added more steampunk details, and also a lace ruffle around the edge, based on details the client wanted.

And finally, I made a fascinator using more of the dyed lace, some of the gold fabric, some tulle, gold feathers, and more steampunk accessories. This was SO FUN to make and makes me want to make more!

And that was it. She'll be wearing a corset over the dress, which will be great, I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing together!