Happy New Year 2010! Everyone makes a fishtail dress.

Happy New Year, everyone!  This year IS going to be a great year, I have decided.  So there!  The dress that I made this year made meI realize that I REALLY need to go fabric shopping for "nice" material.  You know how it is when you have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear?  I have a wall of fabric and no material to use!

For New Year's Eve, Trina is going to be a lounge singer.  I saw the scene from "White Cristmas" (it was on for a full 24 hours on Christmas Eve) called, "Love, you didnt' do right by me."  In it, Rosemary Clooney's character wears a mermaid dress with a full skirt that starts high in the back and lower in the front.  You can tell that she doesn't have that much mobility in the dress, bit it looks fabulous.

I put together this combination of vintage fabric with less expensive broadcloth for the "fishtail."

  The material for the top part is amazing.  There is metallic thread woven into the fabric to make it look glittery without the hassle of glitter flaking all over the place.  Love it.  I also used as a trim, a metallic and faux pearl ribbon also found in the vintage box. 

I wanted to make use of Trina's alternate leg (compare and contrast the alternate and original) by making a long dress that was tight at the knees, so I went with a mermaid silhouette.  I wanted to make it a little different, though, as usually mermaid skirts are either straight across or angles to tip up at the front. So that is why I chose to try the high-in-back approach.

I love the top part because the fabric is awesome and fits like a glove.  And I also think that the mini bolero is preshe.

Do not quite love everything of my dress, though, to tell the truth, but it was a good learning experience.  The lower part, I was afraid if I made it any higher in the back, it would look like the skirt was coming OUT of her butt.  But in retrospect, I think it I should have done it higher for a more dramatic contrast and let the people with nasty minds fend for themselves.  With the two layers composing it for fullness, there is 16 yards of fabric down there!  I could (should) have used netting or crinoline for the underlayer, but didn't have any, but of course, I'm not whining about needing to go fabric shopping again.  No, I am not.

And with absolutely no segue, here is a picture of all of my girls in formalwear because it IS New Year's Eve, after all, and they have a party to go to that is just as real as they live and breathe.