Dark Sansa Stark Cosplay Progress: Part 3 - Basic Dress

Dark Sansa Stark Cosplay Progress: Part 3 - Basic Dress

For this part, I will be doing a brief walk-through of making the basic dress of the my Sansa Stark costume. I am using the Simplicity 1137 and I will be assuming that if you are following along with this tutorial/progress post then you will be using the same so I am not going to go through each step of the pattern's instructions. Mainly what I am going to be doing is talking about my adjustments to make the dress pattern better.  

Step 1: Desired Adjustments to Simplicity 1137 Pattern

Although the pattern gives a pretty good starting point for the dress there are some differences to the one seen in the show. Below you can see the Front and Back Views of the pattern. I am using Dress B. 

I use the collar pattern in Part 2 and today, I will be talking about the dress potion. As you can see, the pattern breaks down Sansa's dress into a simple, sleeveless black dress and the feathered long-sleeve jacket.

My desired alterations are: the dress opening, the sleeves, and the feathered bits.

For the dress opening, I want to take it from the back to the front. As you can see in my reference photo below, Sansa's dress opens up in the front. The pattern will need to be modified to do so. 

For the sleeves, I will be taking them away from the jacket and adding them to the dress. Basically I will be left with a vest of feathers instead of a jacket of feathers. I am doing this for ease of cleaning the outfit. Once feathers are added to the article of clothing, I won't be able to wash it. Cons get hot and I would very much like to be able to wash my outfit between the Con days to avoid being one of those smelly cosplayers. So by adding the sleeves to the dress, instead of the jacket, I will be able to wash everything except for the feather vest.

That brings me to the feather placement. As stated above the feathers on her chest will be a vest instead of the jacket. The second feather adjustment will be the feathers at the end of the sleeves. I don't want to have these permanently attached to the sleeves so that I can wash the outfit, so I will be making feathered cuffs that attach to the sleeves.

Step 2: Putting Pattern Alterations into Action

My alterations are broken into three groups: dress opening, sleeve, and feather placement. The last two are very straight forward. For the sleeves, sew them on the dress instead of the vest. For the feathers, don't sew them onto the sleeves. BAM done. 

For the dress opening, this requires a bit of more work. It wasn't anything terrible so don't fret. What you are going to do it add an inch to the middle of the front of the dress and sew up the back without a zipper. Easy peasy. I will highlight that changes during the next steps.  

Step 3: Cutting Out Pattern

For this portion of the project, you will be cutting out the following pieces:

1(1A) - Front

2 - Side Front

3(3A) - Back

4 - Side Back

5 - Front Facing

6 - Back Facing

7 -  Sleeve

For 1 & 3, they have an additional piece 1A & 3A that add length to the dress. These are very crucial to your dress not looking funky as heck, so make sure to use them. I just lines up the handy dandy markers on the pattern and taped 1 & 1A and 3 & 3A together.  

Now that the pattern pieces were all cut out, I knocked out cutting the fabric. I kept the fabric with the pattern so that I didn't mix up the pieces, mainly Side Front and Side Back.

Pieces 5 & 6 require interfacing to be cut and I used Pellon fusible featherweight for this.

ALTERATION:This is where we make a new opening for the dress. We will be adjusting the Front - 1(1A) when cutting out the fabric. Add an inch to the center fold before cutting. Then cut down that center fold so that you have two pieces.

Step 4: Sewing It All Together

I simply followed the sewing instructions provided with the pattern to put it all together. There were a few differences. 1) Instead of sewing in a zipper at the back, I joined the Back pieces together. 2) I attached the sleeves to the dress instead of the jacket.

Step 5: Making Front Opening Look Pretty

For the opening, I folded the edge over and pressed it.

Then I folded it over again and pressed that fold.

Next, I went ahead and sewed it down.

Much nicer edge, and it will allow me to attach clasps/hooks when I determine what closures to use.

Step 6: Fitting My Dress

After I got the basic dress put together, I fitted the dress to myself. Below is the final result.

There is a slight gap in the front because the chest of the dress form is a bit larger than my chest. The opening looks better when it is on me. 

Also, there will be an underskirt like the one below for my finished product, so it won't be as opened.

And there you have the basic dress. I haven't quite figured out closures to the dress front, but I will make a post on the closures once I determine how the vest will fit over the dress.  

Coming Soon: "Part 4: Feather Vest Construction"