Fashion Lab: Frankencoat

My husband named this project “Frankencoat” because it is actually a dress with pieces of other garments, plus fabric, sewn onto it. It may be used as a costume for a youth production of the Broadway (musical) version of Little Women. Or it may not.

Initially planned to be a hag dress, the gray tweed was deemed too nice by the director. At the same time, I was struggling to come up with ladies coats in the shape I wanted; most modern wool coats (at least the ones we can afford to use for costumes) are boxy and shapeless. So was the dress.

Here’s what I did:

1. split the dress up the front and cut off the bottom. The extra off the bottom became the little cape effect thing below the collar.
2. Next I took the top of a black velvet dress I had found, which wasn’t being used for anything. The top may actually end up being used now, I didn’t have to cut through the zipper and I serged around the bottom to keep it from fraying. Making a seam at the waist of the dress, I attached the full black velvet skirt to the inside. Then I sliced up the dress to allow the black velvet to show. How hack is that?
3. A sleeveless vest with fake fur trim donated the toggle closures.
4. Some random velvet I had laying around (for what purpose, who knows?) covers the collar, trims the little cape thing, and fills in as a faux back half-belt.
5. Lesson: baste everything first! Can you imagine having to take out little stitches from this stretchy fabric? And tweed?

There it is. One of the reasons I haven’t been around much. (I had hoped to get this posted in time for the fabulous festival on costumes at dramatis personae. Perhaps she’ll have mercy on me.)

What do you think?  I’m happy I made it, but this may be the most daylight (or spotlight) it ever sees.  😉