Costuming 3: Rosalind's Wedding Dress

The plan was to make three flapper dresses that could be used in the court scenes, then slightly altered for the wedding scene. After using an old sheet and some lining material to make some low-waisted knee-length dresses, I realized that this plan was going to be a lot of work. People also began mentioning flapper style dresses that they had and the two huge sequined dresses that I had also fueled my creativity.

To make a long story short, Rosalind, Celia, and Lady Frederick (Lord 1, in the script) had one set of dresses and Rosalind, Celia, Audrey, and Phebe had another set of dresses. We borrowed Rosalind and Celia's court dresses. I altered Lady Frederick's dress and Celia's wedding dress. I let Audrey use one of my dresses (which just so happened to be Phebe's wedding dress when I performed the play) and made Rosalind and Audrey's wedding dresses.

Searching for inspiration in the many boxes of material in our props room, I found some old tablecloths donated because they were stained. I brought them home, sprayed them with stain remover, and washed them. I then brought out my mother's dress form and began playing around. After draping fabric and pinning and re-pinning, I had a dress I was some what pleased with. Please remember that I had already made the under-dresses, so it wasn't just a lace dress.

Using half the tablecloth, I positioned the center of the table cloth in the center of chest. I then draped it so the hem was even and cut under the armholes. I held out the extra material in the back and pinned it closer fitting in the top, but gradually becoming the full width of the table cloth by the hem. Then using some of the other half of the table cloth, I made strips to go over the shoulders.

The trick was getting it off the dress form and sewn together. By neglecting my poor baby, I managed to get it done in about a day. It is accented with roses (hand sewn on by my loving mother) and a ribbon to cover up some mistakes. The ribbon ties in the back. I wanted to have good closings, but I had to settle for velcro because of the time crunch. I also don't know how I would get the closing I want without making an under-dress that I would attach the dress to, but since the dress has a back closure and the under-dress that I had made has a side closure, it didn't work with this one.

The finished product was a straight dress, with enough elegance to fit Rosalind's past, but enough simplicity to fit her current situation. Now that I have had time to look at it and think about it, I have a few things I would have done differently, but alas, Time has a way of doing that, but I know what to do if we ever use it in another 20's play.