How I Made my Glinda from Wicked Costume

So things have finally begun to settle down in my life, so I can now get back to updating my blog regularly. I promised a while back to list the resources I used to make my Glinda dress. It does require some pattern making, but with a measuring tape, paper, pencil and a little bit of patience, it wasn't all that difficult. It was definitely time consuming in the end, but not hard.

First things first, how did i make the bodice? To me the costume looks like a fully boned underbust corset, so that's exactly what I made. I found this wonderful blog with detailed instructions on how to draft an underbust corset to your measurements. She also goes on to explain how to construct it. Here are the links:

Pattern Tutorial
Construction Tutorial

I bought my corset materials from two places. First, the boning I bought from corsetmaking.com. I also used coutil in the construction of my corset. Coutil is a fabric made specifically for corsets, as it does not stretch and it really is the best thing you can possibly use. I adhered the yellow satin to the coutil using Pellon Wonder Under prior to cutting the pattern pieces. The best price I found for coutil was on Etsy.

After I completely finished the corset, I added the top portion of the bodice. Here I did use a store bought pattern, but it was something I already had on hand. Butterick 5029. I believe it's out of print now, but it's readily available on ebay. I slightly modified the top and then sewed it directly to the corset. If I did this again, I would go head a make an entire dress and not attach it to the corset. It would have been much more comfortable. In other words, I would just construct this pattern, but change the skirt to a handkerchief skirt.

Finally, I did make a skirt. I followed the instructions in this tutorial, but instead I used 3 layers of fabric instead of 2. I made the swirly design by cutting a slightly darker chiffon into approximately 1 inch strips. I found if I cut the strips on the bias they would fray less. I then ran the strips through my sewing machine on the widest stitch possible and then gently gathered them. The gathered strips I then pinned and hand stitched to the skirt.

The fabric I used was all bought online from New York Fashion Center Fabrics. I have used them several times and their quality is excellent. I bought about 4 yards of the silk chiffon in light yellow, 1 yard in lemon, and about 4 yards of the polyester crepe back satin in bright yellow.

One quick tip this project taught me about chiffon having not used it before. Cutting is best done by first laying out the fabric on tissue paper and then pinning it to the paper, to allow layers to be cut as one. Otherwise your chiffon will move and become deformed as you cut it.

Obviously there are some little construction details I've left out since this was more of an overview, so please do not hesitate to ask me questions. :)