The Snow Queen: Building the Dress

When I heard that the theme for the Longest Night's Ball was "Fire and Ice" images of pale blue and silver make-up sprang into my head.  I immediately knew what I wanted to do.  Of course I had to go with the difficult choice.  I have a plethora of red dresses, my hair is red, I've got loads of red and orange make-up.  I could have done fire at no cost and it wouldn't have taken me any extra effort to get a costume together.  Maybe it's because I wanted an excuse to sew or maybe it's my love affair with Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen but I became driven to create an icy look.

The first thing I thought about was a silver dress.  I wanted something silky and sultry, something that had a liquid quality to it.  I wanted a dress that was old Hollywood level of classy.  Imagine Yvonne's dress from Stardust:

Now finding dress really wasn't that hard.  You do a Google search for silver ball gowns and you will undoubtedly find one that fits your needs, and I did.  The problem was money.  I knew ultimately that I would have to find something cheap and make due.  My first try was Ross.  Occasionally they have some really nice dresses but this time there were none that had the look that I wanted.  Then I decided to go by Goodwill.  I thought maybe a wedding dress could be altered to fit my needs though I really didn't want white.  Then there is always the off chance that they will have exactly what you are looking for.  I went through all of the dresses to no avail then I turned around, ready to leave empty handed, when I saw:

It was the right color, it had the right flow.  The only problem that I had was that it was a nightgown.  This means that it hits several inches above the ankle, but I figured that for three dollars I could work with it.

The original Mab dress design

At first I was a little uninspired.  I couldn't think of how I wanted to dress it up and make it, not only a full length gown, but something that didn't look like something you wear to bed.  Then I remembered a costume I designed some time ago for a Queen Mab look that I never got to make.  I had planed to make it from two old dresses of mine.  One was a white Renaissance gown based off of Ewoyn's dress from LOTR and the other was a junior bridesmaid's dress from my godmothers wedding which was made out of really pretty grey-blue raw silk. 


I had already deconstructed both gowns and sewn a 5 panel skirt together out of the white fabric.  It was a little short but I had already thought to add a ruffle to the bottom of the night gown to make it the length I wanted.  This wasn't a bad idea but it would have flowed strangely due to the type of fabric it was made from.  Instead I would sew a ruffle onto the bottom of the white skirt which would also help with the problem of sheerness.  I started making the ruffle last night.  It's not difficult but involves a lot of hand pleating, but you'll get the general idea from the photos.

The white will show a bit at the hem.  I wanted to add the blue into the color scheme with a hint of white.  It's hard to see in the pictures but the white fabric is actually textured and it's not paper-white either.  It's actually quite pretty.


I plan to use the silk to cover the current straps of the dress and make little cap sleeves.  I also plan to add a belly dance chain and some lace/beading as a drape on the arms like depicted in the original Mab dress design.  I'm trying to decide if I want to add a drape of some sort of the white fabric over the dress to create almost a Regency feel but I haven't decided. 

I shall post more progress as it comes along.  Hopefully I'll figure out some better lighting to take photos in.  Sadly I have nothing to put it on, like a dress form, so hangers will have to do.  I'm very excited and I think it will be quite lovely. 

Still to come: Even more building!  Make-up and hair!  The finished look!