I recreated the dress! Ophelia 2018 Teal Costume

 

You might recall that a year ago (plus a little extra time) I had said I was going to make this dress. Well, I finally did. It stretched a lot of skills, and added new ones, and I used a different pattern overall as the base...but it is about 95% finished and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out! 

Hours of work: 40+

Fabric: 7 yards teal crinkle voile cotton, 5 metres of patterned sari silk.

Pattern used: Butterick 4827

Pattern modifications: altered so closure of spiral lacing was in front, added front facing, and remade the sleeves so the seam was on the top. 

I really can't explain all the lunatic steps I had to take to make the gown resemble the one in Ophelia. What I can say is that the bodice area is fully lined in teal cotton, all the seams are finished, and the complete width ("52, I believe) of the cotton voile is used in the side panels. There are only four seams on the outside if the dress, two in front, two in back, but the fitted bodice lining has six in total. 

The sleeves have three parts: 1. A fitted sleeve lining, 2. Cotton voile gathered and sewn to the lining, 3. A strip of silk backed with lining cotton for the sleeve panel, that runs from the top edge of the sleeve to the wrist. The sleeves need a raw edged ribbon added down the edges of that panel, still to come. The dress also needs me to finish stitching down the side volume "pleats", and buy handsewn silk cord for the side lacings. I also need to shorten each length of the silk belt, it is much too long! 

I learned how to sew hand finished eyelets for the spiral lacing and use a tapestry needly to assist lacing when getting into it. I may or may not add some teal raw silk panels to the long, floor length sleeves. The film indicates that there are such panels but I don't really see how they add to the finished dress. I also, like the original designer, made those long draped sleeves removable. It's waaaay easier getting into the dress without them, lol.

Please pardon that in the photos the bust looks odd. The lacings were correctly measured, but I need to find a good garment to wear underneath. Something that lifts up, methinks. I also needed to stitch down those side pleats, hence the funny balloon look. I will fix the issues and next time photos are taken all should be well.

The Choice - Ophelia Waterhouse Gown

And the winner is:

Stylish Fabric with their Teal 52" pleated poly cotton voile, upper left corner. As you can see, the Crushed Taffeta in Teal by Big Z Fabric (upper right) is too blue, and too shiny. The selection by Mood Fabric has a good Accordian Pleated Teal Chiffon, but I feel it is too thin and the pleats too big for Ophelia's dress.

More about the dress, as well. The designer for Ophelia's costumes is Massimo Cantini Parrini, an Italian "Fashion Archaeologist". You can read an article Vogue did about him: Vogue on Ophelia's Costumer.

He was drawn to Waterhouse and other Pre- Raphaelite artist, jewel tones and inspired by the famous Delphos style dresses by Mariano Fortuny. It was so ironic when I read that in the article, I went and dug out one of my MANY costume resource books and thumped it open to the page on the Delphos dress. Here is an example of one such Fortuny Delphos:

These dresses are gorgeous, I recommend checking out another Vogue article on Fortuny: From Invention to Eternity You can see how the pleated underdress and side laced overdress inspired Parrini!

There was one other possibility for my rendition of Ophelia's dress, and that was an Accordian Pleated Teal velvet. I felt this would be too heavy and I was unable to acquire a swatch beforehand. So I guess cotton voile it is!

2018 Ophelia Dress Costume Fabric

Swatch next to "motif" fabric

So one swatch arrived! It looks great next to the "motif" fabric, they are practically identical in color. Pardon the funny lighting in my photo, I have very poor light in my room and must make do as I am able.

Pros: Color match and pre-crinkled.

Cons: It's cotton, and rather costly per yard.

I will have to see what the next swatch is like, as it's a crinkle taffeta in teal and I think that light gloss taffeta has would match the shimmer in the "motif".

On a downside, the really lovely sequin teal chiffon I was admiring does not have a swatch option. Do I take the plunge and buy it hoping that it's a match? Or do I not? Decisions, decisions... It's a smaller quantity because it will only be used on the sleeves, but still...

When to sew, when to cease

Ophelia Aesthetic

I can recall being quite young, maybe eight years old, when I first saw Shakespeare on the screen. It was glorious and opulent and tragic!

Okay, I was watching Wishbone's Romeo and Juliet (Rosie, Oh Rosie), but it still made an impression! More to the point, Juliet's dress made an impression. It was lovely! Since then, I've had a fondness for costumes in Shakespearean productions and paintings inspired by his work. Some of my favorite include Waterhouse's depictions of Ophelia, her hair long and red and her blue gown so striking.

And then, like a miracle, Daisy Ridley played HER, as Waterhouse painted the doomed maiden. Her gown was magnificent, and I knew in my ongoing haze of madness (brought on by exhaustion, stress, loneliness and chocolate pudding), that I must make it! So I followed the steps below.

Step 1. Look at every promo shot of Daisy's Ophelia.

Step 2. Agonize over the construction.

Step 3. Look at fabric online.

Step 4. Look at MORE fabric online.

Step 5. Despair at not finding the fabric.

Step 6. Eat chocolate pudding.

Step 7. Remember Sari/Saree fabric option.

Step 8. Locate fabric in form of Sari/Saree.

Step 9. Buy fabric and celebrate with popcorn.

Step 10. Repeat Steps 3-9, more fabric needed.

Thankfully, I have a pattern I think will work for the main construction with heavy modification (some medieval maiden McCalls or Butterick thing produced around the time Prince Caspian landed in theaters). But yes, I have what I'm going to call the teal "motif" part of the dress fabric, the crinkly pleated teal part that is the voluminous side panels and sleeves I do not have. I ordered a swatch of some crinkly stuff on Etsy, and have found a REALLY nice crinkly teal sheer fabric with sparsely spaced sequins on it. It may be less accurate to what Ophelia's dress had in the sleeves but it is so pretty! I like a little magical sparkle sometimes. I may order a swatch of that, too.

Anyhow, my teal motif fabric is soft and shimmery, with that slightly darker tinted teal for the round medallion design. It is not 100% accurate to what was used in Ophelia, which I'm guessing was either made just for that film or very rare and expensive stuff. I am not an endless show of wealth, but I can drop $40 on a silky length of 5 or so yards of cloth every so often. And I really lucked into this! The design is a tad bigger on mine, and the medallion repeat is staggered, but the texture and color and overall look are right so who cares? I'm not going in for an *accurate to within a thread count* costume, just something pretty like the original. And can we take a moment to "Oooo" and "Ahhh" over those detachable sleeves, please?

Anyway, Phase 1 of Ophelia dress begun! Check back soon for a fabric shopping progress update!

And when in doubt, remember Sari/Saree fabric!