Celes Chere (Ball Gown) - Final Fantasy 6

Worn by: Dahlia Complete: June 2006 Status: Active Photos: 1-22, 24, 25 by Laura @ just-a-dream.net.  26, 30 by Sleepy, 23, 28-29, 32-33 by Eurobeat King, 31 by i360.

Dahlia has had her eye on this costume for quite a while, and an excuse finally came along to make it when she needed a gown to wear over the corset she was working on (that, and she wanted something oh-so lovely to wear to AX's Masquerade Ball!)

After hunting high and low for the perfect fabric for this dress, Dahlia's mother finally offered up an old pair of curtains which were EXACTLY what she was looking for. Originally, she intended to make the entire dress (bodice, overskirt, underskirt) out of the same material, but the curtains were only so big and in order to do so, she would have to sacrifice a significant amount of fullness in the skirts. Instead, she used an off-white bridal brocade for the underskirt and used every last inch of the curtains for the remainder of the dress. For patterns, she used Butterick's Marie Antoinette pattern on the bodice which was nearly perfect and required minimal altering. The skirts were just rectangular panels sewn together and then pleated in at the waist.

The corset was Dahlia's favorite piece and also the most time-consuming.  She used a peach coutil for the face fabric, white duck cloth for the interfacing, polka-dotted cotton for the lining, and spiral steel for the boning. (All corsetting materials were purchased from corsetmaking.com.)  This was her first foray into corsetting, and Dahlia is proud to say she is now a hopeless addict.

The rest of the costume consists of a purchased hoopskirt and the wig, which was a real learning experience (from now on she'll stub and weft--no more trying to pull an entire wig into a nice, neat ponytail!).