Eli Ayase Ball Gown - Work Log Entry #1

Hey everyone! I'm with with Work Log Entry #1 for my build of Eli Ayase's Victorian Ball Gown from the anime Love Live! School Idol Project. Here's a reference photo of what I'm working on:

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, you may remember my last posts were reviewing the Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle wig from The Five Wits Wigs. This is the costume this wig will be used for! If you'd like to read my reviews of the wig, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

For the pattern, I'm modifying the McCall's Costumes M7213 pattern, which is based off of the live- action Cinderella film from 2015. 

The pattern is for a two-layered skirt (an underskirt, and an outer layer). My gown, however, has 3 layers - the bottom white/blue flowered tier (which you can just barely see in the reference photo but I found it on cosplay sites that are selling this gown), the pink/blue flowered tier, and the dark blue/light blue tier. And that is not counting the hoop skirt/petticoat, which I bought from Amazon and looks like this:

So this will be a BIIIIIIG dress. In my calculations, I've used about 23 total yards of fabric!

I started off with the bodice. I cut out 2 of each piece - one for the lining and one for the outer layer. I will add the fur trim to the straps and the navy blue section on the bust later. Eli's gown doesn't have a pointed waistline like the pattern, but I liked that look compared to the straight waistline so I decided to keep it. 

  

The bodice creation was pretty quick. The skirts are what took a VERY long time. Because I didn't want to spend a massive amount of money getting custom-pattern fabrics to be completely exact to the reference photo, I scoured my local Jo-Ann Fabrics to find the closest matches possible for the floral fabrics. I found a nice blue and white floral/fleur-de-lis fabric for the bottom tier and a pink and light blue floral fabric for the middle layer. Sorry this next photo is so dark! 😢

I started with the bottom fleur-de-lis layer. Using the first layer as a guide, I cut out the next pink/blue layer to be q few inches shorter. 

Now, the top layer took some additional measuring (and mistakes). Unlike the other layers, the light blue is sort of a trim onto the darker blue, so I needed to measure out the darker blue and then attach the light blue panels (rather than doing simply a light blue layer and a dark blue layer). I used the pink/blue layer as a guide, and then just pinned on light blue pieces and trimmed them. 

Here's what the skirt layers looked like laid out and before adding some additional panels:

I then sewed all the panels and pieces together, which took A LOT of time and a LOT of thread. The total width of the skirts is about 70 inches, which will be gathered to fit the 30 inch waist of the bodice. Side note: I don't yet have a serger, but this is the first project that I've used my sewing machine's zig zag stitch to stabilize the seams for a more professional look. Not as aesthetically-pleasing as you would get with a serger, but pretty good. 

My grandmother used to be an avid sewer, and so she had a lot of materials lying around that she doesn't use anymore, including a huge spool of lace trim. I added this to the bottom of all of the layers, and "serged" the seams. This also took a ton of time, but was so worth it because it added such a beautiful flair. 

 

And that's where I left off for now! I'll be attaching the skirt to the bodice over the weekend, and will check back in with my next work log! As always, feel free to contact me/comment with any questions!

- Birdie 💚