Fairy Dress
The dreamy music and the twinkling sparkles drew me in right away. The dress felt so ethereal and looked like a dream and I’m very certain millions of other girls also swooned over THE dress of the summer. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, it’s the viral Fairy Dress by Mirror Palais. Upon seeing it, I knew it would be a recreation I had to do. Over the summer I had a week off and with the restrictions in place around the world, I decided on a sew-cation. Yes, a sew-cation (defined as a stay-at-home vacation that consists of non-stop sewing). The result of a week’s hard work was THE dress of my dreams fitted to my body with all the modifications I wanted from the original. Read on for insights into my creation process!
Forewarning: I will not be providing a pattern for this but general instructions to figure out how to get a pattern that will fit you! It’ll take a bit more work, and I do recommend drafting a mock first but it will be well worth the extra time. Alternatively, I’ll leave some links to patterns that I think are similar by other creators that you can Frankenstein into the Fairy Dress that would be perfect for you!
TIME | multiple days
COST | $$
DIFFICULTY | hard
Tiktok video for some night time sparkle ✨
What you’ll need
1-1.5m Sparkly mesh
1-1.5 lining fabric (I used Brazil knit)
Invisible zipper
Rhinestone chain (ss12)
Clear elastic
Boning
Knit sewing needle
Matching thread
Video Tutorial
General Pattern
I struggled to find a pattern to use for this project, so it took a bit of hacking and self drafting to get the fit right. I ended up making multiple toiles of the bustier section of the dress to ensure good fit. If you are able to find a bustier pattern that fits you well, I would recommend using that as a base to draft a pattern. The rest of the dress is a simple A-line shape which you can flare out or opt for a more straight cut.
If you are a 32A or smaller you can try using my pattern to recreate the dress. But be warned that I did end up taking in the sides for the final dress so you may have excess fabric but the cups should work fairly well. I would recommend a toile to check for fit!
Bustier top resources:
Milla Bralette - I used this to help the middle seam of the cups to get the right depth.
Bra tutorial - this is a great video if you want to learn more about bra construction. It helped me understand how to sew in the cups and channeling properly.
Steps
Cut out all pieces in the lining, glitter mesh fabric, and foam.
Sew together the foam pieces with a zig-zag stitch.
Sew the cups in the lining and glitter mesh fabric, making sure to line up the notches.
Cut v-slits into the seam allowance of the cups to allow for ease and iron flat.
Layer up the cup pieces and hand tack down the curved bottom edge and down the center seam.
Hand tack together the front lining piece and outer shell.
Pin and sew the cups.
Cut and sew channeling to the under-bust to the seam allowance from Step 7.
Trim excess seam allowance, flip to the front, and topstitch the channeling to hide the seams, secure and create the underwire channel.
Insert the underwires.
Sew in the invisible zipper with interfacing and boning to help support the back of the dress.
Finish the center back seam of the dress by sewing together the lining and outer fabric separately. Make sure the seams face each other on the inside.
Sew the side seams of the dress together, starting with the lining fabric; adjust for fit.
Add in boning channels on the sides of the dress
Sew the outside side seams.
Finish off the top of the dress by hand tacking down the fabric where it sits on top of the foam cups and machine sew the rest with the clear elastic with a zig zag stitch along the back and sides.
Hem the dress, sew a hemline half an inch shorter on the lining fabric and trim the outer fabric, no need to hem but you can if you’d like! The outer layer should be slightly longer.
Add on the rhinestone chain, starting with the chain going around the underbust and transforming into the main strap.
Put on a podcast or a Netflix series, continue to hand stitch the rest of the rhinestone chain to the dress to complete!
