All Time Favorite Halloween Costume

I did it.

I made my dream Halloween costume: Molly Ringwald’s iconic dress from the 80’s movie Pretty in Pink. And it turned out better than I ever imagined!

I actually bought the fabric about 5 years ago, but never pulled the trigger. Some years I think I was just too drained with kids’ costumes and class partiers to give it a try, but as time wore on I was also really nervous to go for it. The fabric was really hard to find–especially the lace. It would be impossible to find the same lace as the dress in the movie, since it came from an actual vintage dress, but I knew that I would need a high quality lace to pull it off. For whatever reason, most of the pink lace I found looked super cheap like it came from a discounted Fredericks of Hollywood easy-tear-off-bodice line of lingerie. Therefore, I knew that if I botched the pattern, cut the fabric wrong–especially the lace which I had only the exact right amount for–that was it. In the words of Eminem, “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow this opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” 

I hear you Em. I hear you.

The other thing is that I had no pattern. I’ve been sewing for many years now, and I’ve made my own patterns before, but often I have something to base it off of, In this case, I had nothing. I scoured the internet, and found many women who had also recreated this dress–even a shop on Etsy that sells them–but no tutorials or patterns. In hindsight it turned out to be a good thing as I am really happy with the end result and maybe a tutorial wouldn’t have given me the dress I have today. Again… it all felt like such a huge gamble.

But slap my butt and call me Kenny Rogers because I was The Gambler and I won big time. (I’m really out of practice in my writing. Forgive me for this shoddy reference.) So while I wish I could give you a great tutorial, the truth is I can only give you tips because the entire process was simply trial and error.

Here are some photos of the process and of the end product.
Be sure to check out the tips at the end.

I created a stencil with my Silhouette cutting machine, and then hand painted all the polka dots on.

The entire dress started out HUGE and then I took it in as I went along.

Ta-da!

The best part about wearing this dress during Halloween time was running into women around my age who stop me, and exclaim “I LOVE YOUR DRESS!!!” One woman ran out of a bakery to talk to me about the dress, another woman asked for a selfie–Ha! It’s such a nostalgic dress for so many people, myself included. Although, many people actually hated the dress–including Molly Ringwald! She actually burst into tears when she first saw it.  However, now as time as passed she likes the dress. She said that she kept all the outfits from Pretty In Pink except the dress. Ugh! I wish she had it too.

The other best part is that I  tagged the costume designer who made the dress on Instagram, Marilyn Vance, and she not only commented back, but also reposted my video! She even told me I did a fabulous job! Made. My. Week. 

Tips: 
Go S L O W.
Don’t try to bust a project like this out in a day. The polka dot painting alone took 1.5 days. And I didn’t want to rush the sewing either so I wasn’t kicking myself for cutting something wrong, taking in too much at a time, and ruining the whole thing.

Give yourself LOTS of extra room.
My main strategy was to make the basic shape and then keep working my way in to a good fit. I cut everything really big and loose and then slowly brought it in as time went on. As you can see the sleeves were wildly out of control, as was the width and length.

Basting a’int just for Turkeys.
I don’t think I’ve ever sewn a dress together before actually sewing it together, but again part of my strategy was to baste the pieces together before I committed to making anything permanent. Again, slow and steady.

Put facing in the collar.
The collar holds a lot of weight of the dress, so it really helped to put a stiff facing in the middle to keep it upright.

Use a fabric with a little stiffness
I’m don’t know fabric super well-meaning I don’t know how different fabrics can affect the look and fit–but the fabric I used for was a poly taffeta and I think it was the perfect fabric for this project. It’s got a little hold, isn’t clingy and has some stretch.

If you have any questions about the dress or anything, feel free to ask away in the comments and I’ll try to answer!

XO, 
Miggy