Anyone who is familiar with the costumes of Titanic will immediately notice that I took some liberties with this costume. Out of all of Rose’s costumes in Titanic, I believe the Lunch Dress has the honour of being the nastiest colour. Sorry to any fans of that particular shade of nausea-inspired green, but there you have it. So I went with a beautiful dusty blue silk, under woven with golden yellow.
Rose’s dress is also extremely lacy. I am just not that big of a fan of lace, so instead of four tiers of it, I went with one (also allowing that beautiful silk to show itself off a little more).
These changes are, however, quite small, and if you really want a green and lacy version, you’ll have no trouble making one by following these instructions.
Here’s the original. As you can see, it’s an empire-waist dress with a fairly narrow skirt. The bodice is fit using princess seams (the fit is far too smooth for gathers or darts), and has fairly wide short sleeves (I choose to eliminate the sleeves). The over bodice is lace, and there are full-length under sleeves, also lace, with a light ruffle at the wrist.
The skirt is simple, flaring out from the hips enough for mobility, but not much more. The over skirt is four layers of lace, alternating in edge finishes, each sewn to the bottom of the previous layer to avoid excess bulk.
For my dress, I combined three patterns. First, I needed an empire waist gown with a fairly narrow skirt and a princess-seam fitted bodice. I used McCalls 2810. I used it for the bodice, the skirt, and the over skirt.
For the bodice overlay I used the quintessential Titanic pattern; Simplicity 8399.
The “swim dress” over bodice worked nicely, I just had to angle the front and back bodice lines into the center.
The last pattern you’ll need is for the sleeves and ruffle/flare. I can’t find the pattern I used, but it was something like Simplicity 5561 C. The main things you’ll be looking for are a sleeve that isn’t gathered at the shoulder, and a ruffle/flare thing that you actually like. Lengthen if necessary.
The dress is pretty easy to assemble. The over dress, sleeves, and over bodice are made from lace. Make sure to use french seams on all the lace. Try and find a lace with a nice edge to use for the hem of the over skirt. Attach the two skirts at the waistline.
I like to use hooks and eyes for closure (more era appropriate), but feel free to use a zipper if you want.
The sash is very easy. Figure out how wide you want the sash to be, double it, and add 2cm for seam allowance. That’s your width. Measure your under-bust line, add 2cm seam allowance, and that’s your length.
Assemble the sleeves, and attach them to the bodice. Assemble the over bodice, and attach to bodice at the under the bust line. Stitch the bodice and skirts together. Tack the sash on, making sure to catch only the back layer of the sash so the stitching doesn’t show. Use hooks and eyes to fasten the sash at the back.
I have followed through most of your Titanic posts and have really enjoyed them. I just stumbled across your blog while looking for a recipe for Tiger Balm,(I really like yours BTW) and discovered your interest in costumes. I too love costuming, but feel rather silly wearing them since I am a wife and mom and my life is spent on a homestead with little need for lace and foibles. I do however take the opportunity to “dress up” when I am sure not to be caught by my husband or sons… like when they take a weekend to go camping or hiking… Then I break out my favorite movies, (Titanic is one of course, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice as well), set the table with some of my fine bone china, (mostly eclectic and collected from serendipitous Goodwill finds), and don one of my vintage dresses or a costume dresses that I have made over the years. I will have tea and watch my movies while wearing my finery… seems kind of sad I know, but I do love to play dress up, even at my age 🙂 I think it is great that you follow your passion and are kind enough to share them with us.
My blogs which are about Homesteading and Mailart are my attempts to share with a larger circle than my daily world permits. http://www.aviewfromthecottage.blogspot.com is about our life at Heart’s Ease Cottage. http://www.artofaletter.blogspot.com is about letter writing and Mailart. I would invite you to come for a visit if ever you find the time, I would love a visit! I will put your blog on my blogroll along with some others on costuming so that other interested parties can find your lovely blog. Who knows, maybe someday I will find the courage to post about my closeted passion for costume…you have been an inspiration! Thanks again Elle
Hello,
I have been trying to find how to make this dress for a while and I haven’t been able to find anything. How would I go about doing it almost exactly like this dress?
Casey—This entire article is about how to make the dress…? If it doesn’t make much sense to you, I’m guessing you haven’t done much sewing before. If that’s the case, I’d really recommend you do some intro sewing first so you can sort out the instructions here. The gist of it is that I pieced together a bunch of different patterns, and modified ’em as needed. And I’m the person you emailed at Make-it-Count.org, and this article is really all I’ve got for how-tos on this dress. Hope that helps!
How many approximate yards of silk did you use? And how many of lace? Thank you for such a detailed look at how you made this lovely dress! (and I realize this was two years ago, but I just found your blog. 🙂 )
I think it was about 3m of each, though, as you say, it’s been a few years… and that’ll depend on your size/height as well. If you want to do the original tiering of the lace for the skirt, you’ll need quite a bit more. Have fun with it & check out all my other Titanic costumes up here 🙂 My Dinner Dress is probably my fave!
your dress is so beautiful, more than rose’ one.. I love your blog but I will never be able to make such a dress, cause I cant sew and also havent got the time. Why dont you sell them? It would be awesome and a dream come true.
greetings from austria
Thanks so much, Conny! I never was a big fan of that shade of green, lol. I don’t sell my dresses because I can’t imagine anybody would ever pay me enough to make it worth my time. People are so used to buying clothes made from cheap materials by people being paid next to nothing that a price tag north of $5,000 tends to make people balk. Plus, I work more than full time, and I run this blog, so I don’t really have the time to sew for myself, let alone other people these days 🙁
Hi Marie,
Just wanted to say ALL of your Titanic recreations are phenomenal! I was interested in creating the Swim Dress using the Simplicity 8399 Pattern. The materials I intend on using are those of the original are made of; silk chiffon and satin. I also intend on using the same colors for the dress (light purple and pinks, etc.) I’m no expert at sewing, but I do greatly want to make the Swim Dress for my sister as she loves Titanic. If I were to make the dress using the Simplicity pattern, would it be fairly difficult in general? Is this pattern novice and for patient beginners? If worst comes to worst I may have to go to a local seamster and have them follow the pattern and make it…Any tips on making the Swim Dress for a beginner in sewing like me?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Jonathan! If you’re a newbie to sewing, I’d be pretty wary of working with such expensive fabrics. The pattern itself isn’t too difficult (or accurate, for that matter—the bodice is quite wrong and it’s missing a lot of skirts), but working with chiffon and satin can be quite tricky. Cutting chiffon is really quite unenjoyable as it’s so light and easily shifts. I made my first swim dress from some pretty cheap chiffon (polyester or nylon, I imagine… it’s been 10+ years) and even then it was quite irksome (but at least any mistakes wouldn’t cost me $70+ in new fabric). Also, if you want the dress to be accurate to the film, you’re looking at dip-dying the skirts. I’ve seen the original (it’s amazing!) and it’s mostly white, with the different layers dip-dyed pinks and lavenders, which fade up to white. It’s a stunning effect that doesn’t really come across in the movie.
I don’t mean to be discouraging, just honest. You might want to try a version with some less expensive materials and see how that goes. I’ve made the swim dress twice now, and the second is definitely better than the first, but I’d still like to make yet another since seeing the original!