The Swim Dress, as it’s called, was the first dress I made from Titanic. It’s not this dress, though. I made version #1 when I was 12, and it’s pretty… 12 year old. I cut some corners, and didn’t pay particularly close attention to the construction of the original dress in my re-creation. This one is a lot closer; the biggest corner was cut on the fabric. It’s made of pretty cheap fabric. I guess version #3 will be made of some nice silk chiffon. Sometime in the distant future.
I started with Simplicity #8399, the Titanic-inspired pattern they released around the time the movie came out. All things considered, it’s actually pretty close. It’s missing a few skirts, the gathers need to be shifted a bit, and the cut of the back of the bodice needs to be adjusted.
Here you can see the two different over skirts flying up, the one-piece one is underneath, and the two-pieces of the top over skirts are flying up on their own on each side.
Let’s start with the skirts. The pattern has three; an underskirt, a slightly shorter skirt over that, and an open over skirt that appears to form an overcoat with the over bodice. The original dress has five; three full-length skirts in descending lengths, and two over skirts. The under/over skirt goes all the way around, while the other is two pieces that open at the front and the back.
Next up, the gathers. This is easy. You just need to shift them around to the back of the dress to avoid the maternity look. This is easy peasy.
Here you can see the slats at the back.
Lastly, the back of the bodice. It needs to be diagonal. Just draw a line joining the top of the shoulder to the bottom of the bodice; you’ll be loosing part of the back of the bodice. Just leave enough at the bottom for seam allowance so you don’t just have a super pointy bottom bit that is really tricky to deal with.
I also removed the zipper from mine. The belt wraps around and ties over the pointed bottom back bits of the bodice. You can just shorten the zipper slats at the back of each skirt so they don’t dip down and show the entire world your bum.
I hand-dyed my fabric so I could get different shades of lilac, pink, and dusty blue. It was actually really easy—I just used a giant, black garbage can that was relatively new. Voila.
All these lovely photos of me frolicking in my dress were taken by my delightfully talented friend Hannah P.!
This is GORGEOUS! My daughter is 9, and in LOVE with Titanic….Do you make clothes on request? If so, how much would you charge to make this dress? She has asked me to be Rose from Titanic, and I simply don’t sew. Thank you!
Elizabeth; I don’t make clothes or costumes on request, but I would try a local seamstress; the Simplicity & Sensibility patterns for the Swim Dress are quite good and easy for a professional!
Sorry to comment on an old post but I found these images and they are just breathtaking. I thought the dress in the movie was beautiful but your wispy version is so beautiful. With the help of a sewing friend I’m going to try and put one together this year for our 15th year wedding vow renewal. Your posts and photos are the inspiration to modify the pattern and really make something great (hopefully)! Thank you for taking the time to share your creation with the world!
No worries, Lissa! There’s no such thing as an old post to me, it’s not like this is a current events blog 😛 I’m pretty sure you could have called this post old when I published it, given the movie was almost exactly 14 years old at the time, haha. Thank you so much for your kind words! This dress was truly a labor of love, and so worth it (though I would re-work the bodice for modesty over accuracy next time, lol—I’m not wearing a corset & petticoats under mine, so I can’t get away with as much). After I made this one I got a chance to see one of the originals at Titanic Belfast, and learned so much from it that I think I must make another someday (that’ll be #3…).
Have fun making your very own, and congratulations on your 15th wedding anniversary 🙂 I know you’ll feel like a princess in this gown. Thanks for reading!
I love the Swim dress! Thanks for the tips as it’s something to really think about when creating my own.
I saw one of the real ones at Titanic Belfast back in 2012… major life highlight!
I got engaged near the end of 2012 and decided I wanted to make the Titanic Swim Dress as my “getaway” dress for after my wedding reception. My wedding was on the June the 1st and I threw my getaway dress together in a little over a month. Thank you so much for your pictures & directions. ( I printed out your whole blog on this dress). You pretty much set up the groundwork for the set up of this sinking dress. I Shifted the gathers around to the back, added all 5 dress layers in descending order and my dress turned out “great”. 🙂 It could use some alternate work, but this was my very first sewing project.
Almost a year later, I have bought new chiffon fabric, & am already at work on a 2nd swim dress- this one with only 1 skirt & 1 overskirt. I plan to have this dress ready in time for my one-year anniversary & made ready to wear over my swimsuit at the beach. I am making the dress shorter and it will be the same lavender and white-blue chiffon colors, perfect for a hot day strolling the beach.
Thank you so much for your guidance, Marie. I couldn’t have made my wedding getaway dress without you.
What a lovely story, Ryann 🙂 I imagine Titanic-themed gowns will be a big part of my wedding, too, whenever that is. I’m so glad that my guide here was able to help you out. Did you use the Simplicity pattern? I actually got to see the real one in Belfast back in 2012, so now I’ve got to make another one as well—you can see so much in real life that just doesn’t come across on screen, like the precise details of the dye job, which is incredible. Sigh. Oh! Have you seen my updated swim dress? It might provide some inspiration for your new version 🙂
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me! I love hearing that Titanic costume love is still alive and well in the world 😉
Hi, it’s Jonathan from FB. Here’s my reply regarding the swim dress 🙂
Hi! Wow, thank you for that great and detailed reply! I really appreciate it! You’ve inspired me to pursue my interest of making the Swim Dress smile emoticon And yes, I intended on using polyester chiffon anyway for my first project, or maybe georgette or a chiffon-like fabric. Do you recommend I get a dress form mannequin to create around it for the proper sizing? And my grandmother thankfully has about 40 years of experience with sewing, and hopefully she’ll be able to help me smile emoticon that does sound a lot better than me simply working on it alone, doesn’t it? If worse comes to worse am I allowed to bring the Simplicity pattern of the swim dress to a seamstress/tailor and have them make it by following the pattern? Do you know if a tailor/seamstress usually offers this to customers? I intend on ordering the pattern off eBay and start slowly with cheap materials. Is there a cheaper chiffon-like pattern you recommend? smile emoticon I only intend on using silk when I’ve mastered the technique. And don’t worry, you gave me an excellent answer and good advice. I wouldn’t want to waste money on expensive fabric, either smile emoticon I intend on making the swim dress four layers like the original that Kate wore. I WAS simply going to buy a cosplay-designed costume of the swim dress on a website for $100, but it looked nothing like the beauty nor quality of the one in Titanic; so i thought I’d make it myself following the movie’s design. Thank you again for your reply! I appreciate it
If you have constant and easy access to you mom I’d just use her instead of a dress form 🙂 And it’s great that your grandma can help, it’s always good to have a person in your real life that you can get help from and show your problems to. I’m afraid I’ve never hired a seamstress so I’m not sure how that works, but it certainly seems like they should be fine with making a dress from a shop bought pattern. Good luck and have fun!
Hi Marie!
It’s me again, Jonathan from Facebook lol. Since I’ve been recovering from an injury I’ve had a lot more time to work on this project 😉 I bought some polyester fabric to start with a “sample” Swim Dress. I just have a question about the “shirt” part of the outfit, such as the sleeves. Would you say the original shirt part is made of georgette? Because if I were to use straight chiffon I’d imagine the arm areas would be too see-through. I’d love to make this costume as close to the movie’s in appearance. What do you think I should use as the upper-shirt part? What did you personally use?
Thanks 😉
Hey Jonathan! From what I could tell from my research it really does seem like the original counts on the undergarments that would be paired with this dress for some opacity; the bodice does seem to be alarmingly see-through on its own in the under-arm area! The bodice does have a sort of suspender/dickie sort of thing that covers the front of the bust and then goes across the back. Looking at this photo you can see two wide opaque straps coming over the shoulders and down to the bottom of the bodice, but they doesn’t appear to wrap around under the arms to meet the opaque front part. Or perhaps they do, but in a different colour? It’s hard to tell from the available photos.