How many square feet of cloth to make one standard dress?

[tuxedosam]

I have a very bad notion of sizes and sense of measurements. If I am to buy cloth to make a custom standard dress, how many square feet of cloth do I need to get?

Let's say I am about 5'7" tall and I am hoping to make a standard dress of about 3 layers (for the skirt) and a hanging scarf on one of my arm and some bracelets out of the same material.

Has anyone have experienced buying fabrics from Chrisanne website? Does anyone understand what they mean by "price per metre"? Are they talking about square meter? Or does that mean the piece of fabric you get is 1m x 1.12m?:
LUXURY GEORGETTE (Width 112 cm; price per metre)

Thanks a lot!

[Chris Stratton]

Fabric is made at a fixed width - in the US often anywhere from 45 to 60 inches, and then you buy it by length. It looks like the UK frabric you are looking at is 44 inches wide, you would need slightly fewer meters than yards.

The first answer to how much you will need is lots and lots!

Really though, you will need an estimate from whoever is going to make the gown. They will have to take the width into account too, not only to figure the total, but because the pieces to be cut may not fit the width well, resulting in waste. Also, if the fabric is stretch, that impacts the layout (usually stretchier direction goes around the body, less stretch direction vertically). And style matters a lot too - if you have a seam at the waist, that usually lets you cut the pieces out of less fabric than if you don't. Finally some fabrics have a nap, which means that you have to cut all the pieces out the same way - you can't turn some upside down to make them fit better.

And mutlilayer skirts often use a different fabric for the underskirt than for the top layer. Though since the georgette you've picked is an underskirt type of fabric to start with, you should be okay with multiple layers of that - it would create a soft look. You might want something more opaque and lycra like for the inner layer of the basic body suit though.

If you will be making the dress yourself, you might want to try something simpler first to get an idea and test the pattern - find some cheap lycra and make the basic dress in a single layer, for example.

[Me]

I have a very bad notion of sizes and sense of measurements. If I am to buy cloth to make a custom standard dress, how many square feet of cloth do I need to get?

Let's say I am about 5'7" tall and I am hoping to make a standard dress of about 3 layers (for the skirt) and a hanging scarf on one of my arm and some bracelets out of the same material.

Has anyone have experienced buying fabrics from Chrisanne website? Does anyone understand what they mean by "price per metre"? Are they talking about square meter? Or does that mean the piece of fabric you get is 1m x 1.12m?:
LUXURY GEORGETTE (Width 112 cm; price per metre)

Thanks a lot!

Oooh if you order some of that fabric, please post about it! I've heard those fabrics are divine.

[mummsie]

I have made a few standard dresses. If you want to do the 3 circles of chiffon which is fairly standard you will need at least 15 metres of material. I would probably opt for 18 to make sure you have enough. I am 165cm which I think is around 5'4 in the old measurement and I used just over 15 in my last dress. If you are using lycra or something like that which is much wider you will need considerably less - I made one for my daughter out of lycra with 2 skirts and used around 13 metres - hers was in panels not circles though. Mummsie

[pygmalion]

Roughly 20 yards of 44/45 inch wide fabric? Is that what I'm hearing? Yikes!! No wonder ballroom gowns cost so much! *shudder* (And let's hear it for 60 inch fabric! :bouncy: :lol: )

[mummsie]

Yes that sounds about right. Chiffon is relatively cheap though compared to other fabrics :-) Mummsie

[pygmalion]

20 yards of chiffon?!? :shock: Enough to give me nightmares, regardless of the price! :wink: :lol:

[and123]

yeah, try hemming it! :shock: It goes on foreverrrr....

[Laura]

My serger seized up the last time I rolled chiffon (about 18 yards' worth, cut into a three-layer circle skirt). Fortunately it was straightforward for the repair shop to fix it.

[Joe]

1) I thought the Chrisanne georgette is more of a top-layer fabric.
2) Chiffon isn't necessarily cheap. What's cheap is the poly chiffon, which doesn't drape or flow quite as nicely as silk chiffon, which isn't cheap.

[samina]

Fortunately it was straightforward for the repair shop to fix it.

Hey, that's great news! Glad you didn't have to replace it. :)

[Laura]

2) Chiffon isn't necessarily cheap. What's cheap is the poly chiffon, which doesn't drape or flow quite as nicely as silk chiffon, which isn't cheap.
Yes, but one doesn't have to iron poly chiffon, and there are some good ones out there (I like what I've been getting from fabric.com, although their color range is very restricted).

I'm so sick of ironing the silk chiffon floats on my black-and-cobalt dress that I've retired it from competition.

[fluffy]

The last dress I made was just under 8m of fabric - stretch satin (excluding 0.5m lycra for leotard and 1.5m georgette for floats), no underskirts (being lazy).

I've made skirts with silk georgette, and to be honest, I prefer the poly as it has a bit more weight and hence swing and movement to it. And you only have to hang it up for the creases to drop out. Silk for floats is probably lovely though - apart from the ironing, which I avoid wherever possible.

[hamstersphere]

Hope this isn't too OT, but I just ordered from fabric.com for the first time - want to make a simple Latin practice dress (I've done a fair amount of decorative sewing, but almost no clothing, so fingers crossed!)

I know about fabric.com and denverfabrics.com, but are there any others, or any recommendations?

Thanks!

[tuxedosam]

By the way what is the difference between Dance Crepe and Lycra? Are they both stretchy? Which one would you recommend for the bodice? Do people usually make their own leotard from stretchy material or buy an already made leotard? Thanks.

[fluffy]

Dance crepe is usually at least twices as much as lycra (at least in Chrisanne), has a fine texture and flows very nicely. Lycra as from Chrisanne is matt, thicker, with less drapey properties and not used for flowy ballroom skirts. THere are different weights for lycra, so you'll need to check them out.

I make my own leotards as you can fit them properly, have different coloured bottoms if required, and can get colour coordinated fabric, you may also wish to insert zips at some point. If you can buy one ready made which works for a good price, go for it. I'm a really slow dressmaker so short cuts are great for me. Laura on the other hand is a lot more accomplished!

[pygmalion]

My serger seized up the last time I rolled chiffon (about 18 yards' worth, cut into a three-layer circle skirt). Fortunately it was straightforward for the repair shop to fix it.


Yeah. We may need a sewing machine thread, at some point. All of that yardage seems to fatigue some home-use machines, unless I'm mistaken. My Mom (a trult gifted quilt designer :cool: ) has had the same problem when she spent hours repetitively piecing quilt patterns. Machines just don't like it, it seems. :?

[Laura]

Well, I admit to completely abusing my machine, hence the failure. I bought it in early 2002 and never oiled it and never took it in for the usual yearly service appointment. So I really shouldn't complain....