DIY Ruched Waist Gold Gown
Please quote me on this: “I truly felt like I was wearing liquid gold!”
Hi everyone,
I know I say this with every post, but I am just so ecstatic to share this golden gown with you. I know it’s been a while since I made this Taffeta gown, so this time around, I figured what better fabric to kickstart my holiday sewing than this golden liquid goodness.
Before I dive into the design and drafting process, I want to talk a bit more about this beautiful fabric. It is a foil coated ITY silky stretch knit in colour gold (of course), which was kindly gifted to me from Minerva.
I know so many of you want to know what my experience was sewing with this knit. As you may have guessed from the photos, the fabric is slippery (same as a satin) so I used extra pins and was very precise when cutting. You can also baste prior to sewing to ensure the fabric does not move. Otherwise, the sewing process was smooth using a regular needle. I also loved that the raw edges don’t fray so I did not have to serge the edges (which saved me so much time thank goodness, looking at all that hem!). If you’re interested to read more about this fabric, you can find my full review on my Minerva’s blog post here.
Now onto the design of this ruched waist gold gown!
This gown was designed and drafted by myself, which is always a dream come true for me. I got the inspiration from a ready-to-wear wrap dress and combined the idea with another inspiration I saw on Pinterest. Then I sketched the design and pivoted a couple times until this final look was born.
I know the overall design of this dress is quite simple to figure out but I will spell out the ruching part, which I think might be the tricky part.
Please note I am assuming my reader has an intermediate knowledge of sewing when outlining the steps below. However, if you are a beginner sewist and have any questions/need clarification on any of the steps below, feel free to reach out to me via email, Instagram DM, or my website’s contact forum in ‘About Me’ page.
- Start with a basic bodice and skirt block. If you don’t have your own basic blocks, use any close fitting pattern that you have (either top + skirt separately, or a close-fitting dress pattern).
2. Close the waist dart and transfer that to the armhole.
3. Create the neckline by drawing a line from the armscye to approximately the middle of the opposite shoulder, at the desired depth as shown below. Make sure to test the depth and angle on a muslin fabric and modify the pattern if needed.
4. Find the desired length at which you want the front skirt to open up. For me, that was about 4″ below the hip line. I reiterate, make sure you test this on your muslin to find the right measurement for you. Additionally, for simplicity purposes, I did not create a long skirt for this tutorial. If you wish to make a gown, just create a hem at the bottom instead of the sharp edge (right image), and extend that hem for as long as you want the skirt length to be.
5. Attach the bodice pattern to the skirt pattern to create one side of the dress. This side (left image) will be the underneath layer of the dress and will be used to trace the top (ruched) layer. Since each side is a mirror image, make sure to flip the pattern before tracing.
6. Now that you have the front layer traced, lets create the ruching! For that, draw horizontal lines across the waist, each ~1″ apart (in the actual pattern) and cut through those lines.
7. Open up the parts for as much or as little gathers as you want to end up with and tape on a new paper. You will know through testing how much to spread them out but a good starting point is 1.5″ apart (in the actual patten). Cut around the pattern and use this as your front (ruching) side. Make sure you create a notch at the top and bottom of the cut parts so that you will know where to start and end your gathers.
And that is it! The rest should be simple: sandwich the ruched layer in between the underneath front layer and back of the dress and add a zipper to the other side!
I had so much fun creating this DIY ruched waist gold gown! I think the fact that I completely zoned out to document my progress during the actual sewing process is a testament to how much I was enjoying the process. I absolutely love this glamorous gown. I think it is the most glamorous dress I’ve ever owned! And am very happy with my drapey design choice that really allowed the fabric do its magic.
I hope to have inspired you with your holiday glam sewing! I know quite a few of you have started their holiday sewing so that makes me so happy!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and love this dress as much as I do!
Until the next glam gown,
With love,
Ava
