Dragon Slippers Ball Gown
This dress was my Halloween costume for 2020, and is based on the ball gown worn by the main character in Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George, where it is described as, “The great full skirt was almost entirely covered with six panels of embroidery… in radiant hues of scarlet, azure, and violet, with leading of a mellow gold thread highlighting each block of color. The tight bodice had more abstract embroidery along the neckline, and the long, fitted sleeves were decorated down the outside of each. While it wasn’t the fashion for ball gowns to have sashes, I wanted to show off my skill with sash-weaving… So I wore a sash of azure and violet and scarlet silk yarns, woven in the most intricate pattern I knew.”
This description absolutely caught my attention when I first read the book, but at the time, I didn’t have enough experience to make a full gown like this. Now, though, I had the skill to tackle it, though I still learned a lot during the process of making this dress.
Sketches and Design
Since I had a pretty clear description of the dress, the first thing I had to do was sketch out an idea of what it might look like based on that. Even with that description, though, that was a somewhat complicated thing to do, since I really didn’t know what the shape of the dress might be. Instead of just going for whatever I wanted, I read through the rest of the book, carefully picking out any other descriptions of this dress, and came up with the following:
“It was made of heavy velvet and satin, both in the same shade of antique gold… It had a wide low neck, fitted bodice, and long tight sleeves. The skirt was full, and there were six layers to it: the uppermost of velvet, and the five underneath in satin.”
“These [pointed arches] would extend all the way from the hem to the waist.”
Obviously, this gives me a pretty good idea for what I wanted to do, so with this information, I went ahead and made the sketch to the right.
Later on, a few things about this would change. For one, in my original sketch, I’d opted for the sleeves only going down to the elbow, with ruffles of the lining covering the rest of the arm. This was mainly due to concerns about mobility; the velvet I used is very thick, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to move my arms in full length sleeves. In the end, I decided against that and made them full length after all, since the velvet ended up not being a problem, and I wanted to stay as accurate as possible. I also ended up going for only three layers of ruffles at the bottom, because I thought the full five layers would distract from the rest of the dress, and would add weight to the bottom that I thought might cause problems.
The Skirt
The next part I had to design was the panels, which were somewhat tricky. In the original dress, these were all embroidered. I don’t have the time, talent, or patience for that much embroidery, though, so I decided to go with an almost quilt like idea instead. Using batik cotton, I cut out each piece of color, and used Steam-a-Seam to stick it in place on a muslin base before passing it off to my mom, who knows a lot more about quilting than I do. She took what I’d given her and used yarn to act as leading, like in a stained glass window, and then quilted the design down on the velvet to make it really pop.
The panels were originally described as, “The maiden Irial in one panel, the dragon Zalthus in another, with the tragic betrayal by her suitor in between, centered on the front of the skirt. And the three panels on the back couls show other scenes: Irial playing her harp, Zalthus flying over a forest, the ill fated hunt in which Irial fell from her horse and came face-to-face with Zalthus for the first time.” I took that and matched the images as best I could, with some changes. I also used a recurring pattern of circles and a sun in the background to effectively tie each panel together in a series. The pictures that follow are my interpretation of each of these, in order.
The Maiden Irial
This is the first of the three panels where I used other art as inspiration. This one is heavily based on this stained glass window.
The Dragon Zalthus
This one is one of the three panels that I heavily took inspiration from other art for. In this case, this art comes from the cover of a book called The Fey Man by James T. Kelley
The ‘Tragic Betrayal’
This is the last of the panels I took inspiration for, though I don’t have a source for that. I think it was a coloring page, but I can’t seem to find it again.
In the original description, this was meant to be a tragic betrayal. However, I ended up deciding against using that, since a scene that complex would be tricky to do in stained glass, and went for this instead. Originally, this panel was also supposed to be in the center front, but I shifted it to the back after realizing that I liked it less than the other image with both the woman and the dragon. While not accurate, I’m glad I made that decision, since I think it puts a better highlight on some of the prettier pieces.
Irial Playing Her Harp
This one is entirely original, and is one I struggled with designing. I’d first thought about having her sitting in a forest, but eventually decided that would make the scene too busy, and went for this scene instead.
Zalthus Flying Over a Forest
In the book, this panel features the dragon flying over a forest. Due to concerns about cluttering the image, though, I decided to go for mountains. In the sketch, that’s all I put, but after looking at the panel for a while after putting it together, I realized that the bottom right corner was just way too plain, and added in a castle to help minimize the visual dead zone.
Irial Coming Face to Face with Zalthus
When I first was working on this, I went through a few different sketches where Irial was cowering before the dragon, but ended up going for this instead, since I think it shows more power on her part (and also was easier for me to draw).
The Bodice and Sleeves
The bodice is a simple fitted bodice, though it does have a somewhat unexpected waistband. When making this, I had made an incorrect measurement, and cut the bodice far too short to land at my waist. After some panicking, my mom suggested I go with a waistband, which would fix the length problem as well as distributing the considerable weight of the skirt across two seams instead of one.
Along the top of the bodice and the sides of the sleeves, I added a stained glass imitation pattern, similar to what was described in the book. It used two fabrics from the panels; the medium purple color from Irial’s dress, and one of the blues in the waves from the first panel with the dragon. The back is also laced to imitate how it would have probably closed. Since this is a fantasy based dress, I’d guess zippers didn’t exist, and I wanted to reflect that in the design, even if I did have a side zipper to make getting the dress on possible.
Makeup and Accessories
Since I wanted all the attention on the skirt, I went for very simple makeup, going as natural as possible. The jewelry, though, was far more important, and is all based on stained glass and amethysts, to match the pattern along the top of the dress. The necklace is a simple purple pendant that I made, while the earrings are from GlassForYouArt, and the hair pin is from JESDesignStudio.
The sash that’s part of this costume is actually a scarf I borrowed from my mom, and unfortunately is old enough that its origin is unknown.
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to my mom, who helped quilt and lead the panels, took the dramatic photos, and was a great sounding board for tricky problems!