Initial imaginings - Gathering ideas and making the mannequin

Once I had decided to sew my own gown (which was a tentative choice for a while still, with the option to always cave and buy something), I began by deciding what it should look like.  My gown board on Pinterest provided inspiration.  I circled elements I liked in the gowns prior to shopping to give the clerks an idea of what to pull for me.  On this new, independent path, I had to narrow it down further, and move the image in my mind into more concrete terms.

You can see in the red dress inspiration for the bodice, and in the striped one inspiration for the skirt shape!
The rest of my gown pinboard is here, where there's evidence of shopping for discount dresses, too.

I chose to create a dress with a bodice that had vertical pleats that are closer at the bottom and wider at the top, with a sweetheart strapless neckline.  I expected this would give me a less rectangular, more curved shape up top.  For the back, I wanted a v-shaped line that went down to my mid-back, accentuating my shoulders that I like.  (I was working out with a focus on my posture to help them look even better.)  As for the bottom half... the pockets were a given!  And the rest of skirt was something I wasn't sure how to design at first.  I figured I'd experiment with how much gathering would be needed to create the "pouf" at the top.  And I thought I'd just play with widths of fabric to get the right amount of fullness.

Um, no thanks Simplicity...
not really what I'm going for.

I shopped for wedding gown and formal dress patterns, any patterns really, looking for these elements.  I found things here and there that seemed kind of like what I wanted, but I wasn't confident anything could quite get it.  There are surprisingly few, and surprisingly icky wedding gown patterns out there.  I had my creative vision and wanted to try to make it happen; if I was going to make my own gown, I was going to make MY gown, not something halfway there!

I had read about draping in one of the books I got started with in my research and thought it might provide the answer to the lack of patterns.  Draping is using a mannequin and laying fabric on it in the ways you want it to ultimately look.  I'd never done it before, but with some YouTube videos I figured out the gist of it and felt ready to give it a try!

Before I could drape, I needed a mannequin.  And I did not want to buy one (nor did I think they sold them in my actual shape and size, and I wanted this gown to fit perfectly).  Thanks to the wonders of the internet and other people's dedication to demonstrating solutions for strangers, there are lots of resources and methods for making mannequins out of duct tape online.  I followed this one  and my helper was my mom.  Bless her for not batting an eye when I asked her to duct tape me from neck to thigh, and even when I took my shorts off from under my long t-shirt in order to get a better fit.  She was on her knees for quite a while, since she's the kind of crafty, dedicated mom who will make sure the duct tape lays smooth around the curves of my bum if that's what the plan calls for.

The mannequin detour of this journey is one of the big under-estimates on time.  It took four hours to make the tape form for the mannequin, NOT including making a stand, stuffing it, and closing off the ends.  I took the creepy half-person, empty duct tape shell back to my house and taped up the seam where we'd cut it off of me.  I made a stand from a tall piece of wood and some other scraps from the garage (I don't just DIY with fabric, hubby and I do stuff with wood, too).  I got it so the thing would be my height if I was wearing a typical pair of heels.  Once I had it suspended, I stuffed the heck out of it with all the paper I hadn't recycled during grad school, and then some.  Then, I sealed the arm, neck, and thigh holes, and used expanding foam intended for insulation to inflate and support the less-stuffed areas through tiny incisions.  It probably took a good couple more hours at least to finish the mannequin.

In the end, all this was worth it... meet Glinda!  She's helpful and wears pretty dresses, hence the name.  Glinda's been helpful for other projects since the gown was finished.  She's a prankster, though--she's fooled me or my husband into thinking there was a person where there shouldn't be more than a few times.