The Great Endeavor – Charity’s Pink Dress
The Great Endeavor – Charity’s Pink Dress

The Great Endeavor – Charity’s Pink Dress

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– The Greatest Showman Costume Replicas –

I did it again.  I took a leap.  I made a crazy decision.  I made a decision based on a dream of a video.

IMG_6364If you’re anything like me, you know this movie.  Not only know it, but have watched it (maybe more than once!). Not only watched it, but absolutely LOVE it!

I love it, not only for its overall awesomeness, but for each specific part…costumes, choreography, videography, the actors (?)….the list goes on!

Yes, I’m referring to the greatest musical of all time (at least in my opinion)…”The Greatest Showman“, starring Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and many more!

For as long as I can remember, as my parents anniversary rolls around, my siblings and I have created a special dinner, themed to a specific country.  A couple years ago, we realized that we had run out of the various “groups” of countries.  We didn’t have a country to theme the dinner too…thus, we decided to decorate based on a favorite show.  Then came a spur of the moment idea to create a lip-sync video of the show’s theme song (featuring us children who set up the dinner!) It was a hit.  It become a tradition.

With “The Greatest Showman” soundtrack playing constantly, whether in our heads or on our speakers, it wasn’t too hard to decide what the theme would be!

Next, we had decide which song to sing too…that one wasn’t too hard either. Everyone is raving about “This is Me”, now don’t get me wrong, it’s great song, but I believe there’s a song that gets overlooked…the song is…”A Million Dreams”!

MV5BMzY5MWY0NzktODFhMy00MTc2LTk2OWItZmNiMmY4ZDNlZjhmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDY4ODkxMTY@._V1_Michelle-Williams-Hugh-Jackman-THE-GREATEST-SHOWMANI’m in love with the whole “A Million Dreams” scene.

I love the way it perfectly describes the expectations that children have…the expectations of those who are falling in love.  Real world eventually hits, but that’s what so spectacular about the story of the Greatest Showman, even with “real world”, the dreams become reality, and together, husband and wife, they work through the struggles!

Oops, I forgot this is a sewing blog. I better start taking about costumes!

So, once we decided on the song (and we made a crazy decision of actually singing, like with our real voices…??), I started researching the costumes.  At first I was only planning to recreate Charity’s pink dress, which is her most popular dress, but after looking into her other outfit (the one that she wears for traveling/dancing near the railway), I fell in love.

Everyone thought I was crazy; I even did!

In my next post I’ll discuss the making of the traveling outfit…for now I’ll just explain the pink dress.

Now that you’ve heard the whole background story, here’s the video….but, actually not…the video got enough dislikes and rude comments that I decided to take it down. I’m very proud with what we accomplished, but our voices aren’t spectacular (not that I was expecting them to be, but other people are.)

Screenshots of the video will have to suffice!

Anyways, thanks to my awesome brother, both for the videography and being my Hugh Jackman!

~ Onto the the Costumes ~

Costume #1: Pink Dress

Michelle-Williams-and-Hugh-Jackman-THE-GREATEST-SHOWMANcd2e523fa25e791304c4e637f44543a2Deciding on layers of chiffon for the dress wasn’t too hard!  The flow of the dress is lovely; chiffon just sounded right!

Based on the picture below, I decided to use a charmeuse fabric (in a slightly lighter pink) for the lining. Untitled5

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Do you see the lighter, under part of her skirt?

I layered the skirt with 3 layers of chiffon and 1 layer of charmeuse.

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All the skirt layers are sewn together at the waist. Plus, the “band” is pieced together. The waist is larger because I will be shirring (smocking, but with elastic) the “band” (which will be attached to both the skirt and bodice.)
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Pinned in place!
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Firstly, I sewed a regular seam. Secondly, I placed my first shirring seam and then continued shirring up the band.

If you need help with the shirring technique, here’s a great article.

(I must admit, I needed some help with shirring…so I googled and found what I needed!)

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While creating this dress, I was staying with my sister, who happens to be a photographer. Thanks to that, I have some awesome pictures (such as the one above)!
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These are the bodice pieces.

A unique detail of this dress is show in the next two photos…do you see it?

Untitled341D789BD00000578-4647782-Musical_The_Greatest_Showman_centers_around_the_birth_of_showbiz-a-48_1498666901723If you caught it, you noticed the the “band” of lighter pink edging on the bodice neckline/v-neck. I decided to use pink ribbon for this edging.

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First, sew the ribbon to one of your bodice edge. Right side of the fabric to the ribbon. Be sure that you’re sewing a nice straight line.
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Now, place your lining on the first piece (sandwiching the ribbon, right sides together), and voila! You have a line that you can follow while sewing the pieces together. This will give a perfectly placed edging!
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There you have it! A perfectly aligned, even, and straight edging!
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Now I’m getting the lining smoothed out and pinned in place.

IMG_6378Now that your bodice is prepped, move onto the sleeves!

Detail pictures below.  Look at the wrist smocking/shirring on both pictures.

Compared to what you see when Charity wears the dress, the smocking/shirring must be covered up quite a bit!

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My sleeves, before being sewn.
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The finished sleeve seam!

IMG_6394The sleeves are attached, the bodice is attached, and I’ve placed the cream “cover-up” in the v-neck.

I have a zipper on the right side (you can see the opening in the picture below)!IMG_6396IMG_6398IMG_6400

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Last things lastly; the hem. I used a rolled hemming foot! It worked well!

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~ All Finished ~

These lovely photos are by Smile For Sophie Photography!GreatestShowman-54

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Thinking…”Should I really trust him to catch me?”
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I love how the skirt is in this photo!

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My absolute favorite picture! (Well, I actually have a few other favs…)

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Thanks for looking and learning with me!

11 Comments

  1. Pingback: The Great Endeavor – Recreating Greatest Showman Costumes – Charity’s Traveling Outfit – Bella Maes Sewing Corner

  2. Sofia

    Hello! I can’t tell you how much your blog inspires me! Your creations are so amazing! I think I am going to attempt to recreate this dress, yours is done so beautifully. How many yards of fabric are in each of the layers of the skirt?

    Thank you!

    1. Ah, thanks! Each layer of the chiffon is made of a full circle skirt. So you’ll have to calculate that out based on the length that you want the dress.
      Actually, since I made this dress, I’ve seen some other photos of the dress. I’m making another one for a custom order and I’ve decided to do a slip/chemise made of silk organza with the dress being made of a layer of charmeuse and one layer of silk chiffon. I think it will make it more elegant and more accurate (based on the photos I’ve seen).

  3. Riley

    I found your blog via Pinterest. I love the dress and your finished pictures, you did a great job. I love The Greatest Showman as well and you have inspired me to try to make a dress too. I can’t wait to look around and see your other beautiful creations! Have a great day.
    Riley

  4. Sarah

    Hello, I love your dress, it is absolutely stunning. I have high hopes of doing something similar. I was wondering, did you line the sleeves with anything? It looks like the chiffon you used on the rest of the dress, but it’s not sheer at all. Is it lined, or is that chiffon just not see-through?

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