Planning a Custom-Made Dress

Series Summary

Fashion design is a burgeoning industry, responsible for everything from plain, white T-shirts that come in bags of three to high-profile haute couture fashion on the runways of New York, Paris and Milan. A fashion designer often begins with an inspiration or theme in mind before filling fashion croquis with illustrations of collection items: skirts, jackets, lingerie, hats, etc. After weeding through the many rough sketches, a designer finds the best garment ideas and creates cleaner illustrations with notes on fabrics and hems for the manufacturer. Fashion design allows aspiring artists a career of creativity, tangible results and glamour. In this free video series on custom-made dresses, professional seamstress Sabrina Beck teaches how to order and buy a custom dress. Beck gives tips on choosing a style, what to bring to the dress-maker, how to pick colors and fabrics and more. She teaches viewers the basic measurements a seamstress needs for making custom fashion and offers a checklist to help with ordering the dress.

Video Transcript

"So when you decide that you want a dress custom made it's a good idea to know what you're really looking for. What kind of dress do you want? Do you want a simple A-line dress? Do you want something that's flowy? Do you want something that's really full? It's really good to know, how a really good idea or exactly what you want before going in and having your dress made. Having pictures is a really good idea so that you can show your seamstress what you're looking for. Also, do you, are you looking for something that's strapless? Do you want a halter top? Do you want something that's A-line or more of a fishtown mermaid style? Do you want something that's tee length, full length? It's really a good idea to know what you're looking for before you go in. This will help the seamstress or the designer help you design your dress."