Beetlejuice: Lydia's Wedding Dress

In this instructable I'll walk you through making the Lydia Deetz's iconic red wedding dress from Beetlejuice! This project is best suited for a moderately experienced or very experienced seamstress. We will be following a pattern but there are some parts that you will need to draft yourself (skirt and armhole facings)

Tools:
Sewing machine
Pins
Scissors/shears
Needles
Hot glue gun
Cutting mat (optional)
Rotary cutter (optional)
Dress form (optional)
Serger (optional)

Materials:
Simplicity 5217 pattern (this is an out of print pattern, you can find it on Etsy and Ebay, be sure to buy the correct size, there is only one size per envelope)
At least 8 yards of red aspirin dot mesh fabric (moodfabrics.com has this fabric), more if you are a larger size or need a longer dress
4 yards of red costume satin or taffeta for lining
2 yards of double wide tulle for veil
6 fake red roses
Claw style hair clip
1/2 yard of 2" ivory or offwhite horsehair braid
1 yard of red trim for neckband
3 small red buttons for back of neckband
16" red zipper
Spool of red satin ribbon
Spool of red sheer organza ribbon
1 yard of 1/8" wide red ribbon

Other items:
Hoop skirt
Red shoes
Black wig
Makeup
Ring
Red opera length gloves (or 1.5 yards of 4-way stretch red nylon or spandex to make your own - instructions are included at the end)

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Step 1: Step 1: Cutting out the pieces

Refer to instructions for pattern placement on fabric, always follow grain lines and instructions on cutting pieces on the fold.
We will be using view 1 from this pattern, but we will not be using the sleeves, cuffs or overskirt for this garment.
Cut out the bodice front, bodice back and waist band pieces from both the red lining and red mesh.
Cut the chest front and back pieces out of mesh only.
Cut one neckband piece out of mesh.

The skirt lining for this pattern hugs closer to the body than the skirt in the movie. You will need to draft a much more flared skirt pattern based on the skirt lining. Use the top of the skirt lining (waist), but flare the skirt as wide as you can at the bottom. The bottom of the skirt I drafted was about 113" around. Divide the flare amongst the 3 skirt pieces evenly. You can also use a different skirt pattern with more flare instead of drafting your own skirt.

You will also need to draft arm hole facings. Because we are not using the sleeves, the arm holes will be left with a raw edge. You may either enclose this wil bias tape or draft a facing based on the bodice front and bodice back pattern pieces. You can choose to us a light fusible interfacing to help keep the interfacings tucked into the bodice.

The ruffles for the skirt and bodice should be cut last, we will cover them later.