1756 Belle Gown (of Beauty and the Beast)

When a very good friend of mine was a little girl, she always wanted the gold Belle ball gown, but she never got one.  Now that we're older, well, they don't make Belle gowns for adults.  So I decided to go about creating one for her in secret.  But being the perfectionist researcher I am, of course, it had to be perfect.  I researched Beauty and the Beast and discovered that it was written in 1756 by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont.  I've had some experience with 18th century French gowns, so I decided to do it up in the style of the times.

I knew that we were pretty much the same size, so I used my own measurements.  I was nervous about making a full corseted ball gown with no fittings or real measurements, but went for it anyway.  Traditional 18th century gowns were worn with stays (a corset), but I knew that she didn't own a set of stays so I decided to build them into the gown.

I made a set of half-boned strapless stays and sandwiched with them between the inner and outer layers of the bodice and stitched all the layers together.  I rouched the ball gown skirt and attached it to the bodice.  I gave the bodice organza capped sleeves like Belle has in the movie and made matching gold fabric buttons for the middle of the sweetheart neckline.  I laced the gown up the back and gave the gown a matching ruffled petticoat.

She was definitely surprised and loved it.  It was worth the many hours and dollars that I put into the gown for her.  She even made me waltz with her! hahaha!!