Tutorial Time: Prabal Gurung for J. Crew Inspired Dress

If you remember, I posted a teaser for a DIY Prabal Gurung for J. Crew inspired dress on Thursday and promised to come back with a tutorial.  Let's get started, shall we?  :)

 One more time, here's a photo of the DIY Inspired Dress and the Original Prabal Gurung Exploding Bow Blouse (link to J. Crew here):

See tutorial details after the jump...

What You'll Need:

• An existing dress to base your pattern on (or a dress pattern)
• Contrasting colors of fabric

Step 1:  Make your dress.  I used an existing BCBG dress with an elasticized back (for during / post pregnancy purposes) to create a paper pattern for my new dress.  You can use this tutorial to trace your own pattern from existing garments (note that this works best for simple dresses made from 2 basic pieces - front and back.  Any dress featuring ~4 + pieces [front torso and skirt, back torso and skirt] will be more complicated especially if they feature darting.)

BCBG Dress Basis

Step 2: Sew and edge the following (you can adjust these sizes if you'd like your bows larger or smaller):

• 2 rectangles of 6.5x13"
• 1 rectangle of 5.5x11"

Step 3:  Create your bows.  Here I'm using ribbon to demo because I played around quite a bit when I made the dress bows before settling on a method.  Take the rectangles you just sewed in Step 2 and pleat them down the middle.  Stitch all the way through the center of your pleats several times to secure and knot.  You should not be able to see your stitches from the front of the bow.

2 longer rectangles + 1 shorter rectangle

Pleat down the middle

Stitch through all the pleats (for easy demo purposes, I'm just pinning them)

Step 4:  Arrange your bows.  I criss-crossed the 2 longer rectangle bows and then crossed it again with the 1 shorter rectangle bow.  You can do this on an angle covering more of the right shoulder like I did (also fabric is going to create much prettier drape than the stiff ribbons used in the demo photos).

Long rectangle bow #1

Criss-crossed with the 2nd long rectangle bow

Crossed one last time with the short rectangle bow

Step 5:  Hand tack the bow ends onto your dress.  See the stitches right above the "Gal" portion of the center "SewPetiteGal"?

And you're done!  I hope this tutorial was helpful - please feel free to ask question in comments or via email.  Here's the front and back of the dress:

And finally, it even accommodates a preggy!

Eek, what a difference heels make!  Aside from looking overall slimmer, it seems to also help my posture somehow.

Left:  Tory Burch Reva Flats, Blue

Right:  Gucci d'Orsay Pumps, Navy

One last random note, does anyone have any breaking-in tips for TB Revas?  They fit, but aren't very comfy at the moment.