Gone With the Wind is one of my favorite movies!
I am actually fluent in GWTW being that I can quote most of the film:).
In addition to being a fan of the movie I also enjoyed reading the book as well as reading books about the making of the movie.
Aside from being a big fan I also love the dresses.
Of course, my favorite is the BBQ dress.
So I decided to make the BBQ dress.
Reproduction fabric is available but at $35 per yard with 18 yards needed another option had to be found.
And so the search began for a fabric close in appearence to the original. I decided to find a comparable green and white fabirc and cover it over in sheer white organza in hopes that it would have the same effect as the original dress.
I finally found a fabric that would work at Joann's on sale for $5.60 a yard.
The organza was also on sale and I chose to use dark green crushed velvet for the belt instead of real velvet (a difference of about $20 a yard:).
The boning was leftover from a dress I purchased at a thrift shop for $1.
I used a bodice pattern from an old Simplicity ball gown pattern and made the skirt without a pattern.
This allowed for only about 7 yarrds of fabric as opposed to the 18 yards required for the actual BBQ dress pattern (yes I have the reprint pattern which can be purchased at the gift shop at the GWTW/Marguaret Mitchell museum in Atlanta).
It took some creativity but I think the overall effect is very similar to Scarlett's BBQ dress.
Instead of spending $600+ to make an exact copy, my dress came in just under $100.
Frankly Scarlett, I saved some money!
What's your favorite GWTW dress?
