This dress was ultimately not easy mainly because I wanted certain parts to be detachable as well as have a 1940's show girl feel. The dress couldn't be too short and the lapels would have to be removable for future replacements (such as a sequenced lapel). I altered a pattern for the top so that it fit my body perfectly and mathed out how many panels of the skirt I would have to create in order for it to fit under the vest perfectly.

I used a stiffer, satin material for the vest and two different types of satin (the white was stiffer and the red had no strength to it) for the skirt. The vest was fully lined and unhooks from the top so that it's easier to step into the dress.

There are 24 panels in the skirt. Each panel was hemmed in their correct thread color to avoid the headache of hemming the entire skirt once all the panels were together. The middle of each pleat was sewn so that it maintains the straight edge look. A cummerband was quickly drafted and put together with left over red material. The zipper was put in last after the skirt was attached to the vest.

The hat was hand drafted with help from online tutorials from an unofficial USO dancer group for this costume. Buckram, wire and felt hold the hat to keep its shape and hair pieces were placed inside so that it stays on. In the end, it took me about four days (one for drafting, one for the skirt alone, and the other two for the hat and vest). I had to make another one with three days to spare at a smaller size and I ended up knocking it out in 8 hours because I'd already did it once and kept my patterns. I'm still surprised I even did that.