jumpdress

Updated September 16, 1999

After seeing Jennie Chancey's fabulous version, seeing the actual dress online at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising's exhibit and with the release of the movie on video, I have been inspired to try my hand at creating my own reproduction of the now infamous "jump dress". I understand that J. Peterman has the exclusive rights to reproduce the original, with a price tag of around $2,400.

I first started this project about five months ago but some personal matters in my life prevented me from working on it like I had planned. Well, things have settled down and I am ready to do some serious sewing! I am glad, however, that I did wait this long, because since I first started researching this project, I have learned quite a bit about the actual dress that I did not know before and have had to change just about everything!

I have since found some more detailed pictures online of the actual dress and I have carefully studied the dress on video (after practically wearing out my VCR by pausing and fast forwarding frame-by-frame) and I will be making a few changes. (See bottom of page, after May 19, 1999 entries)

May 19, 1999

Since I don't have a deadline for finishing the dress, I've decided to spend a little more time and effort on the beading and trim. I've actually been collecting tidbits for this part of the dress for the last six months. The sequins were fairly easy to find...the rest was merely found by luck and being at the right place at the right time. Since I couldn't find pre-made medallions that suited my taste, I have decided to make my own.

So, armed with the close-up pictures from the Fashion Institute's exhibit, this is what I came up with. These were made by "embroidering" the sequins onto a piece of black netting.

A trip to the annual Vintage Clothing Fair in Yuba City, California, yeilded me a 20" length of black beaded and sequined lace which was, no doubt, taken off of some vintage piece that was probably beyond repair and maybe even from the correct time period...who knows. I will incorporate it somehow into the bodice.

I also acquired another piece which also came off of an existing garment which was mainly a string of beaded "flowers and leaves". These, too, will be incorporated into the bodice.

The floral-looking "medallions" were found at our local auction/flea market at a booth that I often visit. They always have nifty trims and buttons. I will most likely incorporate these into the bodice also.

For the fringe which hangs from the bottom of the bodice, I had to visit a specialty bead store. I found a small treasure of a store in Auburn, California which was literally packed to the brim with beautiful beads, fringe, appliques, rhinstones, etc. This was the closest I could find to the original. Of course, I had to pay a little more than I wanted to for this, but as you can see, it was worth it in terms of staying as true as possible to the original.

I wasn't sure what type of fabric to use for the red underskirt. Jennie Chancey says that it looks like a heavy silk crepe was used for the film gown and that she recommends a crepe georgette or another poly silk or rayon blend. I have chosen a rayon blend because I like the way it drapes and I was able to find a red color that I thought was close to the original dress. For the netted overskirt, I chose a black point d'esprit.

I will be using Simplicity's pattern #8399 as a base for the dress, with LOTS of my own changes and alterations and, since I am a glutton for punishment, I am going to attempt to bead and sequin the bodice as much as possible. I purchased about 6 vials of larger, red seed beads (I'll probably need more) to incorporate along with the black beading and sequins.

Next, I needed a "pattern" of the beading on the bodice. I found a picture in James Cameron's "Titanic" book of a costume technician doing the actual beading on the bodice. Unfortunately, it isn't a very large picture and there is some detail, but not enough. So, to accomplish this, I took the picture of the bodice from the FIDM exhibit (see top of page), I "cut" half of the bodice and pasted it into Photostyler. I then fiddled with the overall pattern of beading and sequined trim, reducing it to it's basic shapes. I will use this pattern to follow when applying the beading and sequined trim.

August 27, 1999

After studying the dress a bit more closely, I decided to go with a slightly lighter shade of red for the underskirt of the dress since the black overskirt netting darkens the red and the original fabric I chose looked too "maroon". I chose a "dull satin" fabric from Hancock's. I also realized that the original point d'esprit that I had bought was much too stiff. There was no way I was going to drape that puppy over my arm as I climbed the back railing of the ship, so I found a black nylon netting which was much looser and flowing. I also realized from studying the video, that the dress actually has two overskirts of "netting"; one that is a plain and unpatterned and the topmost one which has small "circles" at intervals throughout, and actually is the same material which is used under the beaded bodice. I found another nylon netting that had small, almost circular patterns throughout and was very close to the original.

I also discovered, from watching the video more closely, that I was all wrong on the medallions that are on the bottom of the dress. They are actually a series of concentric "rings" of some kind of beads with what looks like seven silver or crystal beads or sequins around the middle central portion and one in the exact center. I also could tell from this picture that the fringe I had picked out was not quite exactly right either. I may have to use it anyway if I can't find anything exactly the same. I'll have to pay another visit to the bead shop where I bought the original fringe, or check the Internet again.Up above the fringe, along the bottom of the 2nd layer of netting and at the very bottom, there appears to be a strip of satin ribbon with three or four seed beads sewn in diagonal stripes going in a NE to SW direction on top of the satin ribbon.

As well as using Simplicity #8399, I am also going to use McCalls #2035. I have also decided to get rid of some of the various beaded trims, etc that I was originally going to incorporate into the bodice and go with another idea. It's kind of hard to explain what I have in mind, but I will post pictures once I get it going.

August 28, 1999

Today I cut out the bodice, made a mock-up and fit it. I then took some of the original, stiff point d'esprit that I had and cut the bodice out of this. I will use it as my base for the beading. I also took the overskirt pattern from Simplicity #8399 and altered it so that it will not be quite so gathered and full as the pattern calls for. I also went to Hancock's and bought some strings of continuous black beads, which I am going to use for doing the medallions and the small, round ring-like "rosettes" which are on the bodice.

August 30, 1999

I started the beading on the bodice, but first I cut the strings of black beads into lengths of 15 beads each and made them into circles by gluing the ends together. I then made slightly smaller rings to go inside of these. I also took the pre-made sequined lace I had and "cut" parts of it out, laying them on the bodice in places to resemble the pattern that I had made in Photostyler. I figured this would fill in the areas in between the red beading pretty well, be faster and yet still look pretty close to the pattern. I can then later on fill in around the black sequined areas with the red seed beads. I have only been working on one front side of the bodice to see how it is going to work out before I do the other side and the back.

September 15, 1999

I have taken a break from beading the bodice to work on the fringe for around the bottom of the bodice and around the bottom of the dress. I didn't really like the fringe I originally bought and not being able to find exactly what I wanted, I took apart the fringe I had and used the beads to make the fringe look the way I wanted it to. The top fringe in the picture will be used on the bottom of the bodice. The bottom fringe in the picture will be used at the bottom of the dress.

I was also fortunate enough to have someone from the H-Costume e-mail list refer me to a site where the actual, real Jumpdress shoes were made. It is called Peter Fox and they sell a wonderful selection of bridal shoes. They also were the supplier of the actual shoes worn by Kate Winslet in Titanic. Lo and behold, they were selling the shoes on their website, AND, they were marked down. They look kind of pink in this picture, but I understand that they are made from red silk.

Oh, I almost forgot - buttons. The little black and rhinestone buttons that are in the front of the bodice and at the tops of the shoulders....I searched literally everywhere for buttons like this and came up with nothing, so I decided to "make" my own. I found some black and silver buttons that were pretty close and then I just glued 3.5 mm rhinestones around the edges and one in the middle.

The real buttons/ My buttons

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