How to Make a Sweeney Todd Inspired Dress

POSTED BY Sara Franklin, 21 December 2007

For more information and to see how we created a Sweeney Todd/Victorian-inspired shirt for Rob, watch the video!

Materials:
standard bridal petticoat
Rit dye
rubber gloves
old towel
newspaper
large pot
salt
detergent
stirrer
scissors
pins
sewing machine

1. First put down some newspaper, put on the gloves, open the dye, and read the dye directions a couple of times.

2. Fill up your pot with hot water, add the packages of dye, a scoop of detergent, some salt, and stir very well. Then heat it up on the stove.

3. Get the garment completely soaked with water.

4. Since the item we're dying is pretty large, we're gonna use a big plastic tub to do the actual dying process in. Otherwise, we would do it right in the pot where we did the dye bath. Put your garment in the dye bath and completely submerge it. You wanna leave it in for about a half an hour and the whole time you should be moving it around because it needs constant agitation.

5. Once you've reached your desired color, take it out and thoroughly rinse with cold water.

6. Then hang it up to dry.

7. Use another thrift store find to create a the top of your Victorian Masterpiece. We found a velvet dress. Just cut off the sleeves and the bottom into an appropriate shape. 

8. Cut the bottom ruffle off of the top layer of the skirt and pin it above the top ruffle for extra poof. Put some ruffles around the collar like we did for Rob's shirt in the same episode. Add an old corset and some simple sleeves, then sew it all together.

9. And you're havin' sew much fun!