Want to go to a Mexican dance festival, but don’t have a dress to wear? Fear not, because we are going to tell you how you can make a Mexican dance dress at home.
One of the most eye-catching and sensational dresses is the Mexican dance dress. These traditional dance dresses have many variations, depending on which of the state of Mexico that it hails from. If you are thinking of attending a traditional Mexican dance festival, then you should definitely wear a Mexican dance dress. Although there are many designs and styles of Mexican dance dresses, one of the most stunning and colorful dress is from the state of Jalisco in Mexico.
This traditional dress consists of a very wide skirt that flares from the hips with a fitted bodice. The skirt is twirly with a lot of flare and is embellished with ribbons of different colors sewed along the hemline. The bodice features ruffles and is floaty and feminine. One of the most important features of a Mexican dance dress is its flaring skirt which should be voluminous. If you don’t want to spend a huge amount of money in purchasing a Mexican dance dress, then the next best thing to do is to make one.
Making a Mexican Dance Dress
Looking at the pattern of a Mexican dance dress, most of you would think that it is very intricate and would require considerable sewing skills to make. In a way that is true. But there are ways in which you can make it with minimum effort. The first thing that you need to do is to make the flared skirt and the bodice separately and then sew them together to make a dress. The bodice need not be made from scratch and you can, in fact, fashion an old blouse or T-shirt into the bodice of the dress.
Things Required
- Cotton fabric, 3 yards (in a color and pattern of your choice)
- Knit fabric
- Sewing machine
- Thread
- Scissors
- Fitted T-shirt
- Wide Ribbons (in two to three colors)
Procedure
The first thing that you need to do is to purchase the cotton fabric. It is best that you choose two to three different colored cotton fabric to give the dress a more vibrant look. Once you have all your supplies at hand, it is time to make the dance dress.
- Wear the fitted T-shirt (an off white one would be ideal), and mark a point, 6 inches from the bottom of the t-shirt. Next, cut the T-shirt where you had marked it and keep both pieces of fabric aside.
- Wrap the bottom past of the T-shirt over your waist and make sure that it is snug. If it is not tight, then pull the fabric to one side and mark it with pins.
- Sew the T-shirt band where you had marked it with pins. Fold the band in half and sew it again. This will make the waistband more durable and also give you a better fit.
- Next, measure your hip length and multiply it by 1.5. Write down the number that you arrive on a piece of paper. Cut a piece of knit fabric measuring this width and your desired skirt length. (around 35” for an ankle length skirt).
- Sew the sides of the knit fabric together. This will make the underskirt of the dress.
- Cut 8 strips of cotton fabric, each fabric strip measuring 5.5” in width. The first fabric strip should measure about 1.5 times your hip measurement in length. The next strips to cut should measure 2 times your hip measurement and the rest should measure 3 times your hip measurement.
- Fold the first strip ¼ ” inside and sew a gathering stitch on one side. On the other side of the strip, hem the fabric for a finished look.
- Take both the edges of strip together and sew it to form a circle. Repeat the same procedure on all the other strips of fabric.
- Sew the first circular strip to the underskirt that you had made earlier and then sew it to the T-shirt waistband that you had made.
- Next, stitch the second circular strip of fabric on the underskirt, making sure that it is sewed in such a way that the underskirt is not visible.
- Sew the rest of the strips until you have an ankle length flared skirt.
- Finally, sew the T-shirt to the waist band of the skirt. To hide the stitches, apply fabric glue and adhere a long piece of colorful ribbon.
- Your Mexican dance dress is ready and you can embellish the bodice with rows of different colored ribbons that are sewed over it.
As you can see making a Mexican dance dress is not a hard task although it requires a bit of patience. But the results will be well worth it.
