Jane Porter - Tarzan

Commission of Jane Porter from Disney's Tarzan, including bustled petticoat. The dress is made from a matte synthetic satin, which mimics the look of silk (while being washable and more cost effective) and is much more wrinkle-resistant than cotton. The ivory and lavender accents are made from crepe weave.


The petticoat is a frankenstyled reproduction Victorian steel boned bustle pattern. The historical version of the dress this petticoat is designed to be worn with would be floor length and a bit more columnar in shape when viewed from the front; I shortened it and added extra ruffling on around the bottom half.




The costume is two pieces, dress and overskirt. The overskirt drape and polonaise are attached to the brown waistband and wrap around. I draped and redraped that overskirt so many times; I generally draft patterns flat and geometrically so getting this how I wanted it to look, length, width, and pleat-wise, took some work. The polonaise/back bustle thing is shaped with batting to create the smooth, Disney-ish shape (though obviously I did pleat it; darts looked weird).

I fussed around with the collar quite a bit and experimented with three piece pattern cut on the bias before going with a six piece pattern, cut on the grain. It was worth the trade off of adding seams to get a much smoother, more accurate shape without bias wrinkling.

The scallop trim is attached to the lining. In a minor miracle, the hem circumference ended up being perfect for my scallop width and they met right at the center back seam. As all scallops are these were a bit obnoxious, but for the first time ever I pressed them using a stiff template (same template I used to trace the seam line). I don't know why this never occurred to me before. It's faster and less tedious than pressing with a point turner.