MCR Black Parade Dress DIY
So I have gotten tons of questions on how I made this dress, so I thought I should tell you guys how to make your own.
I didn’t take any pictures while sewing this dress, so I can’t show the process, but I will do my best to give a walkthrough on how I made this. This is might not a project to do if you don’t have much experience with sewing, as I’m not going to explain how to make seems, put in zippers ect., but I’m self-taught so if you can use a sewing machine you should be good! :)
I hope this will be helpful for you! So let’s just get to it! :)
Materials:
Jacket:
Plain black jacket, any length, would have to fit you
White ribbon - 1.5 cm wide - I ended up using a little over 10 m, so buy enough!
Round silver buttons - I used 15
A sheet of black felt - 0.5 cm thick
Fringe ribbon - any length you want - from 60 cm to 120 cm (I used 120 cm)
Black ‘robe’
Skirt:
Petticoat - 100° (depending on how ‘puffy’ you want your dress to be - the heavier the fabric you use, the more it’ll weigh down the petticoat) - mine is from Fanplusfriend.com
Black fabric (Non-stretchy!) - I used around 3 meters of fabric (calculate what you need for your dress, depending on how long you want yours to be) - I used a thick cotton fabric meant for pants, to give the dress the shape I wanted, and to match the fabric of my jacket
White ribbon - 0.5 cm wide - 2 meters (for the corset)
Eyelets - I used 8
Corset ribs - depending on your measurements
A zipper - around 30 cm
This is just what I used for my dress, but make yours the way you want! Mix it up, take inspiration from the differences in the uniforms My Chemical Romance are wearing, look at Mother War, Fear and Regret, find pictures of military uniforms and make your own design!
The length of ribbon will depend on how long you want your jacket to be, and how many buttons you’ll have on. The Corset at the back of the dress is optional and also depends on how you want yours to look like. Black felt, fringe and the black robe is for decorating the jacket, if you don’t want these features you just skip these.
TIP: Before you start: Find the jacket you want! Mine was from H&M. You can alter the length of your jacket, I wanted mine to stop at the waist, so I took of the pockets and cut It short, but only AFTER I made the skirt! So find your jacket, and buy fabric for your skirt in the same nuance as your jacket.
Skirt:
You want to make the skirt first, to know how long/short your jacket is going to be.
You need to have your petticoat before starting making your dress!! Unless you don’t want a puffy skirt.
Find out how long you want your skirt to be. Mine is 50 cm - a little longer than my petticoat, you can make your dress shorter than your petticoat so it’ll be visible.
Add 10 cm to the length of the skirt, to fold up as a broad ‘seem’ at the bottom of the skirt, as this will strengthen the bottom of the skirt, giving it that ‘stiff’ look (if that is not what you want then skip this).
The skirt piece is going to be a large rectangle, 250 cm long and 60 cm wide.
Before you cut this out remember to add 1 cm seam on every side! (the divisions at the top will be the folds of the dress)
Corset:
We’ll move on to the corset now, before actually putting the skirt together.
First, you need to measure your underbust and waistlines.
Divide these two in four, then measure the distance between your underbust line and your waistline. Then create a trapeze shape, like this:
Add 1 cm for seam on all sides and cut out 8 of these (4 for inner fabric)
TIP: You can use thinner inner fabric for the corset, but using the same makes the corset more sturdy.
If you want a corset binding that is not visible on the inner fabric, and will not irritate you, you should now take one piece and make holes and put eyelets in, as well as put in the ribbon. REMEMBER not have the eyelets too close to the edge of the fabric, as there should be space for seam and corset ribs on one side, and a zipper on the other (at last 3 cm from the edge).
Sew 4 of the pieces together, right side to right side, to make the outer fabric, and the 4 others to make the inner fabric. Then sew these together, right side to right side, at the under bustline. Where the pieces will meet, when wrapped around your waist, is where the zipper will be. To prevent the piece from sliding around, turn it right side out and long stitch all along the edges (red), as well as a normal stitch 1 cm away from each side of the seams (make sure they are aligned)(green):
Cut your corset ribs to fit (don’t make them too long, make sure you can sew on the skirt), and put them into the space between the seems you just made, so they are placed under every seam in the corset.
TIP: I folded the 1.5 cm wide ribbon over the top of the corset, this is easier done before sewing in the zipper.
Skirt:
Now back to the skirt, right side to right side, pin the skirt fabric to the corset. start with one pin at each end and the start folding like so, till there the whole skirt fits on the corset: (Note that this drawing is in ‘3D’ - the folds should all be on the same level):
TIP: Set needles at the corners, and at the middle of both skirt and corset, then line the two together, so the folds get distributed equally.
TIP: The folds should just touch at the front, and on the back they can overlap.
Now you can sew the skirt onto the corset piece, and take out the long stitching on the corset.
Now sew in your zipper and join the rest of the skirt.
Fold up the 10 CM at the bottom and sew this in place, one seam at the top of the 10 cm and one at the bottom of the skirt.
Now you only need to put whatever ribbons you want on the skirt, and it’s all done!!
TIP: Iron the folds of your dress to make them sharp and neat.
Jacket:
The jacket you want to find can be something looking like a blazer, mine was, till I lifted the collar, so search every secondhand/thrift store or everywhere you think you might find a black jacket, and lift the collars to see if it gives you the look you want (of cause you can keep the blazer look, if that’s what you want).
Put on your skirt and your plain black jacket, and measure out how long you want your jacket to be, I wanted mine to reach my waist, ending where the skirt began (so the corset isn’t visible). Use fabric chalk to draw where you want to cut it.
Remove pockets or other things, if they are in the way of you cutting, and then cut of your jacket to the length you want.
TIP: If you are going to edge the whole jacket with white ribbon you don’t need to make a seem where you cut your jacket short.
Now figure out how many buttons you want on your jacket, and where you want them to be, draw in dots with fabric chalk. Then sew button holes along the edge with equal spacing between them.
TIP: Wear your jacket when deciding where the buttons should be placed, this will help you line them right.
TIP: If there already are buttons, then use those holds, and use the same spacing between them for the rest of the buttons - use also existing buttonholes on the sleves.
TIP: If the existing buttonholes are smaller than the buttons you want to use you need to sew in a bigger buttonhole, which probably can be done atop of an existing one.
TIP: Don’t buy buttons that are too small for existing buttonholes
Pin down and sew on the ribbon going from button to button. You can make all sorts of endings, I just folded an easy triangle.
Now you can sew on the buttons in hand.
Then take your ribbon and fold it around the edges of the jacket and sew it on. When starting and ending ALWAYS fold the ribbon under itself, to secure the end.
TIP: This is hard in some corners, so cut the ribbon and fold it under itself, and start a new ribbon after the corner.
Now to the shoulder pads. Cut out this shape, in the size you want, on your piece of black felt.
Then sew on the fringe ribbon on the round end, in hand. I sew on two layers of ribbons atop each other, to make it thicker. Then sew on the write ribbon same way as on the jacket, on the square part, and in hand on the round part. Sew on a button as well.
You can now sew it on the jacket, I did this on machine, by sewing along the red dashed line.
The black rope I just made a loop 3 times, letting the end hang visibly on the front, and sew it under the shoulder pad on the jacket, in hand.
TIP: You can decorate the end of the rope with whatever you like.
Now you are all done!! Plz send me pictures of your dress, or tag me on Instagram @Hoejfeld - Love to see how yours turn out :)
You are welcome to contact me if anything is unclear, or if you have any questions :)
Good luck
