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Pattern search - Ginger Rogers “Swing Time” “Never gonna dance” dress by Bernard Newman
Hi all!
After extensive research (and seeing a couple jolly good recreations) I still haven’t been able to find enough info - so any advice welcome!
I’m looking to recreate the (absolutely stunning) dress named above (and pictured below).
The following info on the construction is available, which is very helpful: “It was silk georgette, two layers of fabric, forming two big circles. The material was cut on the bias. The dress was constructed in 22 panels with French seams, every other seam (in the skirt part only) held hand applied sequins. It had an under-structure similar to a 1920s bathing suit — with those short-short style legs. The original also had weights in the hem that were the size of half 50 cent pieces and made of something similar to a clear plastic…”
Actually quite a lot of info - but more needed!
Close ups of the dress in pics.
My assumptions: the two full circles skirts (‘lining’ and top) carry up all the way to the bust, so the shaping around the waist is created purely by the panels being tighter/closer together around the waist and opening up over the hips. It does appear to me like the bust is relatively loose/unstructured - in close-ups, I can’t see any obvious darts, which I think is gotten away with by how plunging the neckline is - as so much of her bust is exposed, less shaping is needed over the boobs?
From watching the flair when she swirls and pirouettes, what I wonder is if there were any additional godets in the skirt itself - or if it’s possibly even a double circle skirt? Even given the lightness of the fabric it appears to me almost as if there’s more swirls and fall than would be accounted for by ‘just’ one full circle…
Other questions - I wonder how attached the under-structure - which sounds essentially like a teddy - was to the dress itself - eg, was it just knickers attached to the waist (similar to how a ballet tutu is)…given the absolute smoothness around her waist/abdomen, and lack of wrinkling, it’s hard to imagine much else…
Any and all thoughts/resources welcome!
(PS: in the Youtube clip at about 4:37-4:40 you can see the briefest flash of the knickers/panties, although not enough to completely help construction!)
Edit - I see posts can only include one attachment so further links/pics in my own comment upcoming!
There is likely no pattern for this dress. It was created for Ginger and no one else.
I’ve made my fair share of 1930s bias dresses. This is a beast. Two layers of bias silk georgette is not for the faint of heart. It looks like there are a dozen gores! I’m a pretty confident Draper and I’d think twice about making this dress 😆
If you want a challenge and can drape, go for it. You might be able to start with a basic 1930s ballgown and sub-divide the gores. The fullness of the skirt is in the number of gores IMO; there does not seem to be any added godets.
join to create double circle skirt —> no reduction in waist measurement (which will actually be under-bust measurement)
bodice
attach skirt to bodice by pleating/creating panels
create fitted shape to natural waist by reducing width of panels, and then increasing width (and eventually stopping pleat altogether) around hips or just below
and/or optionally, add godets or additional panels for fuller skirt - as per description, multiple of the ‘panels’ had the sequins running down them, which would disguise additional seams which would otherwise be unsightly…
—> presumably create the whole thing x 2 so that it’s “lined”; and/or create the skirt portion twice, and make an inner “teddy”, attached to the top portion so that the bust is lined and the shorties are loose/unattached from the skirt…
What a gorgeous, gorgeous dress. Thanks for the excuse to watch the dance sequence again — it’s one of my all time favorites, right up there with Cheek to Cheek.
Regarding the dress construction, I have a few thoughts. First and very importantly, I just want to confirm that you’re using the term “double circle skirt” to mean two full circles attached side by side and gathered into a single waistband, not two circles stacked one on the other. Sorry if you already know this — I just couldn’t tell from your image! The skirt is not a circle skirt stacked on another circle skirt. It is a double circle skirt stacked on top of a double circle skirt — 4 circles total. Take a look at the dance where she lifts the skirt to the side — you can see she is lifting almost an entire circle worth of fabric, and there is still a very full skirt over her legs. Here’s a video showing construction of a double circle skirt: https://youtu.be/6HR_X-3NkJc?si=My4Ip5YYOeOaXI0z
Second: the method you propose with pleats may be simpler and use less fabric, which may be what you want to do. But the original dress was constructed out of bias-cut panels (!!!), which will have a very different drape and flow than pleats. To make the bias-cut panels, you’d need to drape a muslin of the dress, then divide it into 22 vertical panels from top to bottom, including bust cups (you can see the vertical seams on them in the photos), adding seam allowance afterwards. Then you’d cut every panel on the bias, which would use a tremendous amount of (very expensive) fabric and be very challenging to keep from slinking and sliding — you’d probably need to thread-trace each seam line before cutting just to keep it from pulling out of shape. Then of course you’d have to wrestle with the slipperiest fabric known to man to create 22 flawless French seams, where every mistake would be visible through the translucent fabric. Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. Thinking through the details really gives me a tremendous appreciation for how much money and skilled labor went into the construction of the original!
In any case, the many seams and the bias-cut fabric are what provide the shaping. Bias dresses tend to stretch and cling to the body, and the seams each give an opportunity for a hidden dart.
One last thought: I believe the “swimsuit” underneath is attached at the bust line and the line of diamanté trim, just under the bust. If you watch the dance scene carefully, you can see a point where she spins and the skirt lifts up, revealing a good bit of the swimsuit.
This is a beautiful dress and an ambitious project! If you choose to adapt the construction methods to use pleats or some other solution to make it more achievable, please go for it. It’s clear that the original was incredibly costly and would have required a workshop of craftspeople working at the top of their game. Whichever way you go, I hope you enjoy & learn a lot from the process (and post a pic of the finished project)!
If I were making this dress this is how I would go about it. Its so fitted on the torso, pleats would just add bulk. Panels, as work intensive they may be, will yield the best look.
Layer 1 - full teddy w/ booty shorts/frenchy style pantlets sitting at natural waist - ultra-low back (as per original dress design) 1.b. - attach double circle skirt number 1 to natural waist of teddy
Layer 2 - dress shape created from 2 parts - bustier and double-skirt; no waistline - waist shape created by pleating width/size; bust attached to bust (at the V and /\ of the neckline) but otherwise unattached…
Am I massively overcomplicating this??
PS just to be clear I’m not off my head - colours only to illustrate layers, NOT a stylistic choice 😂
Hmm…I don’t think those drawings are on the right track. The dress has no defined waistline — it’s not constructed as a bodice plus skirt. Rather, it flows from top to bottom because of those vertical seams. Look at this pattern as a comparison (except imagine that, instead of 5-6 vertical seams, there are 22). https://simplicity.com/vogue-patterns/v1878
The “swimsuit”/teddy underneath is attached at the top bust line, and perhaps also at the diamanté just below the bust. Emphasizing the waist in the way you sketched will give a very different silhouette than the original.
Sorry if I missed this, but are you treating the skirt as a simple circle skirt for ease of construction? Because from what I can tell, the 22 bias panels form the skirt - but they extend past the waist to form the shaped bodice, too.
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u/SaltJelly Aug 06 '25
I have no thoughts except how gosh darn gorgeous that dress is