The Making of a Dress: Step 2 - Fit for a Lady

Yesterday, we learned the first step in dress-making — measuring and cutting the pattern. Now, we're movin' on to the next step in the production of Mondo Guerra's winning Project Runway All Stars dress.

Nanette Lepore's production development manager Chris Stoia is back to fill us in on what happens now.

"After cutting the garment from the pattern, the cut work is rolled up and placed 'in the bin' and waits to be sewn," Stoia says. "It stays there less than a day until it's picked up by the next available dress sewer."

"All cutwork goes in the same place, but we know which sewer is best-suited for making each garment, so Sarah, our sample room manager, makes sure it gets into the right hands," Stoia says. "The sewer looks at the cutwork to figure out exactly how it sews together. Then, she sews it, which is a simple sentence but one of the most complicated things to do!"

"After that, we go to a fitting. We review length, style lines, and fit until Nanette is happy, which is not an easy task," Stoia admits. "It takes about 20 minutes per garment. Time is money. We don't dilly dally. After we fit, our pattern makers make the corrections approved in the fitting and then we send the patterns and the completed dress to grading and marking."

The Making of a Dress Giveaway!

The silk dress is already sold out at nanettelepore.com, for $298, but fear not! You can still get your hands on Mondo's dress — for free! — in our Twitter "The Making of a Dress" giveaway!

To enter to win, just follow @nanettelepore and @marieclaire on Twitter and send a tweet with the hashtag #MondosDress by Friday March 16 at 12 p.m. EST. The winner will be announced on Friday!

NEXT UP! Tomorrow, we'll discover what happens in "The Making of a Dress" Step 3: Good Grades.