Saturday, November 1, 2008

Emily's Halloween Costume


Halloween has come and gone and Emily got to go trick-or-treating 
in costume after all. And now that all the doorbell-ringing and 
pumpkin decorating are over, I am finally sitting down to post 
pictures of that elusive dress Emily asked for. Here's the first 
picture just to prepare you for the color it is. 

We started out with this

and ended up with this.

Drats, I should have ironed the skirt. Mumble..mumble......mumble......
But I must say it turned out better than I'd expected. I was planning to 
sew her a fabric tiara but surrendered at the last minute and braided 
together remnants from the dress to make her that 
headband/pretend-garland.


In case anyone is wondering - er, what is she supposed to be? 
Tamborine dancer? Crown-less princess? Hippie?

A ballerina. 

But not the tutu kind. People just don't go out in the dark 
in tights and a tulle belt in October in this part of the world. 
That's hypothermia waiting to happen. 


So Emily got fleece. And long sleeves. And a semi-circular skirt. 
The skirt is the main thing- at the very least it had to twirl properly. 
And a fleece skirt, while warm, is not fancy, and therefore not fun
So it had to have floaty shimmery layers. Not organza, which would 
have been easier to work with. Chiffon. With sparkles. And satin in 
the bodice to make it princessy. Thank goodness for a serger.


But I like how it turned out, the skirt especially. It has nice movement 
to it, even for fleece. A full circular skirt would have been spectacular 
but it would have also been too heavy for a little girl. 


The assymetrical layers in the skirt were fun to do, especially 
considering that I carelessly bought too little fabric 
to do it the easy way.  




The best part of this? If last year's princess costume was anything 
to go by, Emily will probably wear this over and over again 
throughout the year. All that mileage is good for a dress 
with that much pink in it.

5 comments:

  1. Even ballerina princesses need to keep warm, yes? Pink fleece? That's a crazy cool idea...but PINK fleece...sigh...the sacrifices we make as mothers...

    That's an award winning outfit by the way :) What? Four different fabrics, trimmings AND great use of remnants...definitely a gold-medal feat!

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  2. Chiffon! What memories...

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  3. can't imagine when the time comes for you to make lovely costumes for all 3 of them. what a sight to behold! :)

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  4. Hi..........
    Happy New Year

    The Dress looks very beautiful.
    I am also mom of two girls.
    I want to stitch as same as your Emily's dress for my younger daughter.
    Can you give me tutorial of two-thirds-of-a-circle skirt?
    My Email Id is nalinianbarasu@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

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