Princess Costume

Purim has arrived, and I finally finished Littleheart's princess costume. I mentioned last month, that I decided to make the costume in two parts - the tutu under the dress and the dress itself. This way Littleheart will have two dress-up pieces in her dress-up box. You can check out my tutorial for the circle skirt tutu here.

I must say, I cannot take credit for the entire design of the dress. I studied lots of wonderful tutorials before I decided what I wanted to do. You can find my inspiration on my "Sewing Costumes" Pintrest board.

Anyway, I didn't choose a specific Disney princess, since Littleheart really doesn't know them yet, but the style of the dress is definitely inspired by Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella...

I chose pink and white for the fabric, but you can really choose any colors. The pink is a "costume satin" and the white is just a plain cotton. I lined the bodice with a white knit fabric, so it would be nice a soft on the inside (I like soft).

I actually made the dress way to long, and then decided to leave it long, and hem it up by hand with a blind hem to the right length. This way Littleheart can still wear it when she gets a bit taller. If there is a line where the fold is on the hem, I can always sew on a pretty piece of lace. Unfortunately the day I actually put it on her I noticed the front is longer than the back, and the front is a bit too long...But she did ok with it.

Anyway, enough talking, lets get down to business - you want to make your own princess dress? Keep on reading...


What you will need:
A circle skirt tutu (see tutorial here)
Bodice pattern:
Just take any T-shirt pattern that fits your child. Take the front piece, and instead of having the bottom straight across, make a point like so:

1.5-2 yards of satin
1/2 yard of cotton and 1/2 yard of lining (I used knit)
Strip of lace with eyelets, or just lace

Cutting
Cut two back bodice pieces out of your cotton and your lining
Cut one front bodice piece on the fold out of your cotton and your lining
Cut one middle piece out of your satin
Cut two strips out of your satin. use the entire width of the material, and make it as long as you want.

Sewing

First take your middle front piece and fold over both sides, about half an inch and press.

Pin the piece to the center of your outer fabric front bodice and sew down both sides.

Take your strip of eyelets and place them along the edge of the middle piece. Pin and stitch on. Use your zipper foot to sew on the strip, so the eyelets don't get in the way. If you do not have a strip of eyelets, you can make loops (see this tutorial). I would still use a strip of lace, and sew the loops under the lace. 

Sew shoulder seams of both lining and outer fabric separately.

Pin the lining piece to the outer fabric piece, right sides together. Sew around the entire piece (front and back), but leave the bottom of the front open. Turn the whole part right side out, make sure you poke out all the corners. Serge or zigzag the bottom of the front bodice closed (so it will be easier to sew on the skirt part).

Set aside.

Make the sleeves according to this tutorial. 

Sew in the sleeves.

Prepare your skirt pieces: serge or zigzag the top of the skirt pieces so they do not fringe.

Gather the top of the skirt pieces. You need to do a lot of gathering, since we cut a lot of material to get the fullness. Gather to the size of the bottom of the bodice.

Now pin the first skirt part to the bottom of the front bodice and sew it on. I actually went over that twice, so it would be very secure.

Back skirt opening - so it is easy to get on and off (do this before you ruffle):

Cut a little rectangle piece of your fabric and serge (zigzag) around the edges.
Place it in the middle of of the skirt piece, lining up one small end with the edge of the skirt piece. Make sure you put it on the right side of the skirt piece (not like me :( ).  

Mark the middle of the piece and draw a line down, about 3.5 inches. Now draw a line 1/4 inch to each side of that middle line. 

Starting at the top of the skirt piece, sew down the right line, sew half an inch across, and see back up the other side.

Now cut down the middle line and when you get to like half an inch before the bottom, cut diagonal to the corners (see pictures).

Flip the little rectangle piece to the back and sew around the opening again.

Now ruffle the both sides of the top of the skirt piece and sew to the back bodice pieces.

Sew side seams.

Hem the dress and you are done!

Littleheart loves her dress, she was very proud to wear it to her Purim party at daycare and wore it for three days straight after that (now it is in the wash...).

I made another costume for a friend's son - a superhero costume. I will show it to you soon...