Victorian Barbie - part 2

So last time I left you with a complete overdress.  This time you get the ruffled skirt and the hoop skirt.  Exciting?!

I've made a couple of hoop skirts in the past, but they haven't been very successful.  I've left it too late and just cobbled something together.  This time was going to be different.  I found an excellent tutorial here.  I just used plastic coated boning for the hoops, but otherwise they're pretty much the same.  I particularly liked the way the author measured a doorway!  It turned out her daughter was about the same height as Charlotte, so I'm afraid I just pinched her measurements!  I did make the top couple of hoops smaller, but that was due to the size I made the ruffle skirt.  Here's Charlotte in the completed hoop skirt.

It looks a bit odd in shape at the top, but it looks fine with the ruffle skirt over the top.  The fabric isn't spread out evenly either, but this was just a trying on session to see what size I needed to make the elastic waist.  I evened thing out once all the sizes were right.

Next up was the ruffle skirt.  I made an A-line skirt long enough to go over the hoop skirt and almost reach the floor.  To make an A-line skirt, I normally draw a rectangle on greaseproof paper the length I need plus hem and waistband width.  I measure how big I need the waist to be and divide by 4 for the width of the rectangle.  For this skirt I made sure the skirt would be big enough to pull down over Charlotte's head because it doesn't have an opening for a zip.  I then add on seam allowances to that.  I cut the rectangle almost into strips an inch or two wide (they are still all attached together at the waist).  I then just place it on a fold of my fabric and spread the strips out evenly.  The picture shown obviously isn't Charlotte's skirt, but you get the idea.

So the spread out rectangle becomes one quarter of the finished skirt.

After making the basic skirt I then spent a whole Saturday making and attaching ruffles.  It was all very straightforward, if very boring.

One completed ruffle skirt.

By this point Charlotte was more dress than child!  And then she tried the overdress on as well!

Look at the pattern matching around the zip!  It was more good luck than good management (although I did actually tack the second side of the zip in before sewing, for once), but I'm still pretty impressed with my bit self.

After the trying on session I did add an extra bit of ruffle.  I know, like this dress needs more ruffles!  You can't see in theses pictures, but when she turned to the side there was a gap below the bodice where you could see the waistbands of the underskirts.  I sewed a short length of ruffle to the bottom of the bodice to cover it.

And finally, a gratuitous couple of shots of my favourite girls.

Guess what Katie wants for Christmas!

Victorian Barbie - part 1

Charlotte's birthday was coming up.  Rapidly.  And I eventually got around to asking her what she wanted.
"A pair of high heeled boots", came the reply.
"Excellent", I thought. "No sewing involved there."
There was a slight pause, and then, "And a Victorian dress."  Oh.
"Well you can have one or the other."  Internally I was begging her to pick the boots.
"I'll have a Victorian dress then please."  D'oh.
A search on the internet later and she found this dress...

Check out those sleeves!  The same company also make something similar in pink...

that we decided would be better to base Charlotte's dress on.  No sleeves for one thing!

I called the post 'Victorian Barbie' because when I ordered fabric I ordered it in cerise rather than baby pink.  And boy, is it pink!  I decided to do the dress in three parts: the pink overdress, the white ruffled skirt, and the hoop skirt underneath it all.  I also decided that as it's probably Charlotte's last princess dress (mind you, I've been saying that for about four years!) that we would go as big and over the top as possible.  If a thing's worth doing...

I traced a basic bodice pattern and then altered it to suit the style of dress.

I thought the best (read easiest!) way to do stripes on the bodice was to lay white ribbon on the pink fabric.  Check out the pattern matching!  You can also see the Barbie-ness of the colour.

I wanted rouleau loops down the front of the dress.  I've never made them before, so bought myself one of the gadgets.  I love it!  First I made the tube.

Then cut it to size and pinned it to the dress.  I tried to line up the loops with the ribbon stripes so they'd be evenly spaced.

Pinned.

And sewn.  Yes the top ones stick out at funny angles, but I'm still super proud.

And here's the bodice just about finished.

The satin frayed a lot.  I have pink fluff all over the house because of it.

I then cut out a skirt.  I just cut a big rectangle.  The length is the length I wanted the skirt to be.  The width is three times the width I wanted so I could gather it up.  I rounded the bottom corners as I thought it would look better, and more importantly, I thought it would be easier to sew on the bottom ruffle.

Bottom ruffle pinned ready for sewing.

After the ruffle was sewn on I had a bit of a break.  I went to the local shop, quietly chuffed with myself.  Chocolate may have made it into my basket as a reward.  It was all going so well.  On my way back home I was thinking that I only had to attach the skirt, leaving the gap in the side for the white ruffled skirt to show through, and put the zip in the back and then the over dress was done!  Put the zip in the back.  Put the zip in the back...  Then it hit me.  I'd made the skirt in one piece.  There wasn't a place for the zip to go down the back of the skirt!  I didn't panic (well not much anyway).  I thought the easiest thing to do would be cut the skirt into to bits, attach them to the bodice separately, then there'd be a space for the zip.  Which is what I did.

Overdress complete.  Coming up in part 2 we have the exciting (ok, not so much) tales of making the ruffle skirt and the hoop skirt.  And we have the part that you all want to see, pictures of a child in the dress.

Cute Pictures!

I know I'm biased about the fact that they're cute, but I don't care!  First up we have Charlotte as Maleficent.  She's doing her dark and vengeful look.  Couldn't get her to smile at all!

I added some elastic under her chin to try to keep the headdress on.  It doesn't look great, but it's effective.  It means she can actually move her head now while wearing it and she doesn't have to hold on to one of the horns to keep it stable.  When I look at these pictures I realise just how over the top and big those horns are for her size!

The expression slipped slightly in the next picture and a smile half appeared!

Then we have the essential 'back of the costume' shots.

I think if I made Maleficent again I would put some wire in the collar pieces.  They will stand up, but they won't stay up at the moment.  Other than that I think I'm happy overall.

Next up we have Katie as Anna.

I'm loving this outfit!  Even though I had a couple of meltdowns making it I think it's one of my favourites.  Mind you, I think it's the cloak with the pom poms that I like best!

And what I think may be the cutest picture ever...

We do need a new hairband for the hat already though.  There's a strip of bias binding across the middle of the hat for a hairband to slot through, to keep the hat on.  The hairband has somehow (mysteriously!) broken.  To be honest I'm still amazed that we got her wearing the hat in the first place!

Making Anna

It all started so well.  I had plenty of time to make Katie's birthday costume.  Over a fortnight anyway.  Which in Auntie Sandra time is loads.    You may recall she wanted Anna from Frozen.

                                                      
I found a fantastic tutorial on how to make the cape here at Fleeting Thing, along with templates for the dress and skirt patterns.  I was going to do the whole outfit as they had, with separate skirt, top and waistcoat.  But  decided instead just to make a dress.  I had some dark blue polycotton left over from a Tardis dress I made a couple of years ago (you may get the story on here one day!), so thought I'd just make the rest of the dress from polycotton too.  The cape was more difficult.  It's really difficult finding fabric in that weird pinky/purple colour.  I found some stretch bengaline in the right colour.  I also had no idea what bengaline was, but thought I'd just have to make it work!  Turns out it's great for a cape.  It does have a bit of a stretch, but just enough to help you ease shapes together.  It's also quite heavy, and good for swishing.

Materials arrived and I drafted and cut out pattern pieces.  I did start timing myself to see how long it would take to do a project.  It took three hours to draft, cut and sew the bodice.

It took another hour to draft, cut and sew the skirt.

At this point I managed to leave the timer running overnight.  By the time I found it I'd apparently been working for fifteen hours.  I abandoned the timing exercise!

It was when I started on the cloak that it all went wrong.  I made the capelet to try on Katie.  I thought it was probably the wrong size, but it was a good starting point.  It turns out I needed to add an extra three inches to the back and front pieces.  It turns out our Little Mermaid is quite broad shouldered!  I was all set to make another capelet when I lost a week.  Careless of me I know!  I still have no idea how I managed it, especially when I knew that February only had 28 days.  But there it is.  One day I thought I had over a fortnight to just relax and sew at my own pace, the next I had a week.  I had a meltdown panic!  I think my other half did a very good job of not throttling me.  Instead he just rolled his eyes a bit and came with me to the local craft shop to get more bits and pieces.

It turns out that I had not read all of the instructions on cape making.  Rookie mistake.  It required putting bias binding around the raw edges.  Instead I had a go at a rolled hem.  My sewing machine didn't appreciate this decision.  It chewed fabric and pulled thread.  It did not look good.  Hence the trip to the craft shop.

After cape making it was decorating time.  I'd bought some paints to do the designs on the front of the bodice and on the skirt.  Unfortunately it turned out that they weren't all suitable for dark fabrics.  I ended up doing what I swore I would never do.  I did hand embroidery!!  I've never done it before, so why not learn front and centre of a garment that's going to be a present?!  The first flower was a bit shaky...

  
But I think you'll agree the second one worked better...

If only the same could be said for my painting!  On the bodice I used the template from Fleeting Thing, but I had to change the size a little.  I made templates for the pattern on the skirt and cape.  Making good use of a small dinner plate for the curves at the bottom.  It's all hi-tech in my house!  I chalked the outlines and then painted free hand.

It took quite some time to get around that skirt.  I had to paint a couple of repeats, wait for it to dry and then move it around a bit.  We were jumping over wet paint all weekend.

Anyhow, after several disasters, here's the completed dress

and cape

Check out those pom poms!  And it's ready in time for Katie's birthday.  Woo hoo.  I've just finished making the matching hat from Fleeting Thing.    I made a quick hat to get Katie to try on.  It looked like it was made for a doll!  Katie's theory was "I'm really skinny, so I have a small head!".  You've got to love her logic.  It was a touch small, but not as bad as feared.  I added a bit more room to the pattern pieces, and now it's good to go.  I'm not sure we'll manage to persuade Katie to actually wear it however!