Making Maleficent

Happy New Year Everyone!  It's been quiet on the craft front in the Auntie Sandra household.  There was a mad rush before Christmas with outfits for the girls, a table runner for their Mam and bunting with photos on, among other things.  Since then I've been really lazy though and just doing jigsaws that Santa brought, and I don't think I can really count them.

So, after Charlotte's Halloween experience of being a character no-one would recognise (see here) she decided she wanted to be Maleficent for Christmas.  Very festive.  Originally she asked for a dress with the wings and horns, but we compromised with the Christening dress.

So we still needed horns and a train, but no wings.  Thankfully.  I found some black, crinkly fabric to try to get the texture and the 'V' pattern down the centre front and back.  I've never attempted to make anything on the bias before, so why not go for something high profile like the centre front of a dress?  I adapted Simplicity 5520.  When I say adapted, I mean I took out some panels, narrowed the whole dress massively, altered the sleeves and how they were set in the dress, added a big collar,changed the neckline and stuck a big train in the back.  Otherwise it's exactly the same!  After I'd made the changes to the pattern I worked out how much fabric to buy.  Because it was going to be cut on the diagonal of the fabric I ended up doing lots of diagrams and Pythagoras' Theorem came into play.  I also had to hunt out a protractor.  Does everyone do things like this, or is it just me that's that sad?

I remembered to take photos while making, so I'm afraid I will be sharing them.

Front piece pinned on fabric on the bias.

Fronts and backs cut out.

Fronts and backs attached.  You can just about see that I remembered to add interfacing at the neckline.

A close up of the 'V' effect down the centre front.

The sleeves on the original pattern weren't big enough for my purposes.  In the original Maleficent costume the sleeves are attached down the sides of the dress.  If I'd left them as they were the poor child wouldn't have been able the lift her arms up.  Although that might not have been such a bad thing!

The original pattern is on the right.  You can see I basically just stretched the shape out.  Once Charlotte had tried on the dress we discovered the sleeves were too long.

By several inches!  So the sleeves had to come back out to be altered.

I also changed the shape while I was on.

This photo was from before the alteration, but you can see how the sleeves are attached all the way down the side seam.

I did an awful lot of rolled hems on this dress.  On the plus side, I now quite enjoy doing them, although I do still tend to have a couple of false starts each time.

Next up was the the train.  I ended up putting a big triangle into the centre back each side of the zip.  I believe the technical term is godet.  Each triangle was split into three sections and each section has a contrast fabric across the bottom part.  It looks dead easy.  It took me about two days to figure out what I was doing!

  

The contrast is supposed to be leather.  Charlotte's obviously isn't.

Then came the collar.  Ah, the collar.

Each side has two separate 'petals'.  These petals join at centre front and back.  I thought I needed some sort of triangular shape.  After much experimentation I came up with this shape.

The curve down the right hand side is where it fits to the neckline.  I needed two of those for each top and bottom, in fabric and in stiff interfacing.  Thirty two in all.  Seems a bit excessive, doesn't it?

I did think to start with that I might need to put wire in them to keep their shape.  I didn't in the end.  It would have held the shape better, but I wanted it to be comfortable for Charlotte to wear.  That is after all what it is for.

One side of the finished collar.

After that the dress itself only needed a zip putting in.  So here we have the finished dress.

Front.

Back.  And close up of train.

I'm hoping that if I don't mention to anyone, that they won't notice that some of the grains in the triangles are going the wrong way.  But you're not going to tell anyone, are you?

On to the headdress.  I got to do papier mache.  I think I was about ten when I last did that.  I made some twisted horn shapes out of tin foil.  And blew up a balloon to the size of Charlotte's head.

I then spent several days covered in flour and water glue and newspaper.  After everything was covered and dry I tried the headdress on Charlotte and cut it to shape.  I attached the horns with tape and covered in yet more newspaper.

The horns are slightly wonky and I think they're too big, but I'm proud.

It was then time to get out the glue gun and cover it in fabric.

All ready in time to open on Christmas morning.  I'm just waiting for photos of Charlotte wearing the outfit to show you.

And what did the other niece want for Christmas?  Followers of this blog will know Katie has a bit(!) of a mermaid/Ariel obsession.  This year I caved.  She now has a tail and bra to wear in the bath!  More on that to follow.

Happy Halloween!

I thought I'd leave the nieces' Halloween outfits until tonight to post, but with hindsight I'd probably have been better off posting sooner.  Ah well.

First up, Katie.  She knew that she wanted to be a vampire.  To start with we thought we'd get away with letting her wear Charlotte's old vampire costume.

It fitted alright, but Katie doesn't like things rough on her skin.  She didn't like the velcro attaching the collar or the spider web tulle sleeves.  We should have known better.  I remember when she was a toddler hunting around for seamless socks for her!  We couldn't find a design that she was totally happy with.  I was hoping that we could persuade her into some kind of Goth get-up.  We did find a picture of a 'grown up' vampire, with a very short ruffled skirt.  We liked the ruffles, but the rest of the outfit was not appropriate for a seven year old.  I drew a beautiful (I'm sure you'll agree!) picture of what I had in mind.  I was thinking Victorian/Goth, with really long sleeves and a big collar.

I used the basic bodice from Simplicity 2569 (the infamous witches dresses)

With the sleeves from Simplicity 5520 (Merida and Elsa).  

For the skirt I drafted a basic A-line skirt and added lots of layers of ruffles.  I was very sick of gathering layers of fabric by the end.  Actually that's a lie, I was sick of gathering by the end of the first layer.  The collar I drafted myself, and may one day do a tutorial for it.  I know, you just can't wait, can you?  To eliminate the problem with the scratchy velcro, I put buttonholes in the back of the dress and sewed buttons onto the collar itself, so that the buttons would point outwards.  I will give credit where credit is due at this point, that bit was Other Half's idea.

While making this dress, the ruffles did look a bit unfortunate.  That is to say, it looked like something a barmaid in the Wild West would wear, or, as my Mam said, Nancy from Oliver.  I think it looks better finished, so here you are, one Victorian/Goth/Lady of the Night Halloween costume!

  

And from the back

I have to say, I think this is one of my favourite dresses I've made.

On to Charlotte.  Charlotte wanted to be a witch.  We trawled the internet looking for inspiration.  Nothing was right.  Until we found a picture of a GOOD witch.  It turns out she wanted to be Glinda from 'Oz The Great And Powerful'.

Oh dear.  It's got a crown!  Which was, of course, vital to the outfit.  In a reversal of Katie's costume, I used the dress from Simplicity 5520 and sleeves from Simplicity 2569.  The sleeves and front panel were made from a two-tone chiffon, decorated with some glitter glue.  The crown I made with gold painted corrugated card and a clear plastic hairband.  I know, so hi-tech!

During the making of Charlotte's outfit, I did look suspiciously like a nightie, although now it's done, I actually really like it.

Poor bairn did spend a lot of time at the school Halloween disco explaining who she was!  She seems to have learnt from this experience though.  When I asked her last week if she wanted a princess dress for Christmas she said she would like to be...

"With the horns and wings please Auntie Sandra."  Oh dear!

Vampire Queen

Charlotte didn't know what she wanted to be for Halloween 2012.  We brainstormed for quite some time.  Eventually she decided on a vampire.  I'm sorry, a Vampire Queen.  Not just a common or garden vampire.  Now we just had to design an outfit. I quite fancied something Steampunk looking.  A kind of possessed Victorian child doll. With a cute teeny, tiny top hat.  I harbour a secret hope that I can get one (or both) of the girls interested in Goth or Steampunk so I can spend my days making corsets and bustles.  Everyone's got to have a dream!  I'm not sure their Mam would agree though.  Anyway, back to Charlotte.  Steampunk was out.  I found loads of dressing up outfits on t'internet for her to browse through.  She eventually picked something like this

She wanted a cloak though.  The fact that Katie had got a cloak when I made her Snow White dress was still a sore point.  Two years later.  These children have long memories.  I wanted to make a bigger collar with more shape to it.  More like this one

In the end we compromised.  She'd condescend to wear the collar if I made a cloak.  I thought a kind of Scottish Widows type cloak with a hood would be good.

So to work.  For the bodice I adapted good old Simplicity 2817.  I cut it short so it would be more empire line.  I ended up putting some very stunted darts in.  I wasn't sure if it would work without or not.  Better safe than sorry.  I used crepe backed satin for the most part, but I overlaid the red with some spider web tulle to give it some pattern.  The sleeves were slightly problematical.  I wanted to put strips down the puff sleeves so they looked like slashed sleeves.  It took me a while to work out that it was easier attaching the strips before gathering.  It seems so obvious now. The lower sleeves were also made of the spider web tulle. 

The skirt was made from crushed velvet.  I just made a long, slightly A line skirt.  The collar was also made from crushed velvet.  I adapted the Snow White collar.  The cloak was just an internet tutorial.  I have no idea which one.  There are a lot out there.  

On this outfit I think I put the most trim on I ever have.  There seemed to be gold braid everywhere.  I was concerned while making it that the dress would be too tight.  Charlotte insisted it was fine.  I just think she liked the fact that something was so close fitting on her.  This is a child that makes skinny jeans look baggy!  She did manage to squeeze into it last year for Halloween as well, but I think she's finally outgrown something I made.  I never thought I'd see the day.

And finally a vampire (queen, notice the tiara) and her pet cat!

Scary or what!

I want a cat-up dress!

Autumn 2012.  Katie announces that she knows what she wants for Halloween.  This was news to me.  I didn't even realise I was making outfits until that moment.
"I want a cat-up dress."
"A what now?"
"A cat-up dress."  As if it was perfectly clear what she meant by this.
 We eventually decided she must mean a cat dress-up.  She obviously had a very clear idea of what she wanted as well.  Clearly some thought had gone in here.  I assumed (foolishly, as it turns out) that she wanted something like this

Or this

You know, cute little tutu type skirt, tail and ears. Something quite girly. But no.  This is Katie we're talking about.  She wanted something like this

No princess dress pattern in the World was going to help here.  I found this Simplicity pattern to try to alter.

Simplicity 2855.  I think, although I couldn't swear to it, that I took the pattern in down the sides.  I know I shortened the legs and arms. Too much as it turned out. Apparently that's not how you're supposed to adjust raglan sleeves.  Never mind, she wanted white "fur" around the cuffs anyway.  I just had to add a bit extra.

I moved the zip from the centre front to the centre back.  I assume it was down the front for ease when dressing of yourself, but Katie would always have someone around to help.  I didn't fancy trying to insert a zip in fluffy material and thought it would get caught up when she was trying to open and close it.  I also thought it looked just plain daft.

I just cut an oval of fur for the front, rather than the slightly heart shape of the pattern.  I didn't make the hood or the shoe covers.  Katie was just going to wear black shoes or boots and I didn't think they'd survive too well in wet weather.  For the ears I covered a hairband in the black crushed velvet and made some ears to sew on.  It was a bit of trial and error to get them sewn on so they stood up and you couldn't see any raw edges.

And here she is.  Cat with attitude.

You can see that the arms and legs are a bit short for her.  But she still managed to wear it the next year as well.  When she went out 'Trick or Treating' she became a vampire cat.  No prizes for guessing what Charlotte's outfit was!