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!

Enchanted

April 2012.  Charlotte's birthday fast approaching.  At the time her favourite obsession was Disney's 'Enchanted'.  For those not in the know, it's a 2007 mainly live-action film.  Giselle finds herself transported from Disney animated princess world into modern day New York.  Several other characters follow and chaos ensues.  It's actually quite good.  I've even been known to watch it without a child present.  Should I really admit that?  Perhaps not.  At the time Charlotte enjoyed acting scenes out, often while watching the film.  She was often heard asking for a poisoned apple.  Hopefully not in public.

Giselle spends part of the film (both animated and live-action)  in the world's biggest wedding dress.  'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' has nothing on this number!

Look at those sleeves!  And the size of the thing!  This one was going to end up more 'inspired by' than a faithful recreation.  Charlotte did want it big enough so she didn't fit through doorways.  I pretended I didn't hear her.

For the bodice I used (yes you've guessed it) Simplicity 2817.  I've had my money's worth from that pattern.  I think I may have bought it in a sale as well.  I just made it in plain white crepe backed satin.  I changed the zip in the back to an invisible one.  Have I mentioned how much I love invisible zips?  Best. Invention. Ever.  For the sleeves I used the same pattern but I made the pattern HUGE.  I more than doubled the size.  I wanted them to be MASSIVE.  Then I sewed them up and attached them to the bodice.  Frankly, I was a little disappointed.  I dread to think how big the pattern pieces were in the original.  They're ok.  They just don't have quite the impact I was hoping for.

Then came the skirt.  I was very confused by those ruffles.  I used net for the frilly bit, but I had no idea how to make the ruffles fall properly.  I experimented with strips of net quite a lot.  But to no avail.  Searching the internet I found this site.  Which includes a link to this amazing tutorial.  It wasn't strips I wanted, it was spirals.  Lightbulb.  A hasty measure of the net I had  to see how many spirals I could get.  I have a terrible habit of buying fabric and then deciding what and how I'm going to make something.  It's generally because I've left things so late I'm ordering fabric and drawing up patterns at the same time.  Bad Auntie Sandra.  As it tuned out I didn't have enough to go all the way around the skirt.  So I thought I'd put them in the front and around the sides and make an underskirt to stick the rest out.  This plan didn't work out either.  Because the net was quite stiff the front and sides stuck out massively.  The underskirt wasn't necessary.  The dress is slightly flattened at the back, but fortunately princesses don't have eyes in the back of their heads!

I drafted the overskirt myself.  It's A-line type panels (so it fits the bodice at the waist and then flares out) with shaping at the front.  It's also set off centre.  I think I should have made the opening bigger or more to the side, but never mind.

Completed dress before decoration.  I then added sequins and gems.  

I also made a butterfly and flower.  The flower's detachable but the butterfly's sewn on.  You can see them best in the animated portion of the film.

And here we have the birthday girl.

You can just about see the butterfly on the neckline and the flower at her waist.  That's Charlotte's elegant ballerina pose by the way.

And then the other niece wanted in on the action.  This is her demure look. 

I did have loads of photos of the making of this dress and other shots of the children in it, but the computer took poorly a while ago and I lost them.  Boo!

On the whole Charlotte loved her Giselle dress.  Even if she could fit through doors.  It's one of the most worn of their dresses.  White perhaps isn't the best colour for a princess dress though.  

Part of your World

November 2011.  Katie aged 4.
'I know what I want for Christmas.'
'Do you?  That's nice.  And what do you want for Christmas?'
'I want a green tail and a purple bra'
'I'm not really sure that's age appropriate'
'But I want to be Ariel!'
'How about the pink dress she wears?'

This conversation went on for several weeks.  We eventually got Katie persuaded that she would have Ariel's pink dress.  For those of you not familiar with 'The Little Mermaid'

this is what I was aiming towards.  While searching for inspiration I kept coming across this cartoon

on this website.  It made me chuckle every time I saw it.  I had very similar feelings about the dress myself.  I don't know if you've noticed yet but I don't do pink.  Unfortunately the nieces love it.  I keep trying to train them but to no avail.

Anyhoo, back to Ariel.  I used good old Simplicity 2817 for the bodice.  Raised the neckline an inch or so and narrowed it down a bit so it wasn't hanging off Katie too much.  For the sleeves I  used the long, puffed sleeve pattern from the witch pattern (Simplicity 2569) with some white applique bits on them.  I'd learnt my lesson trying to adapt the Rapunzel sleeves!  They're much better than that attempt.  The skirt wasn't too problematical either.  I just gathered up a layer of white crepe backed satin with a couple of layers of tulle on top.  The top layer of white is slightly stiffer (it wasn't supposed to be but this is what happens when you order fabric off the internet without asking for samples first) with dots on.  Not strictly accurate, but it got lots of positive comments.  And who doesn't love spotty fabric?  The top pink layer I made the same way as the puffy bits on Cinderella's skirt but bigger.  I just cut a semi circle of pink satin, hemmed the straight edge and gathered around the curved edge to attach at the waist.  I think I just cut the biggest semi circle I could out of the width of fabric.  When I made Cinderella's dress I couldn't believe how easy it was to make those puffy bits (apart from the fact I was making them in organza of course).  I'd looked at the dress before and couldn't get my head around how it would work at all.  You live and learn.

So, the completed Ariel dress.

Ah yes, Santa also brought Katie an Ariel wig for Christmas that year.  Just when you thought Katie's hairstyles couldn't get any better.

February 2012.  Coming up to Katie's 5th birthday.
'I know what I want for my birthday.'
'Do you?  That's nice.  And what do you want for your birthday?'
'I want a green tail and a purple bra!'

To be continued...

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your ... dress?

So, back in January of 2011, Disney released a new film, Tangled. And the girls loved it (of course). No prizes for guessing what kind of dresses Auntie Sandra would be making next.

Katie's birthday's in March and Charlotte's is in May, and they both decided that they wanted the same dress.  This is actually quite unusual.  I actually really like Rapunzel's dress.  It's a bit pink for my tastes, but it's not too "princessey"I like the purplely colour (I'm just making up words left, right and centre now) and all the details.  Not quite so keen on the details when I had to incorporate them all.  Snow White and Cinderella were both simple dresses without much detailing, but as computer animation gets better the dresses seem to get more and more elaborate.  I suppose it's because you don't have to keep drawing them all by hand!

I used the same bodice pattern as Snow White and Cinderella, Simplicity 2817 (notice the point at the front of Rapunzel's bodice).  I thought I could change the Snow White sleeves up a bit to make them three-quarter length and put a piece on the front of the bodice like the witch dresses for the lacing on the front.

Only make it a bit smaller and try to line up the ribbons better.  I didn't realise how far out I was at some of the edges until I enlarged that picture.  Or more technically enlarged one of the front of Katie's dress and I decided I couldn't share that with the World!

I had some purple crepe backed satin left over from Katie's witch, so that was going to be the over skirt.  I also got some pink and lilac satin for the bodice and sleeves.  The underskirt proved more problematical.  I wanted something in a similar purple but with a pattern on.  In the end I found some fabric with what seemed to be tinsel running through it.  It was a bit of a pain to sew, but nothing like as bad as organza!  The main problem seemed to be when my needle hit one of the strips of tinsel. It would stretch that strip and pull at the rest of the fabric.  D'oh

I used wide pink ribbon for the stripes on the sleeves.  I managed to find some almost exactly the same colour as the crepe backed satin.  I also found the cute butterfly trim that matched the lilac.  It's not strictly the same as Rapunzel's, but I thought she would approve.  The way I tried to extend the sleeves wasn't great.  It wasn't until after I'd made them and lined them (I think that was the main problem) that I discovered I had a pattern with the exact sleeves I needed.  The witch pattern!  Double d'oh.

Always check what patterns you have at home people!  The sleeves pull a bit funny and don't quite lie right, but neither of the girls seemed to mind.  I'm not looking forward to them getting older and wanting perfection.

You'll notice on the completed bodice that my ribbons line up much better than in the witch dress above.  Please, please notice.  Just don't take too much notice of the point at the front.  Again, I didn't trim it enough so it's quite bulky.  

More trim.  The 'lace' at the bottom and around the neckline is more than double the width showing.  It's got large holes down the centre of it.  I'm not sure if you knit with it or thread ribbon through it, but I thought it worked quite well here.

I seemed to take loads of photos of one of these dresses while making it, but I can only find a few with a child actually in it.  None are very good I'm afraid.  They all involve Katie being her naturally stylish self.

Ah, socks and messy hair.  A killer combination.  How she's going to love these photos when she's older.  If you look carefully, you can see her Rapunzel plait. Blonde plait with brown hair.  You just can't tell it's not natural can you?

This is Katie's cute face.  Terrifying.

And finally

There was a reason for the red hair and cheeks.  She was going to school dressed up for Red Nose Day (Comic Relief).  I'm not sure what the theme was supposed to be that year, but I'm sure a princess dress, red hair and a clown face was appropriate!

The Little Princess(es)

Flushed with success from making two witch dresses for Halloween 2010, I decided it would be a good idea (!) to make princess dresses for Christmas that year.  That was before I discovered organza was the work of the Devil, but more on that later.  Simplicity have an official Disney princess pattern for Snow White and Cinderella.

They also have an 'adult' version of these dresses, best not to get them mixed up!  Apparently you used to be able to get lots of other Disney patterns that have since gone out of print but I have noticed that they've started printing more (eg. Tinkerbell, Tangled) recently.  Other pattern companies do similar patterns, made up in colours to look like Disney princesses but with different design details.  I wanted my little princesses to look exactly right (or as close as I could get), so Simplicity it was.  

Charlotte decided she would be Cinderella and Katie wanted to be Snow White.  If I'd had the choice (like my opinion matters!) that's what I'd have gone for too.  Charlotte's fair with straight(ish) hair, and Katie's got brown (very) curly hair.  I ordered fabric.  Crepe backed satin for most of the dresses, some kind of dark blue crepe(?) for Katie's cloak and bodice, and organza for Charlotte's sleeves and puffy bits (I have no idea what to call them!).  This was back in the days when I took notice of fabric allowances on the backs of patterns.  I ended up with loads of left over fabric.  I think for Charlotte's I had twice as much as I actually needed.  Ah well, you live and learn.  Left over fabric will be making an appearance in later projects.  See if you can spot it.  It's a game for the whole family to play!

I'm not sure how much I changed the pattern in size.  I know I kept reading in reviews (I know, sewing pattern reviews, who knew!) that the pattern was quite low cut, so I'm fairly certain I raised the front and inch or so.  I know I have in all the other projects I've used this bodice pattern and  I've lost count of the number of times I've used it now.  With the point at the front, it works for most princesses.  One change I did make was to press the seam allowances of the sleeve in towards the bodice, rather than out as stated in the instructions.  I just thought it was a bit odd when you'd be able to see them through the sleeves.

I can't really remember much about constructing these dresses.  I know it took me a few weeks, but that was just because I was only learning and I was petrified of making mistakes.  With all that spare fabric I don't know why!  I thought the red on Snow White's sleeves was going to be really hard, but actually it was easy.  Bondaweb to the rescue.  The points at the front of the dresses aren't that good.  It's mainly because although the pattern told me too I didn't trim as much seam allowance as I should.  I've since learnt that you can snip right to the sewing line and the whole dress won't fall to pieces.  The only major problem I can remember was the organza.  How I hated it.  I vowed I would never use the stuff again.  You just had to look at it and it frayed all over the place.  I had to cut it with ordinary dressmaking shears because my pinking shears just ate it up.  I kept pulling threads in it when sewing it on the machine, but I think that was probably to do with the machine settings.  I was a nightmare.  It was probably the first bit of the project where I threatened to throw it out of the window.  It's a threat I now make on a regular basis.

When the dresses were almost complete I had to change the length of the skirts.  I had to cut a good foot off the length to get them about right.  Again with these oddly shaped children.

I also covered hairbands to match the dresses and added the padded 'bow' on Snow White's.  I'm sure there's an easier way of covering a hairband, but it always seems to involve me sticking loads of pins in it and then trying to manoeuvre around them (you've seen nothing like me trying to spell manoeuvre!).  I also put some velcro on some black ribbon to make Cinderella's choker.

And here are my first proper princess dresses.

We couldn't find any pictures of Katie in hers, so we just have the lovely Charlotte modelling both.  I know after Christmas the cloak was quite controversial.  Cinderella wanted one too!