First, I updated a 30-year-old Snow White costume that I made for her Mama back in the day. It needed to be cleaned (daughter had obviously scored heavily on chocolates that Halloween). I was surprised at how good a job our not-so-local dry cleaners did with it. I was going to OxyClean the heck out of it, but was afraid of the colors running in the broadcloth colorblocked pieces. Turns out entrusting it to the dry cleaners was a good move.
I had to take it in a bit at the waist and shorten it about 4.5 inches, since her Mom was a year or two older when she wore it. Anyway, I got a kick out of working on the dress once again, after all these years.
I just put the deep hem in since I'm sure I'll be letting it out as the little one continues to grow.
The next project was to make a Belle character toddler play dress. For those not subjected to watching Disney movies over and over again as a grandchild works her way through all the Disney Princesses, Belle is the main character in Beauty and the Beast.
I drafted my own pattern for this after my daughter sent me a picture from the internet and asked if I could duplicate it. The one that she wanted duplicated was made in China from cotton for $18. The material and notions for this dress totaled about $40. Since I had to draft the pattern, fiddling with details that are of no importance to a toddler, but essential to a sewist, I could have made a dress for myself in half the time!
Here's the dress:
Dress Fabric: Polyester crepe
Rosette fabric (with bead center): Polyester charmeuse
Lining fabric: Ambiance
Pattern: self-drafted, based loosely on Butterick 4320
I didn't use the Butterick pattern except for inspiration because for one thing, the fit is HUGE. I tried to use the smallest size, and it was still disproportionate, and my granddaughter is well within normal range for height and weight. So apparently the cluelessness of the large commercial pattern companies regarding the shape of real people's bodies extends down to the toddler sizes as well. Oh well.
To hide the raw edges of the rosette so I could stitch it to the center front, I made a small enclosed charmeuse square and slip-stitched it to the back of the rosette. Next I stitched the bead into place. Then I slip-stitched the rosette into place.
While normally I would be nervous to secure a red item on a golden dress (as opposed to making the rosette removable), I feel that when washed, the colors will not run, because I prewashed all the fabrics and also because all the fabrics are polyester which should wear well for a messy toddler. So as long as the rosette withstands the wash, all should be well. If it doesn't I can always make another and make it detachable.
Next up is some requested Hallowe'en wear for Mom and Toddler.
I may catch up on some posts for other toddler sewing I've done over the past few months. Stay tuned, if interested in that sort of thing.
