Project Costume Finished!

Yeah!  This weekend I was able to finish up my daughter's costume.  Did you guess what it was from my teaser photo?

Yup...Strawberry Shortcake!

I'm really happy with how this came out, especially since I pretty much winged the whole thing!  Believe me, I had my fingers crossed as I was cutting up that pink polkadot fabric (I only had a yard).

While I didn't take pictures of the construction process, I will share with you how I did it, if you are an intermediate sewer, you will be able to do this pretty easily.  Find out how after the jump....


I purchased 1 yard of the polkadot fabric (quilting cotton; Riley Blake), 1/2 yard of the lime-green satin fabric (which was more than enough).  For the dress I used an old leotard and for the hat I used about 4" of 1/2" wide elastic, some medium weight interfacing and a small piece of peltex for the hat brim.


How to Make the Dress:
First I put the leotard on my daughter and marked where I wanted the dress to start.  I then used that line as a guide to center the Strawberry shortcake applique and embroidery.  Obviously I used an embroidery machine for the strawberry, but I did use my regular sewing machine to applique the diamonds.  You could easily do the same for the strawberry if you don't have an embroidery machine.

Next I cut my polka dot fabric into 3 triangular shapes where A was the width (plus 1") of the front of the mark line of the leotard.  B was 6" wider than A to allow for the triangular shape.  I made the length about 5" longer than I thought I wanted so I had plenty of hemline to play with (like I said, this was done completely on the fly!)

Next, I attached the 3 triangular shapes on the sides to create the dress.  Serged the raw edges and the top.  I then used a basting stitch along the top and used it to create a slight gather.  I sewed this to the leotard placing one panel so it would line up with the front of the leotard...the hem lines fall to the sides and back (there will be more gathering in the back of the dress.

IMPORTANT: When sewing, be sure to stretch the leotard otherwise the dress will not fit!  Remember that the quilting cotton does not offer that kind of stretch!

Finally, try the dress on the child and mark the length where you want it.  Cut it and hem.

To Make The Hat:
This one was a little more planned.  I actually combined techniques from two different tutorials:
The strawberry shortcake hat tutorial from Apt. 90.  I did use fusible interfacing so it would be a little stiffer and maintain the 'pouf'.

and, the Eddie Cap tutorial from Mushroom Villagers

 

I used the Apt. 90 tutorial for the top of the cap, but I wasn't crazy about the way the brim was attached, so I remembered the Eddie Cap tutorial (which I used a while back), and thought it would be a great alternative.  So I created the band and brim using those techniques.

 My only alteration of the Eddie Cap tutorial was that I actually cut the band in the back and added two 2" elastic pieces so it would be more adjustable.  I also pinched and sewed the band in the front so the floppy piece of the hat top would fall forward more.

The stockings were purchased.  The entire costume cost me about $14.00 and I have fabric left over, and I like it more than the commercial version....what do you think?

As for my older daughter, she had her heart set on a commercial Ariel costume, so I broke down and bought it for her.  I did do a little tailoring to make it fit better, but I'll save that for another post.