homemade costumes....

Well, my daughter did it again---there was a dance last Friday, theme Disney, weeks and weeks to prepare, and what does she do? Thursday afternoon, ask to go costume shopping...yeah, Pocahontas costumes are everywhere, dime a dozen---NOT! First stop was the local costume/party shop---just dreaming how easy life would be if they had one---affordable too! Nope, just a "sexy squaw" costume, XL which my daughter happily said no to. Next the tee-shirt shop, thinking we might find a xl tan tee-shirt we could chop up into a costume with minor alterations! Oh, they don't have any tan tees in stock...of course. KMart? Nope, so it was off to JoAnne's, the fabric store---"Let's just make it Mom, Ok?" Ugh---I have very little sewing experience, and as mentioned months ago probably in a previous post, really don't like sewing a lot, and especially WITHOUT A PATTERN! Not an issue with my daughter whom has had zero sewing lessons, no home-ec, just "knows" what she wants so "hey Mom, let's just make it!"

Instead of the super stretchy fabric she'd picked out we settled on a less expensive one-way stretch fabric & bought 2 yards for good measure...I think it even said it was 100% cotton on the bolt (tho we both wondered what supplied the stretch since it didn't look like a knit...). Throw in some thread and then a zipper my daughter insisted on purchasing, even tho the last dress she made with a zipper she sewed it in totally crooked & completely missed the seam at the bottom! I was pushing for no zipper (like I even know where my zipper foot is?!) but purchased it for her anyway---since supposedly she was going to sew it again! We brought everything home and then she took off for the evening, not returning 'til after 10:00 pm! Time to make the costume!! (I was ready for bed... *yawn...) There was no chance to make this the next day since we were off to tour a college campus all afternoon, and then one of the fellas she was going to the dance with offered to cook dinner for her and two other friends, so this evening was the only time left!

Setting up in the dining room, I curled up on the futon with a good magazine, and offered to play sewing coach & chief measurer. First thing we did was soooooo smart---we figured out which way the stretch went, and then made sure it went around her body, not the other way! Yes, we're learning!! Of course it was the width of the fabric, which meant we had a lot of extra fabric... better than not enough! Next we measured the fabric around her body, using her hips as the widest point & I had her sew a seam to make a tube. She then tried that on & we began to taper the tube in from her hips up. I'd pin where she needed to go in, then she'd sew the tapered seam up from that spot. We did this once more to make sure the tube fit tight at the top, and she then folded the top down to make into the fringe. I next marked the pointed hem, which she then cut and again left as raw fabric for more fringe. It was totally painless (aside from being almost midnight) and so much easier than previous dresses she's designed from scratch!

The next day on our way to the college she took an old teal tee shirt, and cut a long strip of fabric to make into a necklace, wrapping the fabric with brown yarn & stuffing marbles in to look bead-like. I guess necklaces like this are usually sewn into a tube first, but she didn't remember that fact until we were already on the road. I suggested twisting & that seemed to work just jolly fine with the yarn wrapped tightly around. With a drawn on tattoo on her arm, she was basically dressed as Disney's Pocahontas!

Sadly, the only pics we have are those taken at midnight after she finished making the dress---she was so busy the night of the dance none of her pals got photos taken! I'm hoping to have them all over soon for a photo shoot, but we'll see....

Meanwhile, here are a couple of shots of the finished dress---another fabulous success!!