The Great Costume Sewing Adventure

So even though I do not usually sew clothes, I decided to make Ella's Halloween costume. For some unknown reason. She said she wanted to be a fairy - I thought that sounded pretty easy. When I went to the fabric store I found a really really adorable Tinkerbell costume pattern. So cute and so I bought it. Without checking to see how difficult it might be to sew. Because I don't apparently care about that kind of thing.

Then I went to buy some fabric - I found the cutest sparkle organza and some pretty matte satin in a light green that would be perfect for Tinkerbell! I didn't look to see how much the fabric cost, because again, I don't apparently care about that kind of thing.

As it turns out, the pattern was extremely complicated and involved about 100 different pieces - all to cut out and try and figure out how to sew together. Also the material was super expensive, but by the time I figured that out, I already had them cut it, so it was too late to do anything but buy it. Also it was very cute. So this was going to be the most difficult and expensive Halloween costume for a 2 year old in the history of the world.

Luckily I somehow convinced my Mom that it would be really fun to come over and help me sew it all together! I gave her the very important job of cutting out something like 8 or 10 different skirt pieces. Mostly out of that really cute but difficult to cut sparkle organza.



Lots and lots of cutting later, we have skirt pieces!!!



This is me ironing the "petal" part of the skirt - 8 petals, made of 16 petal pieces.

So after many hours of sewing, and several sessions of ripping things out and sewing them together and then ripping it out again because I cannot follow directions - we had a fantastic and amazingly beautiful Tinkerbell costume!!!


Unfortunately it was a little big - because I do not care about sizes and I just made the smallest one on the pattern. Luckily it was only a little big and after a few adjustments (taking the skirt and bodice apart, taking out the bodice side seams, adding ties, sewing the sides up again and sewing the bodice and skirt back together again) it fit fine, and will fit for awhile which is good because Ella LOVES IT and likes to wear it all the time, so it will go in with the rest of the dress up clothes! Also, while the bodice and skirt were separated I took the time to wash the bodice, the very first time Ella wore it, when she tried it on, there was a small mishap with orange frosting. But it came out in the wash fine :)

I used the left over fabric to make a mini-Tinkerbell skirt for Avery. Ella insisted that Avery have a Tinkerbell costume too. I didn't have it in me to try for a whole dress, so I made a skirt and did a freezer paper stencil onesie with wings. Much better for a baby anyway.