Monday 23 September 2013

Princess Aurora

It was book week again recently (is it really only once a year??) and with nearly a week's warning, my daughter decided to dress up as Aurora (otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty). Her shop-bought costume from a few years ago was getting too small, so the order went in for a new costume - one that matched the dress in the book, and one that didn't have any scratchy bits. Here's what she ended up with:





 
And here's the "pattern" (really more of a design, isn't it?) I was asked to work from:


Surprisingly, my ridiculously large pattern stash didn't include anything that exactly matched this design... so this piece of sewing turned out to be an interesting little exercise in pattern modification and drafting:

Speaking of which, I REALLY need to have a giveaway soon - to pass some of my stash on! More on that later :)

We started by making a muslin using Burda 9534, the closest thing I had to the desired dress shape, to which I added a zig-zaggy peplum. This gave the Princess confidence that her slave mum knew what she was doing, so the Princess decorated her muslin and decreed it appropriate for Cinderella* dress-ups:


* that's Cinderella the drudge, not Cinderella at the ball

I love the decorations... wish I was brave enough to do this to my clothes!



Here's the tech drawing from the Burda pattern - which gave me a bodice, long skirt and long sleeves to play with:




I took a day of annual leave from work. Fabrics were hunted and gathered from Spotlight (I couldn't get quite the right shades of pink), and then the modifications to the muslin began:
  • changed the neckline from round to V-shaped
  • drafted a self-lined collar to extend to the width of the shoulders and sit a little above the dress (which meant a different shoulder seam shape)
  • lengthened the bodice for a lower waistline

  • re-cut the waistline from a horizontal to a V-shape, echoing the new neckline
  • modified my initial peplum to match the shape of the downwards pointing waistline and to include a self-lining
 

It worked so well from the Princess' perspective that I'm encouraged to start drafting a few little details for my own sewing projects!




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Now, if you've read this far, thanks for your attention - how about advance notice of a giveaway? I'm coming up to my 200th post and 3rd blog anniversary, so I want to hold a "shop my stash" giveaway to celebrate within my next few posts.  I'll either post photos here or on Pinterest of what's up for grabs - which may be fabric, sewing books or patterns - and you can comment to let me know what you want.

12 comments:

  1. That's a great dress. The collar and waistline detailing works really well. She is Aurora in her beautiful gown.

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  2. Gabrielle this is just fantastic, you are very clever. And quite honestly I love the decorative flourishes your daughter made to the muslin, what an artiste! When my little one asks for her first book week outfit, I'm sending her your way!

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    1. Thanks Jillian, I love the decorations too.

      Please don't send any more costume requests my way! Once a year is plenty! I mean... don't you want that pleasure for yourself? ;)

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  3. You are a very creative Mum and Princess Aurora looks gorgeous in her gown.

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  4. I can't believe you made a muslin for a bookweek costume...that is taking things to a whole new level! You go, girl!

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    1. I know - totally ridiculous! I didn't want to waste my time making the costume if it was just going to be rejected, so I wanted to check that she was going to be OK with the basic dress shape - she couldn't "see" her design when she looked at the Burda pattern I wanted to use. But yes, completely OTT...

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  5. What a darling costume! I miss those days when my girls loved playing dressup and I made their costumes...The muslin was sweet and I love her decorative touches!

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    1. Thank you Margo, I don't really enjoy making costumes per se but this one was at least a bit more interesting because of the need to draft some little changes... Maybe I can send my daughter's future costume requests your way? (Don't worry, just kidding!!)

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  6. Thank god I have boys... this dress is just fantastic! And I love the cinderella one as well!

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    1. Yes, I get minimal costume requests for my son - this year all I had to do was covet a toy sword in Al-foil! Thanks, they've both been very successful in terms of customer satisfaction :).

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