My Elsa

I've tried to resist and resist...but one year later, I finally sew an Elsa costume for my girl.  The pattern is self drafted for my 4 year old.

Here it is. All sparkly and princessy.  I bought all the fabric from Arab Street.  I think all in, I spent less than $30, including the crystal snowflake motif that I iron on the skirt and cape.  Here are the detailed photos.

The back view with the cape attached to the back bodice.  The cape is actually one piece organza which I slit open 5" gap to allow more room to slip in the dress.

Look at the snowflake crystals on the cape! so pretty.

I've document some notes below on how i sew the dress for my future reference.  I use 4 types of fabric:

• white chiffon 1/2 yard
• bluish green fabric with sequins 1/4 yard
• satin in turquoise colour 2 yard
• bluish green organza 1 yard

Bodice
I used chiffon which I did french seams since it frays like crazy and the white is too transparent. It was my first time doing french seams and I pondered a lot on the sequence of sewing. I sew the chiffon bodice first and then attach the sequin bodice on top.  The sequin bodice is very flimsy so I baste it on the turquoise satin first before attaching. I did the same for the back sequin bodice.

I added a belt as I realised that I cut my bodice too short!

Cape
I decided to just use the full width of my organza and cut the required length from the sequin bodice to the hem of the skirt.  Since I use the full width with the selvage, there is no need to treat the side seams. But I did use lighter to burn the edge for the top and bottom so that it will not fray. See the wavy curves where the fire burnt.

I did a 6" slit in the middle of the cape to allow more room for my girl to unzip her dress. To prevent fraying, I use satin stitch to go over the edges, placing interfacing below my stitch to reinforce the stitch. Then I just cut off the excess after sewing.

Next, I gathered the top edge of the organza and pin it to the sequin bodice, making sure I overlap the front by 5" on both sides. The red clover clip is where the middle slit is. Sew the cape to the bodice/belt but don't sew over the slit.

Here's how the cape looks in front. The cape was sewn to the sequin bodice before attaching to the chiffon bodice. Then I gathered the skirts and attached to the bodice. Insert zipper and its done.

I thought the skirt needs some sparks so I iron on some snowflake crystals on the front skirt as well as the cape.  It was really easy. Bought all the iron on at the shop at Arab street too. I think for the big ones it was 4 for $7 while the 10 small ones was $6 I think.

The crystal came all nicely position which you will peel off the paper backing and place the sticky side on the fabric.

Then you place an ironing cloth over it and iron on high heat for like 10 seconds. You can try peeling at 5-8 seconds to see if all are stick on. If not, iron over again. Peel off the sticky paper when done.

All is worth it when I see her smiles : )

Musketeer No. 2

Well, if you have 2 girls at home, you gotta have 2 of the same kind or else!

Made this one shortly after the first one to satisfy the little sister that she too is a Musketeer like her sister.

Her's was in purple satin with lots of velvet hearts, light pink ruffles and gold trims.

This is the back view. You may wonder why the 3 flowers behind that didn't seem to gel in with the overall Musketeer look. Well, I accidentally cut a big hole behind when I tried to serge the seam! It's my fault for trying to rush through the garment while having a conversation with the older girl.

But the 3 fabric flowers look so cute anyway. I've used my Go! Baby cutter for this job and phew! It did save me lots of work and since Liquid Gold don't fray, I guess this will work too. 

For the sleeves, I used Liquid Gold in deep purple and gather a little at the top and left the ends raw since it don't fray.

Like the sister's version, I've used some nylon tulle with velvet hearts for the centre piece and framed them with the Liquid Gold in light Pink ruffles and gold trim.

She looks so adorable in them. 

And the 2 sisters went twirling around the house in their new dresses!

Oh! Did I mention that her birthday was just 3 days after her big sister? Pardon me. I was trying to rush that dress out for her birthday.

Don't she looks so sweet? I bought her a little Powerpuff girl cake since she will just play with them. 

Happy 2nd Birthday little one!

Musketeer in the Making..

If you have little girls at home, you will sure to see this show - Barbie and the Three Musketeers.  My girl had most of the Barbie series DVD and this is one of her recent favorite. 

She had asked for me to make her one of these costumes but I've always said it's too complicated and who make costumes in Singapore nowadays? Singaporeans usually will rent or buy them off the shelves. But it's kinda expensive and we don't really have any special occasion to wear them.

But it all change when I saw this at LiEr's blog. She's amazing and I've been following her crafts and sewing for some time now. I'm always amazed at her creativity and read in awe how she can transform a simple cardboard into fantasy. 

So I challenge myself to make them for my girls.  My older one wants the green one and she asked for the purple one for her little sister.  So, we went shopping at Arab Street for satins and chiffon.  

Here's how my version looks like. 

I also use Liquid Gold in pink and green chiffon for the ruffles at the sleeves and front panel.  Bought this at a steal from Spotlight at $2.20 per meter!

The stars nylon tulle was laid onto the green chiffon and I serged the 4 edges and sew them to the sides ruffles.  

The gold trim was from Simplicity range of fabric ribbons that I got from Spotlight. One roll of the trim last me one dress. I used them on the front top bodice as well as behind and the sleeve ends.

Like the movie version, there's detachable long skirt that are velcro-ed on and can be double up as cape when detached...

.... to reveal this short cute dress!

I made the dress just in time for her to wear them on her birthday lunch with my family.

Happy 7th Birthday my little girl!