Thursday, April 17, 2014

The $7 Tinkerbell costume

Georgia was going to a Peter Pan themed birthday party (can we just take a moment here to rejoice in a bunch of 14 year olds who think this would be fun, rather than something involving pretty much any celebrity of their demographic?) Anyway, she wanted to go as Tinkerbell, which I thought would be a really easy costume to make. It was. It was also very cheap!

I found this cotton waffle weave dressing gown in Tinkerbell green in an op shop for $1. Score!



After cutting out the pieces for the dress, this was all we had left. The pattern for the dress was a blend of two patterns - bodice from #124 and skirt from #110 from Burda 06/96. This is why I have a large collection of Burda back issues. I can always find a pattern which will speed up any drafting required for any style I need! Fabric constraints meant that I had to fold out one of the skirt pleats which reduced the very pronounced hips that Tink has, but it was close enough. Georgia requested that her skirt be a tad longer than Tink's also. (ie, not in danger of showing her knickers if she bent over) Phew!



And here's Tinkerbell. I bought her wings at a dollar type shop for $3.50 and she bought a can of yellow hairspray for $2.50. She made a wand from a twig painted pink and tied on various scraps of organza ribbon which I had lying around. My clear strapped bra and green shoes finished her off.



I did pin fit the bodice on Georgia, but that was the total extent of care taken! No internal structure whatsoever (the dress is safety pinned to her bra), no seam finishing other than clipping and topstitching open. The hem is raw and the only time any of the project saw an iron was when I needed to press the dressing gown's front band open to cut facings from it. Rather different from my usual anal attitude that Everything must be Just So.




And to finish, while we were taking photos Isabella wanted in on the act. Big sisters being what they are, Georgia photobombed.