Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Fairy Princess Skirt and Headband

A had a pretty princess-themed birthday party recently, and since we were attending as a family, I thought that little V should have a costume of her own. I wanted to be sure to keep it comfy, so I decided to have her wear an existing onesie and add an elastic-waisted skirt and headband to it. I didn't have a pattern, so I just winged it (like so much of the sewing I do).

For the skirt, I measured V's waist and cut a piece of pajama elastic about an inch longer and set it aside. Then I cut lots of almond shapes from scraps in my stash--some from quilting fabrics, and some pink tulle. Since I wasn't expecting V to wear this on a regular basis, I didn't bother finishing the edges of the fabric shapes.

I folded them in half and overlapped them to make a skirt shape, and then sewed a seam about 1 inch from the fold to make a casing. Then I carefully inserted the elastic and maneuvered it through all the different layers until it was looped through the entire skirt.

Once the elastic was completely in, I overlapped the ends about an inch and sewed them together. I then re-distributed the gathers. To finish the skirt, I cut a few strips of fabric on the bias and made a few overlapping loops, like a Christmas bow. Then I took about an 18 inch length of ribbon and hand sewed a running stitch along the length of one side. I then gathered the ribbon to make a flowery puff and hand sewed the puff and the lopped fabric to the skirt.

For the headband, I measured V's little noggin and cut a piece of 1/4" elastic 1 inch longer. I overlapped the ends by an inch and stitched the two overlapping ends to each other. I then cut strips of fabric on the bias and sewed them onto the elastic using a zig zag stitch while stretching the elastic. Using the same technique on another piece of 18 inch organza ribbon, I made another little flowery puff and sewed it onto the headband.

Here's the final result:

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