First, I want to start with a disclaimer: I do have a lot of sewing experience. I started sewing my Halloween costume when I was in middle school and I’ve been sewing them every year since. However, sewing is definitely not as complicated as much as you might think, especially with all the YouTube tutorials that are available online these days. So if you’ve been wanting a costume that you can’t find anywhere else, give it a shot.
For my costume this year I decided to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast, but the blue dress version from Once Upon a Time. (It looks like this):
So I collected reference photos (Pinterest is GREAT for this) and read through people’s blog posts of how they made their version of the dress, for inspiration. Odds are, no matter what costume you are trying to make, someone’s already done it and blogged about it, so check out someone else’s post and learn from their successes and mistakes. Next, it was time to get fabric. I was able to get the lining from Jo-ann Fabric, but couldn’t find a main fabric I liked. I knew I needed blue linen, and Jo-ann had nothing. So, I turned to Fabric.com. I was extremely hesitant to buy online, but they had great reviews, so I went for it, and I’m actually super happy with what I got. Thank goodness, since I didn’t have time to return and re-order.
Now, for the actual crafting part. First up, pattern drafting. For those of you with no sewing experience: the pattern is like the instruction manual/guide on what shapes to cut the fabric into. I personally hate sewing off of store-bought patterns. They never fit right, I always have to alter them, and they’re expensive. Thankfully, the internet is full of free tutorials. So, I used this tutorial for the bodice pattern, and this one for the puff sleeves. The rest of it, I pretty much eyeballed. It’s simple geometry, and if you’re stuck, just look at the shapes in the clothes you already have at home.
The skirt was simple: I cut out two half circles, and then two half circles in the middle, and then sewed them together. Repeat with the lining, gather by zig-zag stitching across a piece of thread, sew to the waistband (leaving a gap at the back to get in and out, I attached two ribbons as a fastener) hem the whole thing, and ta-da!
The bodice was a little more complicated. I used the pattern I’d drafted on a sheet of the Graphic and cut it out of cheap muslin at first, so that I could totally destroy it on my way to figuring out what worked. It’s a good thing I did: the first pattern was way too long, had the back straps I’d just guessed on in the completely wrong place, and needed another five inches in the back. After enough finagling, the pattern was finally ready to go (and my muslin version looked like a corset Dr. Frankenstein would make). I cut it out of blue linen and the lining, and then sewed each of them into their own bodices, with the seams on the lining facing out and those on the linen facing in.
For boning, I bought some Rigaline boning online, the only type you can sew directly to the fabric. (Conveniently, it’s also great for picking locks). I basically guessed on where to sew it, sewed it to the lining, and then sewed the lining and linen together like a sandwich. Not perfect, but worked better than expected.
I spent all of my Monday night class hand-stitching the brown edging to the edge of the bodice. Tip: professors might tell you to put away your phone during class, but they don’t really know what to do about students sewing. Or knitting, for that matter.
With the bodice mostly done, I ended up heading back to Jo-ann (again) for the undershirt material. Psst… I actually cheated on this. I wasn’t about to sew an entire shirt to go under the bodice I just made, nor was I going to hand embroider detailing on it. Come on, I’m a college kid. No one’s got time for that. Luckily, I found a seven-inch wide lace, so I bought that and, with some patching scraps together for where it wasn’t wide enough, I was able to sew it onto the neckline and then cut it into sleeves according to the pattern I’d drafted. Because it was lace, I didn’t even need to hem it. I just wove white ribbon through the holes at the ends of each sleeve, so that I could pull them tight and make the sleeves poofy.
I bought a pack of eyelets at the store (those metal circle things), cut holes in the fabric, and used my friend’s hammer to hammer them flat into the bodice. Life hack: do this when your downstairs neighbors aren’t home. I threaded a black suede string through the eyelets, and cinched it tight.
Then, I took my costume to Disneyland’s Halloween party, and had so many guests think I was official Belle that it became a problem. All in all, I think it was a success.