Winter 2014 DW Fashion Design Challenge: Entry #2: Intermediate, Cinderella no. 1

Entrant Category:

Intermediate

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My blog: VictoriaLSmithAuthor

Inspiration

After searching Google Images, I decided to base my design on Disney's Cinderella. I sifted through Pinterest for inspiration. I already had fabric that would work ideally for the outfit. I wrote out my plans/thoughts down in my notebook and gathered my supplies. My basic goal was to create an ensemble of coordinating clothing pieces inspired by Cinderella that a girl could wear today. The outfit includes each aspect of Cinderella's ballgown costume including the dress, headband, gloves, shoes, necklace and boy cut shorts for underneath the dress.

To hit off the creation of my outfit, I started with the shoes. The pair is from Sophia's on Amazon. I wanted glitter tennis shoes, and all the tutorials I looked at required a looong list of supplies like glitter, glue, modge podge, etc. Since they are doll shoes, they won't be getting wet or be required to withstand wear and tear that a human pair of shoes would need to endure. With that in mind, I decided to just paint the shoes with silver glitter paint.

I bought some acrylic glitter paint for $1 at JoAnns, and already had white acrylic paint. I removed the shoe laces before masking off the parts of the shoe I didn't want glitter on. I then applied one coat of glitter paint. The black stripes didn't match the shoes once the glitter was on, so I painted over the stripes with the white acrylic paint. It took about 8 coats to cover it up completely!! Also, if not securely dry and I tried to apply another coat, the previous coats would all smudge off.

After I had painted 8 coats of white, and 1 of silver glitter, there was a need for more glitter! I painted another coat of glitter, making the glitter darker and more pronounced, as the glitter on the swirly fabric was. The second picture below shows the shoes beside the fabric.

When wearing her magical ballgown, Cinderella wears white gloves. How to transfer gloves from the 1860-1890s to now gloves? While browsing the web, I had often found a fingereless glovetutorial. This seemed like a good solution! I bought a pair of white adult size mittens at WalMart. I made two cuts, a larger hole for the fingers, and a smaller hole for the thumb. Voila!

Chokers may have been in style 7 or 10 years ago, but I don't see many people wearing them now. To find a "today" friendly version of Cinderella's thick, black velvet choker, I made a necklace. The Key charm I bought at Hobby Lobby. I am very particular when it comes to choosing doll sized things. It must be a certain size to be proportionate! This key worked great, and in the Disney Cinderella movie, there is a long scene involving a key. Do you know which one I'm talking about??? The scene in a few sentences: Cinderella is locked in her room by her step-mother, who puts the key to the door in her pocket. The friendly mice slip the key from the step-mother's pocket as she is pouring tea. They dash it back up to Cinderella up about a dozen flights of stairs, and free the princess! Anyway, so the key fit. I couldn't find a necklace chain that was black velvet and small enough for a doll at Hobby Lobby. I chose to use some black embroidery floss I use quite often to make friendshipbracelets. I whipped it up real quick "Chinese Staircase" patterned necklace rope. Halfway through, I did a double chain knot and thread the key charm into place. I secured it with another double chain knot and continued the staircase.

To test my theory for the top for the outfit, I made a quick top in non-stretch fabric with the Liberty Jane patterns I hoped to use. I did this for both the spaghetti strap and the tee. I used a quilting square from Hobby Lobby for the mockup fabric.

As the outfit would include a short dress, I wanted to have a pair of white boy cut shorts to go underneath. Personally, whenever I wear skirts/dresses I do prefer to wear a pair of little shorts underneath. Maybe my doll feels the same way, maybe so does your doll. For these shorts I used the Liberty Jane RashGuard and Swim Shorts pattern. I made these from white knit fabric. As they are small, they were quite fast and simple.

The top consists of a transparent fabric with glitter swirls layered over a blue strap top. For the glitter swirls fabric top, I used the free Liberty Jane Trendy Tee pattern. The t-shirt guidebook from Liberty Jane included a pattern for a gathered sleeve. I used this. I can appreciate gathers, because I remember the days when I could not figure out how to make a skirt look full. Oh the day I discovered how to gather!! (This was a while ago, just saying, but I remember it:) Oh yeah, I also cut the neckline lower for a larger scoop.

I left the bottom not hemmed because I planned on cutting the top shorter when I had made the spaghetti top.

The spaghetti top is made of cornflower blue cotton. It looked perfect for a Cinderella-style. I picked out the thread without the fabric on hand, and I was amazed at how well I guessed the color!

The finished spaghetti tank and the two separate tops will be layered at the end of the process. A skirt will be added to the bottom, so it's not hemmed yet.

With both tops on the doll, I pinned them together making a line where I wanted to cut them. I used my rotary cutter and made a straight cut. Afterwards, I did a quick basting stitch at the bottom to hold the tops together while I made the skirt.

The skirt rectangle measured 16x7 inches. I hemmed the the fabrics together, then did a gathering stitch. I gathered them to the right size to attach to the bodice, and sewed the skirt and bodice together!

I did a finishing stitch to secure the raw edges.

To finish the dress, I added a waistband of glitter ribbon. I sewed four hook and eyes on the back to close the dress.

I made the headband from the same glitter ribbon as the waistband on the dress. I cut the ribbon the same length as an OG headband I had that fit my American Girl Doll. It closes with Velcro.