Belle dress

 

My cousin Kelsey is so cute & is in love with Belle from beauty & the Beast. When she called asking questions about where she should get some fabric for a belle costume & I happened to be needing a babysitter around the same time, I decided to offer a trade. I told her I'd help her with her dress if she would watch the girls. She agreed. She showed up at 11 with her fabric & we got started. She liked the look of this dress but wanted it to be more modest (thank goodness). 

 She had 10 yards of fabric and we had 1 day to try & get it done. I simply measured her from the waist down. We cut 2 large sheets of fabric & sewed them together. It was probably about 4 yards of fabric for the skirt. So we had a huge skirt. We then basted down the length of the seams and 2 times down the center of each section and pulled it until we got the desired length. Then once we got the desired gathers we wanted. We put in a permanent stitch along the basted stitch so it wouldn't go anywhere. Next we made the top. It was nothing fancy just a basic t shirt type top using a combination of patterns. Then we attached the top to the skirt & threw a zipper in the back. We just made a scarf type thing to go around her shoulders. It's really nothing more than a big circle I sewed together. I let her borrow the hoop slip from my wedding dress to get the fullness in the skirt. As an after thought I decided to add this big ruffle to the bottom because it wasn't hanging quite right. Anyway that's it. Not to bad for 1 full day. It did take until about 6 to finish it so a little longer than I thought & I think by the end we were both pretty tired. But it's pretty cute. Now I always have a princess handy for those upcoming birthday parties ;) perfect!