Looking for a cute costume or dress up outfit for your doll? Find out how to make a whimsical fairy costume with this clever pattern hack from Jane of Sweet Pea Fashions!
Giveaway Update: Our winners are Susan and Pam who had some very clever costumes! Thanks to everyone who entered!
(Click on the cover image to find the pattern on Pixie Faire.)
One of the best things about the Wrap & Tie Halter Dress is its versatility. In this pattern hack, we are going to use the pattern as the basis for a cute fairy costume.
While these instructions show an American Girl®-sized dress, you can also use them with the WellieWishers™-sized pattern.
Here’s what you will need:
- Sweet Pea Fashions Wrap and Tie Dress pattern
- Knit fabric in the amount to make the short version (I’m using a two-way stretch knit faced with foil)
- Tulle in the amount to make the short version
- Lining fabric for the bodice
- A pattern for wings and the necessary fabric to make them
- A pattern for panties and enough of your knit fabric to make them
- Ribbon to match
Cut out the pieces for the bodice from the knit, the tulle, and the lining fabric. Cut the skirt piece out of the knit and the tulle.
After cutting out the pieces, fold the skirt pattern in half, and in half again. Make a mark at the bottom of the skirt pattern piece in the center. Measure about halfway up each of the two folded sides of the piece and make another mark. Connect the marks with a slight curve. Cut the pattern on the curve. Keep the pattern piece folded.
Fold the tulle and the knit for the skirt in half three times so that you have eight layers. Pin or clip the folded pattern that you just modified to the folded fabric. Cut the skirt along the lines you made.
Follow the instructions in the pattern for making the lined bodice, using the tulle and the knit as a single piece, and using the ribbon for the straps and ties.
It is not necessary to hem any of the edges of the skirt. Follow the instructions for gathering and attaching the skirt, treating the knit and the tulle overlay as a single piece. Attach the skirt to the bodice, and make the buttonhole.
Using your favorite pattern, make a pair of wings. Put the dress on your doll.
Pin the wings in your desired location on the back of the dress above the waistline. Mark the location where the wings should be attached on both the wing and the dress. Mark the wings where they meet the ribbon strap around the neck.
Make a buttonhole on each wing at the location you marked at the neckline. If you don’t want to make buttonholes, you can make thread loops on the wings. Attach the wings to the back of the dress. Make sure that you are attaching the wings to the side of the bodice where the buttonhole is located.
Make a pair of trunks for your doll from the knit fabric using your favorite panty pattern.
To put the fairy dress on your doll, thread the waist tie through the waistline buttonhole, and tie around the waist. Thread the neck straps through the buttonholes on the wings, and tie behind the neck.
Giveaway Time!
How would you like to win this delightful fairy outfit? Jane is giving away one American Girl®- sized outfit and one WellieWishers™-sized outfit to two lucky winners!
Costume parties are so much fun! To enter, leave a comment below finishing this sentence...
"The best costume I ever wore was....."
We'll pick a winner on Monday, September 11th, and get in touch via email. Thanks for entering and good luck!
For Pixie Faire,
Jane & The PF Team
53 Comments
Back in the ‘70s, when people bought those horrid costumes with the plastic masks for kids, at about 7 or 8 years old I decided I wanted to make my own costume. I chose to be a bride. Back then I’d seen plenty of princesses and had even worn the princess costumes with those awful masks, but I’d never seen a bride costume. I used my mother’s old wedding dress, which had been damaged and was useless as a wedding gown, anyway, so it was cut down to my size and I did dress up as a bride! One of the first brides, perhaps? I don’t know. But I loved it!
I guess I’m not a very creative person, lol. I simply wore black leotards, a black body suit with a long attached tail, ears on top of my head, painted up my face up with a black nose and whiskers, and simply called myself a black cat. It was a contest at the bingo I attended once a week. All the dressed up people marched around the room to show off their costumes, the non-costumed folks voted. I won third prize. I think the first and second place winners must have had more friends there than I did, hahaha. Anyway, it was tons of fun.
I made a candy corn costume that was fun.
The best costume I ever wore was an Elf one I made for myself by modifying a couple of patterns that my grandmother must have gotten in the 50s or 60s. It came out almost exactly how I had planned it.
The best costume I ever wore was when I had a cast on my foot and we had to find something to go with it. The girls I lived with helped, they put me into a white scrub dress, ace bandage on my head, my arm in a sling, and a black eye to make me look like I had been in an accident. We took a city bus to the Halloween party, and people could tell what real & what wasn’t.