dressing for disneyland: belle (the teen version)

When we left off on Tuesday,  Mom and I had finished gussying up a basic Old Navy knit dress for Théa's Belle costume. Abby's costume was a little more involved in that I was unable to find a yellow dress for women that was anywhere near cute. Or anywhere near something that Abby would actually put on. I know, I know. She's willing to dress like a princess to go to Disneyland, but really, she's most comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts. So that's what we found.

I also found some great gold sparkly tulle at Hancock’s on the 80% off rack. Total cost? $1.44. For Abby's "dress", we decided to make an apron of sorts that would look like a skirt but be easily removed for things like rides. Once we got started, we realized that we could very easily turn our apron into an actual skirt by making a casing for elastic out of the ribbon. 

We began by layering the sparkly tulle (about a yard and a half) over four layers of regular yellow tulle. We used three yards total of yellow tulle, folded in half length-wise and width-wise to get our four layers. Mom sewed the layers with a running stitch across the top twice to give them a nice gather.

We measured the widest point of the hips (using the elastic as a measuring tape), and gathered the tulle to that length so that the skirt would fit around the hips. We were not sure that this made any sense at all, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. 

The next step was to attach the ribbon (about three inches wide), right sides together, to the top of the gathered tulle. This created a casing for the elastic to go through. 

Next, with right sides together, we sewed up the two sides of tulle to connect the skirt. I tried it on (since Abby was at school), and it successfully went over my hips. This was very encouraging. Mom then flipped the ribbon over the top and sewed it closed for casing, threading the elastic through the finished casing. After one more measure of the elastic to make sure that it would sit right, she sewed the casing closed right over the elastic. 

We thought that we were done with the skirt at this point and moved on to Théa's dress. That's when we remembered that more is more, especially when it comes to princesses, and a little edging on the bottom of the skirt couldn't hurt. So we cut two more lengths of tulle, this time seven inches wide, sewed tubes, and attached them to the bottom of the skirt the same way that we attached them to Théa's dress.

Isn't that better?

We also attached a tube of tulle to the t-shirt by tacking it on in the front at the center, at each shoulder, and at the back. A simple flower from Claire's finished off the top.

The finished outfit? Well, it is pretty cute, if I do say so myself. And practical, too. Abby can take off the skirt for rides and stuff it into a backpack. And the best part? Abby gets to be a princess on vacation, with or without an official Disneyland makeover. 

And the final result with Belle herself...