Last year, our crew did Halloween as the cast of The Little Mermaid. If you've followed this blog for a while (at Halloween time, anyway) you'll know that my sewing projects tend to be mostly upcycle projects- I like to start with an already constructed garment, tear it apart, and rebuild it as something new. I tend to be daunted by the idea of making any garment purely from scratch because I'm just not that confident in my skills. Of course, I did make the vest for the Ryder costume from scratch the year that we did the Paw Patrol...but I didn't exactly nail the zipper on that one.
Well, The Little Mermaid costumes changed that posture for me. Everything that I actually made for these costumes was done from scratch- one full costume, one partial costume, and two accessories. That doesn't mean these costumes were particularly professional looking- they still look very much homemade! But still, there was a lot of love in these garments and I think we all looked pretty great, don't you?
So today, let's talk about the Ariel costume. While the mermaid get-up would probably have been easier to pull off, I felt it was less appropriate for October weather, so we went with the "exploring the town" dress instead. This costume is 4 parts- a black faux corset worn over a blue long-sleeved shirt, a blue skirt with an elastic waist, and of course a navy blue bow worn in the hair.
It's important to note that while a lot of the costumes I've made could be adapted to adult sizes merely by changing the measurements, the construction on this one really does presume it will be worn by a little girl- that is, someone with no curves.
Supplies:
-a baby blue long-sleeved tshirt in your mermaid's size
-black fabric
-black separating zipper
-black thread
-royal blue fabric
-royal blue thread
-1/2" elastic
-navy blue ribbon
-hair clip
1. First, measure your mermaid. Have her hold her hands out to the side so she makes the letter T, and wrap your tape measure around her chest, right at the armpit level. (Afterwards, she can strike a sassier pose, like this.) Divide that measurement by 2 and you have the W measurement shown above. Next, place one end of your measuring tape in her armpit, and measure down to her hip; this value we'll call H. Find the spot on her breastbone at the level of her armpit, and then measure up towards her throat, stopping wherever you would prefer the neckline of this bodice to land (remember that we're going to cut a notch in it, so the center of the bodice will actually be lower than this point); call this B. Then, wrap your measuring tape around her body at the belly button level and call this C. Finally, measure from the belly button down to about the ankles, or wherever you'd like the bottom of the skirt to fall, and call that L.
2. Now you're going to cut the fabric for the front of the faux corset. You'll need two identical pieces, and each piece needs to be perfectly symmetrical. I achieved this by folding two pieces of black fabric in half and stacking them on top of one another; I suppose you could also achieve this by folding the fabric in half and then in half again, such that when you make just one cut, you'll end up with two identical (folded) pieces. (Truth be told, with a heavy enough cotton, you don't really need to double up on your fabric, but I was using sort of a thin cotton from a pile of fat quarters, and I wanted this bodice to hold its shape. Plus, I anticipated the notch that would be cut, and I figure it's easier to sew two pieces together along that sharp corner than to hem it; I'll leave it up to you to decide how to handle this, but my instructions will assume there are two front pieces.) You're going to have to free-hand some of this shape; I suggest creating a pattern piece using whatever large paper you may have on hand, like wrapping paper or kraft paper. Follow the guide shown here for how to sketch out that pattern piece, and cut it accordingly on your doubled fabric so that you end up with two pieces.
3. Now you're going to cut that notch. Use your judgement to determine how deep and how wide you want the V to be; the depth will be measurement X and the measurement Y is the width divided in half. Draw a right triangle with the X and Y as two of the sides, and then draw a hypotenuse to connect them. Cut along that angled line to create the notch.
4. Now to cut the fabric for the back of the faux corset. This time you want 2 pieces that mirror each other (although they are just rectangles, so they will be identical). To achieve this, once again fold your piece of black fabric in half, but this time you're going to line up your pattern piece on the cut edge of the fabric, rather than lining it up with the fold. Again, we're just cutting a rectangle here (and will end up with two) so the pattern is much more straight forward.
5. Time to begin assembly! First, lay your front pieces on top of each other, right sides facing. Using a 1/4" seam and a zig-zag stitch, sew across the top, and then sew across the bottom. (If you want, you can do one continuous stitch by also going down one side, but only one side. You need to leave the fourth side open.) Turn the bodice front rightside-out, taking special care around the notch.
6. Next, hem both the tops and bottoms of both of your back pieces, again with a 1/4" seam allowance (a straight stitch is fine).
7. Attach your separating zipper to the two back pieces. I followed a simple tutorial for doing this, found here. I happened to find a zipper that was the exact right size for this bodice, so I didn't have to worry about dealing with the ends!
8. Finally, you're going to attach the front piece to the back piece. To do so, place the back pieces on top of the front of the front piece (does that make sense?), right sides together. Again with a 1/4" seam allowance, sew straight down on each piece. Finish the seams however you wish. (I don't have a fancy serger, so I just use a zig-zag stitch and call it a day.) That's it! So simple to make this beautiful little top.
9. Okay now we're going to take a pause and do some math. That C measurement you took up there- the waist? That stands for circumference, of course. Remember how C = 2*pi*R ? Let's round pi to 3.25 (I know, cringe, but estimates are okay here because we're doing an elastic waistband!) and solve for R = C/(2*3.25). Now multiply that R value by 1.5 for a nice twirly skirt.
10. Take your royal blue fabric and fold it in half, then fold it in half again. Using your L measurement and your newly found R, cut according to the image above. Making circles is difficult; the trick is to take a string cut to the length you want the circle to be, tack it to the corner of your folded fabric, and tie a piece of chalk to the other end. Then use it like a compass to sketch out a quarter of a circle! When you're done, and you unfold, you'll have a big blue donut.
11. Hem the outside of the donut 1/4". I happened to have some black bias tape and for whatever reason I thought it would look super cool, so I attached that to the bottom instead of just folding and hemming. I don't know why. Just go with it!
12. Cut a piece of elastic that is actually your waist measurement (C). Fold over the top edge of the inner part of your blue donut so that the elastic will slip inside (for 1/2" elastic, make that about 7/8", or maybe a round 1" for wiggle room). Sew that all the way around, using a 1/4" seam allowance, and leave a couple inches' worth of a gap.
13. Take a safety pin and attach it to one end of your elastic. Feed the safety pin into one end of the tube you've just sewn, and slowly and carefully fish the elastic into the tube and allllll the way around, pulling the safety pin out the other side. It'll get tough towards the end there, but you can do it! Remove the safety pin and overlap the ends of your elastic by about 1" and stitch it together securely, definitely use a zig-zag stitch. Finally, sew down the gap that you left in the waistband so it's fully closed.
14. The last piece is the bow! Take your ribbon and create a large, 80s-style bow, and attach it (with hot glue, for some retro flair) to your hair clip.
15. To wear the costume, your mermaid should put on the long-sleeved shirt, slip on the skirt, and zip the faux corset over the shirt. Put her hair in a half-up pony and clip in the bow.
Phew! What a costume! I have to be honest with you, I really messed up the skirt on this outfit. I messed up my cut so that the fabric was not so much a circle as a wobbly, wavy, vaguely rectangular shape. I didn't leave enough gap for the waistband so most of it came undone when I was forcing the elastic through, and I somehow overstretched the elastic so it ended up being too big! I had to overcompensate by adding a makeshift belt. And finally that business with the bias tape- I really should have just hemmed it.
But you know what? She still looked pretty adorable. Ariel had a great time exploring the Rennaissance Festival with her Prince, and meeting humans at Air and Scare, and collecting candy on Halloween night.
So what is your little one going as for Halloween this year?
Much love,
The Geeks
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