Supanova 2011 Take 2 - Sunday

Sunday was a much later start. After breakfast at the Coffee Club (yes, in Costume), we finally made it in. It was Disney day. We had organised as a group to wear Disney costumes, and I have to say that I truly adore wearing Disney. It's a huge ego boost being asked for photos all the time, and so lovely to have small children come up and ask for their photo with you - though the knees don't quite like the bending so much.

My Disney choice was Ariel, the Little Mermaid. I decided to make her day outfit. It really is a very simple costume to put together. The skirt and petticoat are both 8 gore skirts on a waistband. I did make them slightly gathered so that they would be a bit fuller. My construction was a little different on the outer skirt in that it is two layers. I could only get the bright blue colour I wanted in a very light-weight fabric, so I ended up making the skirt double layer with a blue sheeting (from stash) as the lining layer. It really worked well though, giving the skirt enough stiffness to hold out nicely. The blouse took a little longer to make - I patterned it together from a couple of different patterns - the bodice is scoop necked, princess seam, waist length (bias bound) with an invisible zip up the back. I used bias to face the neck edge too, stitching it down to hold in place. The sleeves are a very simply full sleeve that is gathered into a cuff at the wrist. It buttons with 3 shell buttons on the inside of the wrist. The hairbow is made of the same fabric as the blouse and is simply a long rectangle twisted and sewn with a band and attached to a ribbon to put in the hair.

For the corset, I simply re-drafted my pattern from my sister of the dark costume, making a few changes (shorter in length, pointed at the front, straight top with the cut out v). It laces up the centre back with black grosgrain ribbon. It is pretty heavily boned with both steel, heavy plastic boning and cable ties. I made it out of black cotton sateen (from stash), and some left over pieces for my inter-lining and lining (cupcake). It is bound with bias made from the cotton sateen.

The most complex part of my costume had to be the wig. When I was looking for wigs, this one was the only one that I was happy with the colour. It is a perfect match for all the resource images I was going from. The only problem that I had was that with long wigs, they tend to be very thin at the bottom and I really wanted a full wig. So, I bought to. I cut one apart and stitched it into the other. It was really a nightmare to do as the hair is so long, it just kept on tangling up. But I persevered, and in the end, have ended up with a very full wig that I am supremely happy with. I trimmed off the ends so that it was the length I wanted it to be and then styled the fringe - with lots of hairspray and lots of back-combing. The fringe was the main thing that I wanted to get right.

To finish it off, I added some pinkish red lipstick, black shoes, and my stuffed toy flounder. I am really pleased with how it has come out, especially as this is my very first Disney costume. I think I had a lot of my own expectations to live up to - quite frankly, it had to be good. I would have been really disappointed with myself if I had gotten it wrong. I think now I just need to get some really good shots of it all.