Merida Brave Costume Tutorial

A good family friend loved Merida from Brave and wanted the costume for her 8th birthday. I was excited to make it since we love Brave at our house as well. I loved the forest green dress she wears in the movie when she's an archer, so I decided to do this one instead of the princess dress she doesn't like wearing. She would also be wearing this at the Renaissance Faire, so it would fit in perfectly.

I used McCall's 5499 pattern, dress B. Most of this dress works well for Merida, but the sleeves needed to be modified. The fabric is a forest green suede. For the look of an underdress, I used a yellowish, gold chiffon. I made the body of the dress just like the pattern directions without a belt and added trim.

For the sleeves, I cut the sleeve in half, about where the elbow would be located.

I cut a piece of fabric 30" long by 2" wide. With right sides together, I sewed along both long sides of the fabric, leaving both ends open. I attached a safety pin and turned it inside out.

I ironed it flat and sewed both sides again to flatten it out. Then, I cut it into 6 3" pieces for the elbows and 6 2" pieces for the shoulders.

I didn't want any raw edges showing from behind the chiffon, so I sewed the edges on the bottom of the sleeve and the two pieces that will meet on the elbow. I then attached the 3" pieces to between the elbow pieces. I sewed these onto both ends, placing the middle strip in the very middle of the fabric and the other two pieces 2" next to the middle piece.

I cut 4  5" pieces of chiffon the same width as the fabric. I finished the lengthwise edges of all of the chiffon so it doesn't fray once attached. I pinned it onto the sleeve and sewed it in place. The chiffon doesn't lay flat, there should be extra fabric to create the appearance of an underdress.

I then attached the sleeve onto the dress like in the directions. This was very tricky but it managed to get attached.

The finished elbow:

The bottom of the sleeve:

For the chiffon coming out of the top of the dress, I measured the length all the way around the border and multiplied that by 3. I used that measurement for my length by 8" wide. I folded the chiffon in half and sewed the bottom edge. I would suggest finishing this now too. Then, I gathered the fabric to fit into the dress and sewed it in.

Even though Merida didn't have any gold trim on her outfit, I know this little girl would like a little gold to make it more princess-like.

I added a wider gold trim to the bottom of the dress.

She's ready for battle!

I also want to mention that Simplicity Pattern 0201 just came out for a Merida Brave costume.

Belle DIY Costume

For last Halloween, my daughter wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She was 2 1/2 at the time, but I made it to size for a 3 year old so that we would have it for some time.

I used Burda pattern 2480 for this dress. I needed to change the sleeves to have the off the shoulder look like in the movie. I also wanted to take up the first layer to look more ruffled like the original. This was my first princess dress so it ended up being a little overwhelming. But it was definitely some good practice!

I love satin, it's soft and feels good inside, so I choose a beautiful yellow satin for the dress. I used the same color for both layers but the lower skirt had sparkles in the satin. I got the flowers off of a hand-me-down dress and she loved the pink touch. I followed the pattern except for the overlay piece and the overskirt.

For the off the shoulder sleeve, cut a piece that will fit all the way around the dress with a little slack. For my 3 year old, the fabric was cut 31" long by 7" wide. Fold it in half lengthways with right sides together and stitch it. Then turn it inside out and flatten it. It should be about 3" wide once completed. Gather the center and attach to the dress with the flower covering the gathered stitches. Then attach it to the back on either side of the zipper.

For the skirt to have the ruffled look, on the overskirt, sew a gathering stitch down the center of the skirt, on both sides where the back meets the front and on the back, under the zipper. Gather the fabric at each point and curl in under. Hand stitch through the gathered fabric to have hold it's position. Then add the flowers at the top of the gathering.

Here is the completed dress:

Sports Co-Ed Baby Shower BBQ

It's time for a baby shower! My friend was having a boy and wanted a co-ed party at the park. They are both into sports so it was a perfect fit to do a sports themed baby shower.

We had delicious chocolate cake decorated in sports themed. I made the three flags on top to read "Welcome All-Star Anthony."

I got the invite and party downloads on Etsy from Sugar Tree Press. I bought the set that included the invite, water bottle wrappers, favor tags, garland and diaper raffle.

We didn't get too elaborate for decorations because we were at a park. I did put up a few of these paper lanterns from Party City. They had baseball and football lanterns so we put up 3 of each. I wish they had basketball or soccer as well, but couldn't find any there or online.

I also found this soccer ball thick paper centerpieces at Joanne's Fabrics for $0.25 in the discount section. Michael's had the cute sports themed rubber duckies, so I pared them for a few centerpieces.

We served picnic type foods: hot dogs, potato salad, tortilla chips with salsa, potato chips and dip, and veggies with dip made in these cut cups. I took the water bottle labels that came with my invitation set and glued them to clear plastic cups. Add ranch and cut veggies. They were so easy and fun. We had a tray of extra veggies for people to refill.

One of the other hostess's brought three of these fruit platters. We used them as centerpieces, which we also figured would be a good way to get them eaten. There was a lot of fruit at this shower!

I love the diaper raffle idea so we decided to do a $50 gift card for the diaper raffle. Mom and dad brought home a lot of diapers! I sent the diaper raffle tickets with the invitations but printed more for the day of the shower. A lot of people forgot them, so they were really needed. I used a coffee container to make the football diaper raffle container. It was very simple. I took brown construction paper and painted on the lines with white paint and then glued it on.

For the favors, I took brown paper bags, filled them with kettle corn and put these adorable tags on them that we got with our set. As it turns out, kettle corn is not a good idea in paper bags! It was all stale even though we did it the day before. They looked cute, but not very practical. This would be a great idea with another filling.