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.