wait. I know what you are thinking... more empty promises.
Not exactly. You see, I did start with every intention of up-cycling. I took pictures of Diva in the original dress, and started to disassemble it (is that even a word?), and put it on Shirley (or as Diva likes to call her, Charlene), my mother-in-law's slightly scary 3 foot tall replica doll of Shirley Temple. And then I took a look at it and decided with the amount of work I was about to do, I might as well just start from scratch. Please remember these words as you read further:
I've never sewn clothing before in my life.
So here was my plan. I was going to take my fabric, look at a picture, and create. (READ: I had no pattern.) Let me preface by saying that I watch a lot of Project Runway... a lot.
I started with these fabrics-- a chiffon (light pink), a crepe (light purple), and a glitter satin (light purple)-- two of which were the most heinous fabrics I have ever worked with. I also started out with the basic idea that I would make a circle skirt and a country wench style top.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've never been so grateful to Shirley in my life. She is almost the same size as Diva... slightly chunkier, and a bit shorter... but certainly within the ballpark which was good enough for me. She stood up tall, and never complained about my constantly putting things on her, taking them off, and sticking her with pins. Diva is not nearly as accommodating.
I wish I could go through and tell you step-by-step what I did, but to be honest, I'm not sure I could replicate it even if I tried. I made bunches of mistakes and pulled out tons of seams. I wanted to use the glue gun a few times but my husband told me to suck it up, so I did. I sewed my first zipper into Diva's costume... slightly crooked, but there. I depended heavily on online tutorials like this one for the sleeve.
My plan was to do a circle skirt sewn onto elastic, which I did, but it didn't turn out quite right so I ripped it out, added a waist band and made my attempt at a zipper. It works, but Diva is so skinny that I am going to have to resort to using suspenders (hidden under her top) to keep it up properly. Then for the top, I made a quick template using one of her shirts, as well as the aforementioned tutorial for her sleeves. I'm actually stupified at how well it all came together. I added eyelets for the lacing, lace around the edges, and iron-on flower embroidered appliques for the detail on the overlay skirt.
I decided that for Halloween Little Loo would be Rapunzel's best bud, Pascal, a very small, very green chameleon. I was smart though... I bought a pattern, and only made some slight adjustments. I used green fleece and this crappy metallic fabric for accents-- never again. I added a detachable tail, swapped the ears for giant eyes, added some spines or whatever they are called on her back.
Here they are together.
