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This post is part of The DIY Halloween Costume Blog Tour, hosted by SeamsSewLo. Last year I made my little girl a really lovely dress for Halloween. I‘d even made plans to make one this year, with green bat fabric. But I don’t know about you, the fact that you can only really get to use the dress on a very limited number of occasions before your little one grows out of the costume makes me very sad. It is amazing how many clothes we all throw away these days. As a result, I was determined not to let that happen again this year. So this year I decided to make a more durable witches outfit.
Durable Witches Outfit
My little girl isn’t one for getting dressed up much. Therefore she he only very occasionally wants to wear one of those flouncy princess dresses. She much prefers just standard dresses and tights.
So I decided to make her a witches costume based around a plain black dress, that could be reused again and again after halloween. A plain black dress that could even be customised to become other outfits. On top of the basic black dress that I made I would add a no sew tutu, a felt cloak and a hand sewn witches hat.
The Black Dress
Firstly, I made a modified version of the Simplicity dress that I had made in my previous post Making a Girl’s Superhero Dress. I squared the waistline as I wanted to make a twirlier skirt. And made a button closure at the back as this was such a lovely look. I also kept it sleeveless.
The dress is such a lovely one that my little one can wear it by itself. Though I could also very easily make a sash in a bright fabric to wear over it. Maybe a red sash for Christmas? Or perhaps wear the dress with a little red cardigan and tights?
No Sew Tutu
But to make this into a witches outfit I decided to add a no sew tutu over the top. The beauty of this is that it ties at the waist with a bow, so can be added to as Elizabeth gets bigger. Consequently this means that it can be used again and again in future years.
You will need:
- A piece of ribbon that wraps around the waist with enough length at each end to tie a bow.
- Chiffon, tulle or other floaty material
- scissors
Lay your material out as flat as possible
Start folding your fabric up carefully from one end
Cut even-ish strips from the roll (I used Pinking shears to prevent fraying)
Mark on the ribbon where it fits the waist of the wearer, then place knots at these points (or thereabouts!)
I tied the ribbon around a mannequin to keep it taut for adding the strips. Cut the pinked fabric strips to double the length required, which in our case is about knee length
push the fold of the strip under the ribbon – then push both ends of the rest of the strip through the loop created
This creates a knot where the cut strip meets the ribbon. Pull this taut and push it to one of the knots on the ribbon.
Carry on adding strips of fabric, pushing each knot tight up against the next, until you have a full ribbon of fabric.And you have a finished Tutu!
Cloak
Next , I took a square of felt and gathered one edge to the same size as the shoulders of the dress. I added a top edge of folded felt and sewed 2 buttonholes into this.
To the shoulders of the dress I added 2 buttons, to attach this cloak.
Hat
Finally, out of some more of the felt I made a little hat.
Fancy finding out how I made this hat? Get the full tutorial by signing up for my mailing list!
So I ended up with a lovely black dress with added extras to make it into a durable witches outfit. The dress, tutu and hat can be used again and again.
And…next week I will show you how this durable witches outfit can easily be changed to make other Halloween or fancy dress outfits.
Are you ready to see all of the new Halloween costumes on the DIY Sewing Pattern Blog Tour? Me too!! Go ahead and follow along with us!
- October 8th: Seams Sew Lo
- October 9th: Momma Newey’s Makes
- October 10th: Itsy Littles
- October 11th: Aurora Designs
- October 12th: Mijn 11jes &ik
- October 13th: Seams Sew Lo
- October 14th: My Golden Thimble
- October 15th: Make It Sew With Bear and Pea
- October 16th: Duchess and Hare
- October 17th: A Rose Tinted World
- October 18th: Cute. Sew. Make
- October 19th: Custom Made by Laura
- October 20th: My Golden Thimble
- October 21st: Crafty Curly Couture
- October 22nd: Malounami
- October 23rd: Seams Sew Lo
- October 24th: A Rose Tinted World
- October 25th: GYCT Designs
- October 26th: Crafting Through Time
- October 27th: Aurora Design Fabrics
- October 28th: Sew Couture by Kathy
- October 29th: The Sewing Goatherd
- October 30th: Manning the Machine
- Ocober 31st: Seams Sew Lo (Roundup)
Reflections from me
So fun! Clever!
Thank you!
This is such a good idea – can you make one in adult sizes?! 🙂 #coolmumclub
Yes, certainly! The beauty of this idea is that it can be made in whatever size you need.
I love these no sew tutus – always wanted to make one!
Thanks for linking to #coolmumclub
They are so easy!
This is such a great idea, as so much ends up in landfill from just one day! #coolmumclub
Thank you. It is quite wasteful to have costumes for just one day a year isn’t it?
I love this! Love that you can use the black dress again! My boys got new pajamas that double as costumes with a few accessories! Love being practical! 😉
That sounds like a really good idea too! Thank you
Very creative and so simple to make! Such a ‘fang-tastic’ costume! 🙂
Thanks for sharing with #MMBC.
Thank you. My little girl wanted to look ‘spook-facular’
What a fantastic make. I love that the dress can be used on more than one occasion. #MMBC
Thank you. I’m writing this coming week’s post on other costumes you can make!
OMG you are a little bit amazing!!
Thanks for linking to #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you Katie. Just doing my thing.
I love this! What a clever idea 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
This is just adorable!!!!
Thank you