I seem to have a lot of fairy themed stuff churning around these days. I finished this very belated birthday fairy dress up outfit for a twirly little girl on Friday. It's a little kooky but actually turned out exactly how I envisioned. I was having a charmed day in the sewing room and was able to go from drawing to finished fairy outfit during one extra long Phoebe morning nap.
The fabric is cotton lawn and is from the sale bin at Joann Fabrics. I just recently figured out that cotton lawn is a type of fabric. I'd only seen it in reference to tana lawn liberty prints and I guess I thought that was the designers name or something. duh! Amy filled me in when I was complaining about making Phoebe clothes out of quilter cottons and how they were too stiff and she suggested I look for cotton lawn.
So, yep, I'm a big fraud at this 'craft blog' stuff because I don't really know stuff. I figure stuff out eventually, but I don't really know stuff. I get emails like "what size embroidery needle do you use for muslin" and I have to answer "uh, whatever needle is sticking out of my pincushion, sorry". And I'm often re-inventing the wheel. I'll hobble through something just to find it already laid out all nice and neat for me in a book or on a blog. But you know, I still manage to make stuff. And guess that's what this blog is about, the stuff I manage to make.
So how I managed this fairy outfit... It's sort of a smocky apron thing that slips over the head and then has big long ties on either side. I made them so big so that they would fill up in gap in twirlable skirt area. I wanted the wings to be attached securely to the outfit and not a separate piece so they would not go flying off when running around. I made them out of bent wire hanger, slip covered with pink seersucker and then gathered in the middle. I sewed the wings down to the back bodice along the edges and it's nice and secure. I twisted the wire stems of some plastic flowers around the middle of the wings to make it, you know, fancier. The raw edges of the bodice and gathered skirt I managed to fold into the waistband and sew so that I didn't have any edges to finish off. I'm still trying to figure out how I got that to work. I cut the hem of the skirt in big petal shapes. Oh, and the bodice. I made the front twice as wide as the back and then sewed three lines of gathering stitch and then sewed it down in place with this velveteen ribbon I had. It's a little wonky/shifty but I think again, adds to the fancy factor, which we know all the young twirlers love. I want to try to make another of these for Phoebe while I've still got it fresh in my mind. I could try to sketch out the how to's if anyone is interested.
