The Belle of the Ball

I know it is a little past Halloween (December I guess is what they call this), but I wanted to share how I made Katie's Halloween costume this year.  Granted I have zero sewing experience and my husband had to help me figure out how to thread the sewing machine.  If you know what you are doing, don't bother reading on because you will just think I'm crazy :)  Here is the dress:

So I started with these supplies.  Nothing exact here.  I think I got about a yard of butter fabric with little sparkles in it for the top and glittery butter and cream tulle for the tutu skirt and lots and lots of gold ribbon.  I even had to buy more gold ribbon.  Luckily everything was on sale at Joannes

Katie had to help show me how to use the sewing machine :)

I took the butter fabric and wrapped it around my daughter.  Then I folded it over to make it thicker in case it was cold on Halloween.  I made it a little bigger than her waist since I was going to add the lacing on the back.  I sewed straight lines down the sides but left the bottom unfinished.  My husband suggested I add a small panel on the back so the dress wasn't scandalous. 

Then I made the tutu.  I used the gold ribbon as my base and tied the tulle in slip knots.  Very easy.  My model was not very cooperative at this point so I used a stand in to check the length.  I wanted it long and wispy.

Then I added more ribbon the the back of the dress and bought a grommeter to punch little holes and secure the pretty little gold loops.  This was a little difficult.  I had to cut holes with a knife first.

The dress was pretty cute at this point, but my husband thought it was still a little scandalous and needed sleeves

So I added some sparkly sleeves and ta-da it was finished.  She loved being a princess!  

I never sewed the tutu to the top piece it is reusable.  I also made her the hair bow.