A First for Me

Sophia, the First. She's a new princess for me because she wasn't around when my daughters were knee deep in the world of Disney princesses and make believe. So when the request came to me this past November with the hope of the costume being ready in time for Christmas, I had some researching to do.   The request came from a teen who wanted to play the role of Sophia in a program set up by a local dance studio that provided princess characters for children's birthday parties.

There's a lot of detail in this costume. The shape of the dress is similar to Cinderella's but that's where the similarities end.  The bodice has an embroidered petal design and the skirt has petal panels with a flower applique on each petal, and an underskirt with a ribbon trim about 5 inches or so from the skirt edge - everything trimmed with pearl-like beads.

Starting with the bodice - it came together like any other dress, I used underlining because the satin did not have a lot of body plus I knew I was going to first make my marks on the underside before making them on the frontside.  Once I had the markings where I wanted them I used my tracing wheel and tracing paper to transfer the marks to the frontside of the fabric.

 My initial thought was to use ribbon to outline the chalk marks but did not like the way it curled so I went on to my Plan B - Embroidery.  I did a few practice runs before I started.  I do want to practice with ribbon again, I think if I used a twin needle it would have gone better.

 After piecing the skirt together, I sketched out the flower design on pattern tissue paper and transferred the design to each skirt panel.  I ironed a paperback adhesive (Heat'nBond Ultra Hold Iron On) to the back of a yard of cotton broadcloth.  I then traced each piece of the applique onto the paper side of the adhesive, cut it out, peeled off the paper and ironed it to the dress panels, following my chalk outline.

Even though Heat'nBond sticks well, I decided to stitch each section on, for durability.  It probably would have stayed attached but I wanted to be sure, plus the stitch line gave it a nice finished look.  

I bought a beaded trim to outline the bodice and skirt edge.  I thought about using a wide zig zag stitch to attach but in the end, decided to just hand stitch.  

Two different sized flat sided beads are glued to the peplum.

One last detail - the skirt needed some shape. At the start, I was going to build in the shape with tulle and netting but thought it would have added too much weight to an already heavy dress due to the beading. So instead, the body comes from a petticoat slip.

What a difference the slip makes.

Sophia, the First.  

Thank you to this teen for introducing me to a new princess and for asking me to make her costume. I hope you get invited to many princess birthday parties!

p.s. if you're wondering, I did not have it done in time for Christmas, it was done early January.