Cinderella Dress Diary: Day One

"Have courage and be kind..."

~ Cinderella (2015)

Once upon a time, there lived a girl who wished with all her heart to have a new, fine costume to wear on Halloween.  And, this is her story:

Or, at least the story of how her costume came together...For the second year in a row, I am happy to have the chance to participate in the museum's Trick or Treat Day, and plan to sport my finest rags as Cinderella!  The event is scheduled for October 25th, which is just five, short days away.  Let the mad dash sewing begin!


Monday, October 19th

Planning & sketching:  As mentioned in my last post, the inspiration for my costume came from vintage, storybook illustrations of Cinderella.  (See my Pinterest Board for more examples.)

Illustration by Edmund Dulac for Perrault's Fairy Tales, 1912.
(Image via: Pinterest)

My Cinderella costume design: The costume will eventually include a cream bodice, red petticoat, grey dress, black bodice, and tattered apron with a matching coif.

Gathering materials from the stash & pieces from the wardrobe:  

I had been purchasing and setting aside fabrics for this project for a while now.  Four yards of ecru cotton were purchased on sale, and the deep red and dark grey cottons were bed sheets.  A little over a yard of a sturdy, black mystery fabric and a yard of cotton duck were also purchased for the bodice.  Muslin, various vintage scraps and leftovers from previous sewing projects for the patches were pulled from the stash.

I also pulled an under petticoat, pair of striped stockings and my (new) Regency work shoes from the wardrobe: 

First time wearing them at Kieffer.  I really like my new work shoes,
even though they're a little too big!

Setting up a work station:  Right in the kitchen!  Added our spare card table and set up both of our machines - one for straight stitching, and one for zig zagging.  The iron and board, as well as my dress form came out as well.

Featuring our fourth family member - the '39 Singer Featherweight!

Red petticoat:  Still a work in progress...it took most of the night to apply the hem facing & zigzag those patches!!

Materials:  Deep red cotton (thrifted bed sheet) for the skirt,
sturdy black cotton (scrap from a previous project) for the hem facing
& an assortment of vintage scraps (via Mom's stash) for the patches.

Each patch had to be ripped, arranged & pinned...

Zigzagging took forever because my machine kept breaking the threads...
but at least the patches on the petticoat are DONE!

Inside view of the patches and hem facing.
I was trying to be smart since I only had enough matching thread for one side of the facing.  I loaded the bobbin with black and left the red for the top thread.  Then, I stitched the opposite way - the matching red ended up on the inside of the facing, and the black ended up on the outside.  *facepalm*

What was playing: Pandora - 1960s Folk Radio

One day down, five more to go!  To be continued...