Hi everyone! I am Adele from Mammy Made. I usually blog about cooking, sewing, crochet, a little bit of homeschooling and a little bit of gardening. I also have a facebook shop which you find here. I am soo excited to be taking part in the 31 Days of Halloween. I have loved seeing what everyone has come up with so far and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the entries!
For my day, I would like to share with you a Glinda the Good Witch costume I made for my daughter to wear this Halloween. My other daughter is going as Dorothy. They are going to look so cute together!
I made this outfit using two XL ladies tshirts (for the underskirt), 6m organza on a roll, this measured 11.5" in width (for the outer skirt) and some 1" wide elastic for the waistband. It is cold where I live in England so I have added a plain pink 3-4y tshirt, a plain pink long sleeved vest, a pair of pink leggings and a pair of tights. All in all, this costume cost me £20, which equates to around $32. At first I thought this was pretty expensive for a halloween costume but when I considered how much warmer this costume was compared to shop bought ones, I realised it was actually cheap! Obviously some of you may already have plain pink tshirts and leggings, which would knock the price down again. I had to buy new since all of my daughter's were too small for her. I finished the outfit off with a star topped wand and I am planning on making her a cardboard crown in the next few weeks
I took my two XL tshirts and cut them underneath the armpits, straight across. I ended up with 4 pieces. I pinned the side edges, right sides together, until I ended up with a really wide tube. I stitched the side seams together. I hemmed the bottom then ran some thin elastic around the top of the skirt to gather it. I didn't actually stitch on top of the elastic, I made a casing with my stitching. I worked the zig on one side of the elastic and the zag on the other side. This way I could pull the elastic tighter, since I had an awful lot of material to gather. I checked the fit on my little girl and adjusted the elastic to fit. I tied the ends of the elastic off once I had the right size, then stitched them down to keep them secure.
To make the outer skirt, I used a roll of organza I found at my fabric shop. It was pink and sparkly and so cute. It came on a roll and measured 11.5" in width. The full roll gave me about 6 metres. I cut the whole 6m into 3 equal strips, each measuring 2m. I pinned two of the strips, right sides together, then stitched all along one long edge. I attached the third strip in the same way. Then I stitched up the side so I had one huge tube. I used a small seam allowance because I wanted to keep the length. I folded the whole tube in half so the seams were inside and I had a folded edge for the top of the skirt. I pinned and then stitched all around this top edge, making sure the seams inside matched, to make it look prettier. I used a 1/4" seam allowance.
I attached some thin elastic to the top of the outer skirt, in the same way I had done for the underskirt. I stitched it onto the inside, right over the line of stitching I had done in the last step, and I used a zigzag stitch. Again, I checked the fit on my little girl and adjusted the elastic to fit. Once I had my outer skirt the width I needed, I stitched the elastic together and sewed the ends down. I seem to have deleted the picture I took of this step but it looked just the same as the underskirt with the elastic attached.
I laid the outer skirt and underskirt together with the top raw edges lined up. I pinned it as best as I could then ran a zigzag stitch around the top, stretching as I stitched to make sure the stitching would not rip when I tried to get it on my little girl.
I took my 1" wide elastic and tried it around my little girl's waist so I could see where it needed to be stitched together. It is important that you get the elastic snug but not too tight. Bear in mind the skirt's weight when measuring. If the elastic is too loose, the skirt will fall down with the weight when it is worn. I stitched my elastic together with a box and a cross, to make sure it would be secure. I stretched the elastic around the raw edges of the two joined skirts, with the raw edges on the outside, coming about halfway up the elastic. I wanted the elastic on the inside and the raw edges showing to make sure that the elastic touches the skin and not the raw edges. I figured it would be much more comfortable that way.
There you have a cute Glinda the Good Witch costume for the pretty little girl in your life. My tutorial will fit around age 3-5 years but it is easily adjustable for older or younger sizes.
I hope everyone enjoyed this tutorial and that I explained it well enough for people to follow. Come by and see me on my blog or my facebook page :D Thank you to Chelsea for having me back on her lovely blog. It's been fun!
