How difficult will it be to make this dress?

[clare8allthepies]

My daughter wants to dress up in cosplay for an anime event that I’m taking them to in about 6 weeks. I’ve looked for an actual costume of the character that she wants to go as but I can only find them in adult sizes. I then looked just for a red pinafore dress but I can’t find anything that looks remotely like it.

It seems a fairly simple shape, is this something a dressmaking novice with no sewing machine could make? Any advice much appreciated.

Don't make, just alter some bought things.

Buy white shirt. Done.

Buy red pinafore, and alter.
Take your scissors and slit skirt vertically as many times as you need to. Cut long pointy triangles of white fabric (old sheet?) and insert triangles, with the point up, into the slits and sew in by hand.

If you have no sewing experience or machine then no, surely you can find a red pinafore dress online and add in the white darts?

There’s loads if you Google it, what about this one?

https://www.trespass.com/convince-girls-pinafore-dress?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=shopping_feed&utm_content=free_google_shopping_clicks&gclid=CjwKCAjw9pGjBhB-EiwAa5jl3HuT3qSHdNWjXqWvOmXtAexK9ugQVBqSjaeIlTPxVmlnuMsBFlZDTxoCn70QAvD_BwE#color_code=Berry&size_legacy=11/12

Even with a sewing machine and some experience that pinafore is not going to be easy to make from scratch. Pleats are a nightmare.

I speak as a veteran of weekend/all-night costume-making sessions from Victorian Day/Tudors/World Book Day. (I was always amused by the school’s insistence that one could construct an acceptable Tudor costume from a T-shirt, trackies and a ball of string).

I agree with previous posters that it would be simpler to add white sections into a bought red pinafore dress.

If you Google “How to insert a godet into a skirt” there are lots of links. Here’s one.

Depending on how old your DD is you can probably just get one of the adult sized ones. Those anime costumes tend to come up tiny.

No sewing machine? From scratch? You'll need longer than 6 weeks, unless you're a SAHM and can spend all day every day on it!

Much easier to adapt. Buy an adult one and you can make simple adjustments to the length of the straps and maybe the length of the skirt.

You'd probably have to combine 2 or 3 patterns to get that exact dress. Even an experienced sewer with one basic pattern would have to think hard to get the necessary alterations/pleats just right to look like the picture, and that's without any fitting issues to solve, which there always are. If you tried it yourself, you'd probably end up with an approximation of the dress, but a novice sewer's finish isn't always the best and that can be disheartening.

Thanks for the replies, won’t attempt making one! I can’t find anything nearly like it online though, that trespass one linked above isn’t the right colour and a thick corduroy. My daughter is 9 and tiny so no adult sized costume would fit. I’ll keep searching online.

Look on Vinted - what about this one?

If i were you I'd go for a pleated skirt dress in red (and maybe iron in some hemming tape in the pleats to give that white bit of I had too much free time). I think the accessories will make the costume though so do gold buttons, a satchel with the decorations, and a silver wig.

I cannot vouch for any of these websites at all but found these when searching, both are children's sizes based on the size chart.

https://seecosplay.com/products/my-boku-no-hero-academia-eri-kids-gils-shirt-skirt-outfits-halloween-carnival-suit-cosplay-costume?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1seM07f9gIVGweLCh0MnwNtEAQYCCABEgLuPPDBwE&utmmcampaign=Google%20Shopping&utmmedium=cpc&utmm_source=google&variant=41989489295601

https://www.procosplayshop.com/products/anime-boku-no-hero-my-hero-academia-eri-costume-dress-halloween-cosplay-red-dress-outfit?currency=USD&variant=44943444541743&utmmedium=cpc&utmmsource=google&utmcampaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI64XZrrj99gIVmOTVCh0o1gKtEAQYBCABEgLwlvD_BwE

You absolute legend! I have never bought anything from vinted before so it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Have bought that very one.

Your Google-fu must be better than mine as I couldn’t find any kids sized ones at all! Hopefully the vinted dress will pass muster as I didn’t really want to spend over £30 on a dress as she will want other bots to complete the outfit but it’s good to have a back up just in case, thank you.

Yay!! 😁

Others have beat me to it but making a dress with no sewing machine and no experience is not an easy feat. Not to mention the time it takes. I have made plenty of clothes but it would take me a while to work out how to replicate that dress, and finding a similar pattern.

With the dress you have bought, you could replicate the godets just by taking a white sheet and working out what size triangles you need. Then cut each triangle about a centimetre larger than needed on all sides. Turn the edges under by pressing a centimetre fold around all 3 sides with an iron. Then baste (loose hand stitches) each triangle into the pleats, with the folded edges facing the dress. That way you won’t damage the dress and can just remove the white bits if needed.

That’s really helpful, thank you.