Urgent!! Pattern/ideas needed

[lydonsmum]

I have been asked to make dresses for 4 girls to wear in school performance on 3rd July. They need to be princesses, and have been asked for simple white long shift dress with sashes.

Has anyone got any ideas on a pattern I could buy? I was thinking a wrap dress may be easier for fitting.

I am also making cloaks for 7 others, and a frog costume, so any other ideas welcome!!

ps I have asked for volunteers to help

Make them in a jersey of some sort, this will cut down on the worry of fit & the hassel of a wrap dress for 4 :) - something sparkly, silky or maybe crushed velou.

I can't help on a pattern as I rarely buy them, but do you or one of the other mums not have a simple shift dress pattern that you've used for your DDs before - if so, use that, but make it floor length & add to the hem width

or maybe buy cheap strappy vest tops (often cheaper than cloth) cut off at the waist & add long full skirts - these only need to be straight strips of cloths twice the width of the girls hips & then gauge on the bottom of the vest tops

Maybe 2 layers, one satin, the other orandie, so that its very princessy & then decorate the vest tops with bits of the skirt cloth, robbons, lace etc etc

HTH

gauge ONTO the bottom of the vests

That's a great idea, thank you! I am off to look at fabric now :)

I'd do as rockinghippy suggests - only I'd just do it as bought vest top, separated elasticated skirt bit, and the join hidden by sash.

Good ideas, just trying ti work out quantities of fabric now. I have found some cheap satin which should do the job, probably the same in a different colour for the sashes.

Any ideas on making a cape or waistcoat for the princes?
I have seven of them, already wearing a white shirt and black trousers, and they have to have a matching sash too. Was thinking a cape would probably be easiest?

Cape would be easiest in terms of fitting, etc, but waistcoats are pretty easy too, and would use a lot less material.

What sort of princes are they? I made tabards for the 3 musketeers once and they were very effective - might that work?

That should help with a cape, though you probably don't need the hood & I would recommend a 3/4 circle, made up of 1/2 circle & front 2 pieces at 1/8ths IYSWIM - then just add a long wide binding that runs oft the edge to make a front tie - or a shorter one fastened with velcro - to make it really prince like, maybe add a bit of gold braid around the neck & front edeges

HTH

typo agogo

A couple of tips

1. use wide elastic - at least an inch wide. Skirt sits better, is more comfy for the child, and is harder to break

2. thread it through and leave a gap of a couple of inches in the seam. Have the elastic slightly too long. Tie it or sew it to exactly the right size through the gap. Leave the gap open for alterations. Put a sticky label on the inside of the skirt once you've fitted it to the child

3. If you are dressing them to go onstage, catch them RIGHT before they go on. You are guaranteed that they will have pulled the skirt down to sit on their hips (as everything they wear nowadays is cut as hipsters). You'll have to pull the skirt back to waist height, and probably tidy up the sash as well. The wider elastic will be snugger and will make it harder for them to wear the skirts at the wrong height. This sounds like a small thing but it makes a huge difference to how they look to an audience.

4. Handiest to make the closures for the sashs out of Velcro - you can size them exactly to the child when putting them on, and if you need to tidy them before going onstage all you have to do is open and reclose them - no faffing around with safety pins.

(all the above learnt from 8 pantos with 6 performances each, with over 100 kids in each. My sewing box is a huge toolbox plus I have 2 chests of drawers of material plus a spare room that's difficult to get into...)

Re waistcoats - is there a stock of existing ones - all you would have to do is cut out new fronts and oversew them to the existing ones.

OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly that is a great selection of tips! Thank you. Definitely the route I am planning to go down - vest tops and satin gathered skirts, wide sashes as belts. Maybe even a satin flower or two to decorate...

Thank you for the cape link, looks just what we need.

I knew MNers had much more experience than me in these things ...

Ooh, nearly forgot the frog costume - apparently it only needs to 'reference' a frog?!! Its for a 10yo boy

BASIC FROG COSTUME IDEAS IN HERE

I was looking at green hooded sweat shirts for older DCs in Peacocks only last week, something that adapted as the photo in the link - with the pointy collar & big googly frog eyes

& then maybe paint an old pair of jeans or pants with green paint ??

HTH

you are a star, I will have a look in Peacocks

If you don't manage to get hold of the green hoody - for a 10 yr old boy I would think about maybe doing a Rap star frog prince - green baseball cap - paint if you have too - add some over sized gold bling to the front of it - any old green sweatshirt or ling sleeved top & loads of comic over sized gold medallions & chains around his neck :)