cinderelly cinderelly

I want to share a few more photos of my beautiful little Cinderella and some details about her costume!

The dress is based off of the Caroline Party Dress by Mouse House Creations. This is my fourth time sewing this pattern! The fabric is inexpensive polyester satin and the sheer fabric is organza, both from JoAnn’s glitterbug line. (See versions 1, 2, and 3.) I used the same fabric for the lining, but with the matte side facing in. The satin was impossible to cut straight and the serger hated it, but it was surprisingly easy to sew (with a microtex needle.) I left the inside seams unfinished, so this dress might eventually fray itself to death, but it survived Halloween!

I only made a few small modifications to the pattern. I made a size 5 but cut a longer skirt. I trimmed the cap sleeve and added little organza poufs to the sleeve and at the hips, just like Cinderella. The sleeve poufs are made from an organza trapezoid cut with the long end placed on the fold and the sides and top pleated. The hip poufs on the skirt are made from an organza triangle 16” wide x 8” tall with the long side placed on the fold. Then I ran a gathering stitch along the two unfolded sides of the triangle.

The accessories and sock-bun hairstyle really completed the costume. I bought the gloves on Etsy and was so pleased with how well they matched the dress. I cut the fabric off of a cheap headband from Target and recovered it with scrap fabric from the dress. Sounds simple right? It actually took much craft knowledge, skill, and three attempts to get it right! I ended up using a piece of fabric cut on the bias (very important to eliminate wrinkles) held in place with fabric glue stick, and I covered the inside seam and ends with a piece of satin ribbon and a glue gun. The choker is one of my favorite tricks: cut about 1.5” from the leg (or thigh) of a pair of pantyhose and roll it up to get a soft and super stretchy choker! No seams, no closure, no sewing, and easy to take on and off!

Mae’s “glass slippers” are a pair of shimmery stride rite sneakers. I shopped for fancy glittery princess shoes on Amazon but they all looked uncomfortable. I realized these sneakers were only $5 more and likely to get much more wear. Pretty happy with this purchase!

Like I said in my Halloween post, I'm so glad I got these photos of Mae the week before COVID struck our house and turned us all into pumpkins! I even got some photos of Mae walking down a big staircase like Cinderella! (Her shoe did not fall off.)