Eerie Nights Day 1

Welcome to the start of the Eerie Nights blog hop. I’m glad you’re here! There are lots of Halloween goodness going on, not to mention giveaways! First I’d like to thank Marian of Seams To Be Sew for doing all the arranging and Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy for taking over while Marian makes the huge journey of moving from Italy to the US as this event is happening.

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What can you expect to find? A new project from each blogger. Myself included. 🙂 Here’s the full line-up:

Today – Thursday, October 20. 2016
Seams To Be Sew
Cloth and Paper Studio – you’re here 🙂
Thrift Shop Commando
Sew Many Yarns

Friday, October 21, 2016
Quilting Affection Blog
Life In the Scrapatch
Feather Your Nest

Monday, October 24, 2016
Words & Stitches
Just Because Quilts
Sally’s Quilts
MooseStash Quilting

Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Jane’s Quilting
Just Let Me Quilt
Batts In The Attic

Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Inquiring Quilter
Living My Dream
123 Quilt
Craft Traditions

Thursday, October 27, 2016
Bumbleberry Stitches
Tea Time Creations
Anypattern.com
In The Boon Docks
Seacoast Quilter

Friday, October 28, 2016
Pink Doxies
Quilted Delights
Stitches Quilting
MaryMack’s Blog
Sew Incredibly Crazy

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy making my kids Halloween costumes. I think the most epic I’ve done is the year my 2 older children wanted to be Pokemon. Money was tight but I didn’t let that stop me. A thrift-store junkie who’s fond of upcycling (even before it became the thing to do) I found an older, fuzzy yellow blanket that I knew would make the perfect Pikachu. For my oldest, who wanted to be Mewtwo I used 2 different purple sheets. They came out wonderful if I do say so myself.

This year my youngest has had a hard time trying to figure out what she wants to be. I’ve been hoping she’d agree to be a fairy. She finally decided the other night that she wants to be a “pretty pink princess” and that she needs a “pink princess dress, sparkly pink princess shoes, and a pink princess crown with jewels.” Today, I’m going to share with you how I made a quick and easy princess dress that’s better and cheaper than what you’d buy at the store and the best part is your little princess will be the only one with that particular dress. That’s a win, win, win in my opinion. Let’s get to it!

Originally I was going to use tulle for the outer layer and satin for the lining, but I didn’t have enough in my stash, didn’t want to wait to go to the store for more and she absolutely had to have pink. LOL So after digging thru my fabric and linen piles, I found this ombre white to pink sheer curtain panel. Plus I found a bit of vintage pink shirting fabric for the lining layer, the lace and a piece of elastic.

What you’re basically going to be making is an easy elastic waist skirt. Huh? But I thought we were making a dress? We are, just say with me here. I’m not going to write-up a tutorial on how-to for an elastic waist skirt because there’s a million and one of them for free online. Here’s a good one that I’ve found. Follow the directions for the full skirt with an attached waistband. For the amount of fabric – I took my little girls biggest measurement around (doesn’t matter if it’s from her chest, waist or hips) and doubled it. However, if you want a really full and poofy dress, you could easily triple it or more! Here’s where you change it a bit, instead of making the length to be a skirt, you’re going to pull it up so it covers up her top so it’s like a strapless dress, and measure how long you’d like it to be.


To have it double layered, or even triple layered (more tulle = more twirly goodness) all you have to do is measure and cut each piece the same size, layer them and sew all the seams together except the hems. You’ll want to sew up the hems individually.

To attach the ribbon to go around the neck I simply sewed a buttonhole on my sewing machine, cut a piece of ribbon long enough to go around her neck and tie it in a pretty bow in back. That way I didn’t have to bother with snaps, velcro, or buttons. But you could if you prefer.

Then I cut another piece of ribbon that was long enough to wrap around her middle and tie in a bow with long tails hanging down. As an added little extra I made a bow and sewed it to the front of the waist ribbon.

And just that easy you have an easy, pretty princess dress that will get the stamp of approval from your little princess. You could also make loads of everyday dresses like this as well using cute vintage sheets, fabric remnants, or even larger sized ladies skirts. I’ll also be making, and sharing, easy DIYs for a matching jeweled crown and cape in the next few days so keep watching for more.

Since you made it this far I’ve got a surprise for you. There’s a give-a-way!!! Yeppers! Whoop-whoop! Thanks to Marian and Amy for setting all of this up. Here’s your chance to win a fabric bundle from Timeless Treasures!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Till next time happy upcycling!

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86 thoughts on “Eerie Nights Day 1

  1. Adorable! … and the cute pink princess costume is cute, too … 😉 Your model looks like she is thrilled with her new dress. I am sure she will get a lot of wear out of this for playing dress-up time. Thanks for sharing … 🙂 Pat

  2. Looks to me like it’s a winner and your pink princess is very happy with her new Halloween costume. Can’t wait to see the crown and cape.

  3. My kids are older now and no grandkids yet, but I love to look! I made a good witch dress that got many years of use by my 2 daughters!

  4. I think you fulfilled her wish for Halloween-and I’m sure she’s just delighted-kids and Halloween-don’t you just love them!

  5. What a great way to make a quick princess dress! You made me think back to some of the costumes my sister and I created. We had lots of fabric available (my grandfather worked at a fabric mill) so it was just up to our sewing skills what we could create. Thanks for sharing!

  6. I’ve constructed only 2 costumes for my girls when they were young…a clown costume and Dorothy. I’m not very good at costumes or clothes!

  7. What a sweet princess! (I had to smile when I read you found a pink curtain panel. The Sound of Music came to mind!) Your post of costumes reminded me that the 2 times my husband helped sew was making Halloween costumes for our boys. 🙂 Happy Halloween!

  8. I used to use a wrap round skirt as a sundress when I was younger and slimmer and lived somewhere with a climate not weather!
    Such a good idea and it could be recycled as a skirt on another occasion .

  9. The costume is so cute Mel, and your model is so adorable. It looked so easy to make-makes me want to see my daughter little again. Thanks for sharing.

  10. I agree that making costumes is fun. When my son was young I made many unusual costumes for him. He came up with some crazy ideas like a hammer, a tube of toothpaste, and a Swedish Fish (like the candy) — and it was my challenge to make them work! Lots of fun and creative thinking were involved.

  11. What a pretty princess! I love homemade costumes. They are so much better than store bought ones! I can’t wait to see the crown and cape!

  12. What a Pretty Princess in Pink ….. and what great memories you are making for both of you, in making such a special gown for her!

  13. Oh, I remember making my children’s costumes, some quick and easy others from store-bought patterns. They seemed to like them all and I enjoyed making them.

  14. She’s so cute in her pretty pink princess dress! I hate spending big bucks on Halloween costumes, nice finds in your stash!

  15. I love your Pretty Pink Princess and her adorable dress. I think it’s marvelous that you ‘made’ from what you had rather than buying more – that’s creative and affordable, too.

  16. I always mad costumes for my kids with things we had around the house!! I’m a great believer of reusing and recycling!!!

  17. The princess dress is great! There were many years money was tight so it was a matter of taking what we had and kicking it up a notch! Once year the gee for Ti Kwando was upped a notch by just adding a head wrap like the Karate Kid, the ball uniform by adding that black stuff under the eyes like the big league players, and the Easter outfit of a gray pair of pants, a Henley shirt, and a white linen jacket I had made for my son was a Halloween costume of Sonny Crockett by slicking back his hair and wearing a pair of sunglasses.

  18. Cute idea…sweet lil Princess! Thanks for tutorial…know a lil girl round here that would love dress like it! (Pink too! lol)

    Thanks for chance to win your give-a-way!! 🙂

  19. I remember the days of making costumes for the kids! Glad they are over! But there were some fond memories, too! ndfromsd atgmaildotcom

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