#epicdressproject: Belle

On our fourth day in WDW, we went to Magic Kingdom. In our original plans for this trip, this day fell on my exact birthday, and my Belle ‘bound was going to be my birthday dress.

Although our trip ended up being shifted by about seven months, we treated this new day as my honorary birthday! Husband’s planning was wonderful, and we ended our day with dinner at Be Our Guest, which was magical– and absolutely delicious. That meal was probably my favorite of our entire trip.

Wearing this dress around the parks was the most fun I’d had so far. The bright color and full skirt drew lots of second glances and some compliments, and I even noticed a few little girls remarking to their grown-ups about it, which was so fun! This definitely would have been a dream dress for me as a kid! Cast members outdid themselves wishing me and my daughter “happy birthday” (not only was this my “honorary” birthday, but our trip was so close to my daughter’s birthday that we celebrated hers there, too). My daughter wore a ruffly yellow dress (store-bought) and so we ‘bounded Belle together that day.

One Cast Member, David, made our day particularly fun. He saw us in the pathway as we walked between Peter Pan and Small World and cheerfully wished us happy birthdays. We ended up turning back and passed by him again, and he wished us happy birthdays again, making a (fun) big deal that it was again. Later that afternoon, we rode Small World, and he was in the booth above the waterway as we boarded our boat! He recognized us and called down happy birthday yet again! It was so funny, and when we got off the ride, I made a point of turning around and waving goodbye to him.

So, how about some details about the dress? It’s view A of Simplicity 8051, and I shortened the midriff pieces by 1″ after grading it out at the waist.

The fabric is a lightweight cotton batik that I found at G Street Fabrics. The batik has a subtle yellow-on-white rose pattern, which I thought was perfect for a Belle ‘bound!

The fabric is lovely but also fairly sheer, and so I decided to add a lining to the bodice. This is not part of the original pattern, so I recorded my steps below for future reference:

• cut out bodice front and back pieces from lining fabric
• cut down bodice back lining to add main fabric facing along angled edge (see pattern piece for line.  3/8″ seam allowance)
• construct bodice lining in the same way as main bodice (including basting stitches for later gathering
• apply armhole facing INTERFACING to lining
• stitch main bodice to lining at armholes (as facing); understitch; trim seam allowances if necessary (I needed to do so with the yellow dress because the rose batik was so lightweight
• stitch lining+facing to main at back
• gather lining front and main bodice front; treat as one and attach yoke as instructed

Because of the open-back design, wearing a regular bra wouldn’t work, so I opted to hand-stitch some bra cups to the lining layer, as well.

I did not line the skirt, because I knew I would be wearing a petticoat to add fullness. I bought THIS one from Amazon (affiliate link), and it was just what I needed, and a good price for what it is. I wore another slip that I already owned under the petticoat so that it wouldn’t be quite so scratchy against my legs.

At the back neck, I added two red rose buttons– I think they’re the perfect touch for this Belle dress!

I haven’t really mentioned the face masks that I made to go with each of my outfits– mostly because they are simply made from scrap fabric from the outfits, or other coordinating fabric I had on hand. For this dress, though, I found a digital embroidery design of a rose that I had stored on my computer and stitched it onto my fabric with metallic gold thread before constructing the mask. Because of the light weight of the fabric, I added fusable interfacing in addition to the tear-away stabilizer, and this made the mask stiffer than my other ones!

One last note: some of these photos of me were taken by Husband, but a good portion of them were taken by various PhotoPass photographers around Magic Kingdom. They were so gracious to take some really fun poses to show off my handmade dress!