Ariel: Town Dress (Disney)
Ariel is the protagonist of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She wears this dress while exploring the town/kingdom with Prince Eric. Costume built in 2021.
Best in Show – 2021 Mizucon, Miami, FL
Part 1: Undergarments
For this dress I made undergarments that I could reuse for all my princess dresses. First part were the bloomers. Basically, they’re just pants underneath the dress. They have ribbon on the cuff so that I can tighten them if I need or, but for the most part they just loosely hang right below the knee. The waist band has elastic in it for easy on and off.
Next was the petticoat, it’s a half-circle skirt made of cotton with a zipper and waistband, the hem has lace on it, and it goes to knee length.
The last undergarment is the Chemise. The chemise is made of cotton gauze and its sleeves go to the elbow, the flounce extends just past the elbow and can be tightened with ribbon. Usually, I wear it as an off shoulder, but for Belle I tighten it to be worn at the shoulders.
Part 2: The Corset
The corset is 3 layers. Cotton lining, interfacing, and black dupioni. The boning used was steel boning, and it is a grommet lace up. The bodice lining was the first time making a breast cup into the pattern, it took about 3 tries to do. Once all 3 layers were sewn together, I then bordered it with black bias tape. Then I grommeted and laced up with ribbon, placed on the mannequin and began drawing fish scales.
I made a giant grid of fish scales and decided to cut them into size once they were embroidered. I embroidered them onto black tulle. I have used organza, chiffon, and tulle for applique and of the 3, I prefer chiffon for embroidery applique. When I use the solder iron to melt away the fabric, the tulle was seen in the embroidery, whereas the chiffon was no longer visible after embroidery. Once I had my pallets of fish scales, I put them on the bodice to see how I wanted them to face and what design I wanted to cut out. I decided to have the fish scales face inward, and the scales on the breast downwards. It just looked funny facing inward at the top. Once I cut them to size, I used my solder to melt the edges and keep them from unraveling, then hand sewed them into place. It took a whole season of Once Upon a Time.
Part 3: The Skirt
The skirt is made of blue satin and is a circle skirt. I drafted the skirt to my mid-calf length. Cats come in handy as paper weights, especially when they want attention. Once the skirt was cut out, I made a waist band of 2 long rectangle, ironed on interfacing, then folded the rectangle in half. The skirt was pleated in the front to fit the waistband instead of gathered. I had a lot of trouble turning the hem. I used water-soluble double-sided tape to help, but the hem does still roll to this day. To combat this, I starch the hem and press it down flat.
Part 4: The Bow
The bow is two large rectangle pieces, both with iron on interfacing, sewn together like a pillow. Then folded right side out and hand stitched at the middle. Four smaller rectangles, cut at a point on one end have the similar technique as the bow. The tails are ready to be attached to the bow. I threw some stitches on them to hold them in place before adding a strip on fabric to the middle of the bow, then hot gluing it all together. Then added a barrette.
