Halloween (a.k.a. Belle part 1)

I'm going to start this post like a Family Guy episode: a seemingly random tangent that leads up to something. I promise. (just in case, take a shot. I do this a lot.)

I've been going to the Renaissance Faire since I was in 3rd grade and even though I had no idea what it entailed, I was hell bent on working there one day, somehow. I got my opportunity 3 years ago as a sophomore in college. My close friend at the time knew someone who worked there with the Guild of Saint Cuthberts (acting groups are divided into guilds at the faires I work with.) I bounced from Cuthberts to English Court but this third year, I think I found a good fit with Serenata and it's sibling group, Commedia Volante: a singing and acting group I remember from years as a faire patron.

Seriously though, these guys are the stupid best.

Within Commedia and through faire, I've found a kind of seamstress support system. So many faire people sew- primarily because you just can't buy these historically accurate costumes. There are so many people who I can now call my friends whom I can go to when I have a sewing question, a design question or just generally want conformation that "no, that's not a stupid idea, you can totally sew red hearts onto your bloomers." Any mention of "Fairy God-Sisters" comes mostly from faire as many of them are helpful, beautiful, nerdy, snarky, disney fanatics and have come to my aid more in the last few months than I've ever needed from my fellow man. I partially blame this safety blanket for my current poor decision-making.

Something also important about the Fairy God-Family is that they encourage Halloween. OH HOW THEY ENCOURAGE HALLOWEEN and because I'm a college student, naturally there are multiple costumed events I am required to be at. Of course, on this new sewing/costuming kick, of course I decided to take on multiple costumes!

That's sweet Clara, but get to the point

Still basking in the afterglow of the Pheasant dress, with a costume ball event looming AND fueled by the DP dreams of mia famiglia- DP stands for Disney Princess, get your mind out of the gutter- I decided that it was high time I did my own Disney princess costume.

in case you didn't look at the title of the post

I'm a dark-haired girl with brown eyes. I was a voracious reader as a kid who didn't really like running around but always wanted adventure. I also happened to have a copy of Beauty and the Beast on VHS that I watched the shit out of. Seriously, it broke, I watched it so much. While I can't say that I liked her out of anything other than the pure narcissism of the fact that she had brown hair, I'm not going to say she didn't make a little impression on me. I am of the ilk who believes that cosplaying should be done to the cosplayer's strengths and so I was hesitant to try my hand at this sort of recreation. Disney princesses have come under a lot of fire based on the purported ideals of their stories and the ideals that their basic appearances supposedly force on young women.

Buuuut that's not what this blog is supposed to be about. I'll save that rant for a different time.

Back to Belle.

So I started a little research. And by research I mean, I watched the movie a few times and looked at other people's attempts at the dress. BEFORE people start rubbing their fingers at me in a "shame on you" motion (admit it, you just tried it now that I've mentioned it) I am not looking to make a historical recreation. The essential idea to this dress was to bring the original dress, from the movie, to life.

Little girl's dream. Right there.

The Pattern

So the first thing I did was hit up the Fairy God-Sister Council. If you guys are reading this, don't laugh, that's what you guys are in my head. I'd been combing Simplicity, McCall's and Burda looking for princess patterns, particularly for parallel pleats. (take a shot for the alliteration.) Did you know there are practically zero commercial Belle gold-dress patterns? I sure as hell didn't realize this until about two weeks ago. The Fairy God-Sisters sent me to Truly Victorian and more specifically a seperate bodice and a skirt

TV240

TV416

Obviously we're not looking at exact matches but these patterns are alterable and that's what I was looking for. I primarily purchased the bodice pattern because without the sleeves, it does bear a striking resemblance to Belle's bodice, especially if one eliminates the buttons down the front and the pleating in back (which I did) as well as ignoring the sleeves altogether (which I was also happy to do because less work, woo!) The skirt I purchased mainly because of the horizontal pleating on that top layer. It also had gores which is another essential part of Belle's dress but I mainly wanted the be assured of the pleating technique and how long the original panels would be in comparison to the finished piece. I also purchased the bodice with the intention of treating the piece like a corset. The cartoon dress does not have any obvious closures other than a seam in the front which I highly doubt is actually supposed to be anything other than a guide for the animators. I am also a busty gal and had to wrestle with the idea of purchasing a strapless or invisible strap bra to wear with the dress or somehow finding/whipping together a corset in the short amount of time this dress was going to be needed. In the end, it was suggested that I bone the fuck out of a canvas bodice (yes, that is the technical term) covering the thing in a fashion fabric and lacing it in back.

Ahh but then, what did I use for the skirt pattern? Well, I'm glad you asked because I am both proud and frustrated with my stupid-ass decision making. And my hubris.

I couldn't shake the idea that Belle's dress was not actually a bell-shaped skirt, no matter how much I wanted it to be. I've made bell-skirts before, the Pheasant dress's underskirt is one. So to get a better idea of what the skirt pattern might be, I turned to that famous scene from the movie:

Seriously though, formatting these pictures is a bitch.

Sometimes I want to go back and time and strangle the animators. Mostly because, yes, that could have been a bell-skirt if, when she curtsied, it retained that shape, somewhat. Instead it fans, it swirls and it floofs (take notes, this is professional-ass lingo here.) While I could have gotten away with maybe a 8-10 yard straight paneled skirt, my insanity would not be satisfied until I settled on a gored, circle skirt pattern.

For this, I turned to an engineer.

Okay I turned to an engineer-in-training. What is college life if not for networking? A few painful and drawn out and easily distracted video chats later and I had a gored circle skirt pattern that was long enough to pleat into two inch pleats all the way down.

there was a bird break

Look at 'em gores.

Soooo with hardware taken care of it was time to get the rest of the software.

Material Concerns

Remember that part I added in my "about me" first post where I said I was a college student? Yeah, sometimes that comes with a few strings attached. I will not deny that I am incredibly blessed and lucky to have a family that has been able to provide for me while I am in school and I am reminded every day of how lucky I am to have them. I do occasionally take odd jobs and commissions to pad out extra spending money and I do keep a budget to keep from overspending. All this said, that did not keep me from balking when I started looking at the material costs for this dress.

Of course my first instinct was to use silk dupioni for this. About 75% of the time if you ask me what a dress should be made of, I'll tell you to use silk dupioni. I do this for a few reasons: 1. it's generally a cheaper silk than say, taffeta. 2. I find it in more colors than taffeta and 3. I play an Italian at faire and we're all about silk and 4. I LOVE TEXTURED FABRICS. With silk dupioni in particular it is a fast and easy way to bring a cartoony color like yellow/gold and turn it into something that could be believable and tangible. With satin or taffeta I always worry about the costume looking too... costumey. The imperfections in dupioni somehow comfort me into thinking that this could be a real dress, worn by some princess long ago.

I understand many dresses women wore were made of taffeta and velvet and moire etc etc. this is just my brain doing it's thing.

Because I am a lazy butt who is now at school up north, I went to my current favorite silk provider: Silk Baron. They ship in a timely fashion and they allow you to order swatches with free shipping and also provide you with 3 additional swatches when you purchase yardage. Sometimes, when I'm sad, I look at my Silk Baron swatches and smile thinking about all the silk projects waiting to be made. Perhaps one day I'll make a Commedia costume with patches of all the pretty swatch colors.

I wound up selecting dijon dupioni for my bodice color and cumin taffeta for the skirt. And then I looked at how much yardage I would need for the skirt and thought maybe I should look into something somewhat cheaper.

That dear readers, was the first time I cried during this project. (take a shot)

After the initial stress at realizing a silk dress of this nature would be fiscally irresponsible, I was encouraged by a Fairy God-Sister to hoof it down to the discount fabrics store in downtown SF and find myself a new yellow silk. I left that day with 10 yards of gold* silk habotal and 10 yards of un-dyed muslin that is now carpeting my bedroom

yellow canvas, roll of habotal in between and dupioni on the right

I then ran off to Joanne to find yellow canvas duck which I got for 30% off because they were having a sale. I then noticed I had a 50% off entire purchase coupon that I hadn't used and proceeded to get a few things for another side project I will post about next time.

I already have a petticoat I'd purchased for a previous event and I picked up yellow thread. Next time: mockups, boning and perhaps side projects.

*P.S. a note on "gold" versus "yellow"

I did debate this with some Fairy God-Sisters. Belle's dress in the movie is never really a consistent shade of yellow due to lighting changes and the fact that it's 2D hand-animated piece. Just as Cinderella's dress is argued to be silver rather than blue, I like to believe that no one in their right mind during the period that dress would have been made and this story took place, would have chosen to make a bright-ass yellow dress. For the same reason Aurora wears pink on all her merchandise and Cindy is inarguably blue, Belle has been regulated to buttercup yellow on backpacks, placemats and sippy cups. Years of merchandising have also started to leech into the park dresses as well and we get hideously bright... things:

Thankfully the new park dresses have started to go back to their roots but I fully maintain that in the original movie, Belle's dress is a gold-yellow. Which would attribute to the color variations and the shiny glint we get in various scenes. Also, I have gold skin so straight yellow would look terrible on me and in the end, it's me wearing this thing.

I'm amused by the choice to have the straight underskirt. It's very much like my TV pattern.