Disneybounding

DIY Disneybounding Ariel Tank Top (Kids)

| Heather

“When’s it my turn?
Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that shore up above?
Out of the sea
Wish I could be
Part of that world”

Ok, if you were a little girl in the 90’s, you too probably belted out these lyrics as you pretended you were a mermaid with flowing red hair and a crush on a handsome prince. Well, not much has changed since then, little girls still dream about being Ariel. She’s my niece’s favorite Disney princess, and it isn’t hard for me to imagine why. Her Disneybounding look is next!

I had trouble thinking through how I would do Ariel without needing sea shells, or something that wasn’t very appropriate for a 5 year old, but luckily I found some inspiration… somewhere… Here’s my sketch…

 

Ariel Disneybounding Sketch 

 
Materials:

  • Purple Tank Top
  • Sea green fabric – I found a fun sequined fabric at Joann’s that the little girl inside fantasizing about being Ariel couldn’t resist. 🙂
  • Coordinating Thread

    Ariel Disnebounding Materials

DIY:

  1. I decided the overdress would be at the empire waistline. Measure the width and length from the empire waistline to the bottom of the tank top. Add a few inches to the width so you can gather. Cut out two rectangles.
  2. Right sides together, stitch together the side seams. 
  3. Run at least two lines of a gathering stitch along the top of the overdress. Gather to fit to the tank top.
  4. Pin overdress to the tank top along the empire waistline (right sides together) so the dress is basically “flipped up”. Ariel in progress
  5. Zigzag stitch all the way around around, press dress down.
  6. To create some slight gathering at the neckline, I hand-stitched about two inches down and gathered it (securing inside the tank top).Ariel Detail Shot

OMG, talk about ADORARABLE!! Who wouldn’t want to be a mermaid princess, really? 

 –h

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Disneybounding Merida T-Shirt DIY

| Heather

Ok, you may be wondering, what is Disneybounding? Here’s the concept in a nutshell…

Disneybounding: Creating a fashion look based on a Disney character by drawing from colors, or iconic design elements from that character’s clothing. Disneybounding isn’t simply making a costume, but instead creating a look you could wear on a normal day and hint at a favorite character. You know, bring a little Disney magic to your every day. 😉

Merida from Brave is up next in our little series. My mom chose her because she loves Merida’s color palette. Confession, I haven’t see Brave yet, but luckily Google images came to my rescue and gave me plenty of inspiration! This is an easy project, with VERY little sewing.

Materials:

  • Green t-shirt
  • Suede or faux leather cording
  • Small grommets or eyelets
  • Faux leather or brown trim
  • Coordinating ThreadMerida Disneybounding Materials

How-To:

  1. Here’s the design I sketched up, you can see how simple it is when you start with a t-shirt.
    Merida Disneybounding Sketch
  2. Measure, mark and apply grommets following the directions on the package.Merida Disneybounding Top
  3. Cut the cording to the desired length.
  4. Measure/cut cording. Lace up your top. Tie knots at the end of the cording.
    Merida Detail Shot
  5. Measure/cut trim.  Sew side seams together, pin and sew on trim.Merida Detail Shot 2

    Disneybounding Merida Finished

Seriously, 5 steps and you too can Disneybound Merida. How’s that for quick, easy, fun! The countdown to Disneyland is on!

–h

DIY Disneybounding: Princess Aurora Tank Top

| Heather

We are heading to Disneyland later this month with my family and I can’t wait! I decided all of us girls should get to Disneybound one of the princesses. So I sketched up some concepts and let everyone pick. Watch for the entire series of posts!

My sister went for Aurora…Do you remember the legendary rivalry between Flora and Merryweather? Blue…Pink…Blue…Pink!! Well that rivalry is very real between me and my sister. I know you will be shocked to learn I am clearly in the superior pink camp and she is definitely in the blue camp. So, I’m making her a pink shirt. Because I can. Pink wins!

Aurora Disneybounding Sketch

Materials:

  • Pink Tank top – I found one for $5 at Target
  • White Material – I used some I had in my stash (don’t ask, it’s a little out of control). The fabric you choose needs to have some structure and some stretch. You might need to use some interfacing if your fabric can’t hold the shape.
  • White Thread
    Aurora Disneybounding Materials

How-To:

1. Measure from the center of the bust, to side of the arm. Then measure from the same spot on the arm all the way across the back to the side of the other arm. This will give you everything you need to create the simple pattern.
Aurora Disneybounding Pattern Sketch

2. Draw out the pattern on some tissue paper or wrapping paper. You will notice there is an angle on the arm seams. Ideally, you would determine the angle by trying the piece on the recipient. I just guessed and then had to make some adjustments after the fact. Better to do this step now instead of later.

3. Place your patterns on your white fabric and cut out two front pieces and one back piece.

4. Right sides together, sew the two front pieces together at the center seam. Right sides together sew together the front pieces to back piece at side seams. Trim and press seams open.

5. Fold the entire piece in half length-wise with wrong sides together. Press.

6. Now it’s time to attach it to the tank top. With the folded side up, pin. I pinned the front at a slight downward angle toward the center front to give it the look I was going for. Zigzag stitch to the tank top all the way around (skipping the arm holes for now). Press down.

Aurora Disneybounding front   Aurora Disnebounding back

7. Press down the seam allowance in the arm holes, and top-stitch across the arm holes.

Disneybounding Aurora Finished

Tada! You’re ready to Disneybound Princess Aurora just in time for vacay! The shirt is PINK!

–h

P.S. Add a gold headband (or crown) if you really want to go for it!!

Tutu Tuesday: Part I Tulle Circle Skirt

| Heather

Confession: With the new baby at home, I’ve become a Dutch Bros junkie. Seriously, it’s getting bad. Last Tuesday, I drove up and everyone was wearing a tutu and a tiara. I’ll admit I was just a little jealous!! So I told the girl getting my coffee that I loved her look, and she replied…We’ve established it as Tutu Tuesday.

Um, every girl needs a Tutu Tuesday, don’t you think? So here’s a DIY Tulle Skirt for you…

Tulle Circle Skirt

I found a ton of great tutorials on Pinterest, check-out my Crafty Ideas board for several good ones. If you run into questions during my tutorial, those might fill in any gaps. 🙂

Materials:

  • 6 yards (at least) of Tulle – I used green because I was Disneybounding Mike Wazowski for Halloween.
  • Appx 1 yard of matching Lining Fabric
  • Elastic the size of your waist plus 1 inch – You want this to fit snugly, but not too tight (we don’t want a tulle skirt muffin top, yikes!)

IMG_4075

How-to:
1. Determine the length of your skirt. Measure from your waist down to where you want the skirt to end. I went down to my knee.

2. Determine your waist radius. Measure around your waist, divide that by 3.14, then divide that by 2. That gives you your waist radius.

3. You are basically going to cut out a number of tulle “doughnuts” out of squares of tulle. So add the waist radius to the skirt length and multiply by 2. That will be the length you cut your fabric. You also want the width of the tulle to be at least equal to that same measurement. So cut several of these pieces. I would do at least 4. Do the same for your lining fabric (just 1).

Here’s what we are going for:

FAbric

4. Now fold each piece in half lengthwise. You should have a square piece of fabric with 2 folded sides.

Fabric2

5. Now take your waist measurement and skirt length to create your pattern.

Skirt pattern

Tip: Create a pattern out of tissue paper or wrapping paper. You’ll thank me for this step because tulle can be challenging to work with.

If you think about it, here are the tulle doughnuts you are cutting out so make sure your folds are the right places…

Skirt graphic

6. Pin your pattern to your first piece of tulle, and cut out. Repeat 4+ times and 1 time for your lining fabric.

7. Hem your lining fabric.

8. Take your tulle and lining circles and layer them on top of each other. Pin and baste around the waist line.

9. Take the ends of your elastic and overlap ½” and sew together (remember this is an important stitch that will have pressure one it).

10. Pin your skirt to the elastic. Zig-zag stitch around. Done!

Tulle Circle Skirt

Again, this was for a Halloween costume, I’m excited to make one in black or red for the holidays.

Happy Tutu Tuesday!! Also, anyone also in the mood for a doughnut or some coffee now?

–h

P.S. Part II continues here…

Disney’s Elsa Snowflake T-Shirt

| Heather

What little girl right now doesn’t LOVE Elsa from Disney’s Frozen? I think we met at least 100 Elsa Princesses this Halloween. But seriously, what’s not to love… she’s a princess, she can sing, and she has frozen powers. Well, my niece is no exception, she is a huge Elsa fan. She loves to perform “Let it Go” complete with every hair toss, cape swirl, and dance move. It’s incredible how this movie has little girls (and boys I hear) completely smitten.

That said, of course we had to do an Elsa project. My sister and her family went to Disneyland this summer and my niece really wanted an Elsa outfit. My sister decided to make a no-sew blue tutu and I had an idea.

For those of you who don’t know, Ryan loves to make paper snowflakes. For the last three winters, he has spent hours drawing out increasingly complex and beautiful snowflakes. You would not believe some of the incredible designs he comes up with, it is really fun to see his creativity. I have snowflakes for my office, for my dining room, and they keep coming! Anyway, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to put his talent to good use. 😉

My sister bought a t-shirt to match the tutu, and I put Ryan to the task of designing a snowflake inspired by one of the snowflakes from the movie (don’t worry, Ryan will share his snowflake making secrets in a future post coming soon).

The inspiration…

Elsa snowflake

The pattern…

Elsa snowflake template

We then bought a silver sparkly glitter iron-on transfer. Ryan then traced his design onto some card stock and then cut it out of the transfer with an Exacto knife on a self-healing rotary mat.

Snowflake iron on

Then, following the iron-on transfer instructions, I ironed on the snowflake. The result, a special Elsa shirt for my sweet niece!

Elsa Shirt Best

A super quick and easy DIY anyone can do! Need a gift idea for, well, any little girl? This is it!!

–h

P.S. Ready to kick it up a notch? Try this Elsa Inspired Cape next!