“When the first baby laughed for the very first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”  – Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

I am Grammy to five adorable littles.  They are my sunshine and rock my world.  This project began when my daughter came to me with an idea—she wanted to know if I’d help her create a Peter Pan theme for their family for Halloween.  When we began talking about who should be Tinkerbell, there was one obvious choice.  Little Miss A is a robust four year-old who loves life and spreads her own version of pixie dust everywhere she goes.  However, Miss A wasn’t happy about being Tinkerbell at first.  She wanted to be Rapunzel.  It wouldn’t have made a difference; I would have made either costume.  But I had already purchased the Disney Fairies pattern when they were 99 cents at Joann’s, and her mommy was really excited about their family theme.  So, when she was at my house for a few days, what we call “Grammy-cation,” I decided to show her the pattern.  She was then so excited about being Tinkerbell that she actually slept with the sewing pattern.  I eventually had to pull the guts of the pattern out and let her have the envelope—that was a first!

 

Here are some thoughts on this pattern, my fabric choice and a few tips:

Fabric Choice:

Believe it or not, this project was a stash-buster.  Last year for Christmas, I made every little girl on my list an 18” Disney princess.  I had several specialty fabrics left, so I pulled
out that bag and found the green satin, green-sequined knit and yellow tulle and white organza that I worked perfectly.  Here are similar fabrics from Fabric.com:

 

Organdy Organza White

Slipper Satin Kelly Green

Vellum Gold Tuille

 

These can be tricky fabrics to work with, especially the green-sequined knit.  Last year, it was the only shiny, sparkly green fabric I could find.  A woven would have been better.  The problem with this fabric is the glue that secures the sequins.  It gums up your sewing needle and causes needle breakage.  I did find that my Janome Serger handled it much better, so any time I had the option to serge it, I did.  The addition of sparkle was completely worth it.

 

Pattern Piecing:

This little dress has over 100 pieces.  Allow yourself some time to cut it out—put a movie on and plan to spend the evening.  Since I was stash-busting, I was holding my breath.  I was so happy when I ended up with just enough!

 

 

Construction:

The time consuming part of this pattern is the leaves.  There are 22 around the neckline and 15 around the waist.  At first, I was taking the time to make each point perfect, clipping carefully and breaking needles left and right on the sequined ones.  Finally, I had a “get real” moment.   This was a Halloween costume and not a bridal gown!  I serged the leaves.  I cheated.  The points are not perfect, but little Miss A doesn’t care, and the cuteness overpowers the fact that the leaves are not at crisp points.  The rest of the construction was a typical little girls’ dress with a lined bodice that went rather quickly.

 

 

The Wings:
I used white organza for the wings with netting in between.  After adding the wire, it was fairly stiff, but not as firm as I wanted them to be.  I treated them with Fabric Stiffener, and that made a huge difference.  The pattern also called for white chenille sticks for the wire in the wings.  I thought I had them in my craft stash, but it turned out I did not.  What I did have was beading wire and white wooly nylon thread, so I serged over wire.  It worked wonderfully!

 

Extras:

The more pixie dust, the better!  Before seaming the outer layer of tulle, I sprinkled some heat application rhinestones on it, and also on the wings.  I used my heat press, but you could easily use an iron.  Just be sure to use a Teflon pressing cloth on those delicate fabrics!
Another part that I made was the nude-colored tshirt for underneath.  Since Halloween is always a cold time, these are a great way to stay warm but still keep the integrity of the costumes.  This nylon jersey fabric was also from my stash (from doll-making), but you can find a similar fabric here.  I drafted the tshirt pattern from a ready-to-wear tee that I knew would fit Miss A.  Watch for my upcoming blog post next week on how to do this.

 

 

Final thoughts:

The Neverand Gang was a hit at the costume party, and Miss A is still insisting people call her Tinkerbell.  My part was to make costumes for Tinkerbell and Wendy.  Tiger Lily’s costume is available on Amazon.  Captian Hook from the Disney Store, and both Peter and Smee were gathered together from thrift shops.  In my next post, I’ll give you details on Wendy’s dress.