Entry #15

Pro

Outfit Design

When I saw this contest I thought a lot about what character I wanted to do. The one I kept coming back to was Shirley Temple, because of her recent death and because she had a special meaning for my mom. Then I needed to decide which of the many characters (and costumes) that Shirley Temple played I would make. I finally settled on the movie Baby take a Bow, one of Shirley Temple’s earliest movies, where she plays Shirley Ellison, a little girl with a reformed inmate for a father. The most famous costume from that film is her ballet dance costume that she wears to sing and dance to “On Account-a I Love You” so that is what I decided to make.

Baby Take a Bow is a black and white film so I decided to make the dress pale pink, consistent with most colorizations of the film. I got a pink satin and lining fabric and pale pink shiny tulle.

I would need to make the bodice pattern, tiered skirt, underskirt, ruffled underpants, garland, and middle buckle white shoes.

So, now that my plan was set, it was on to construction.

Outfit Creation

I cut out the bodice first and the sleeve ruffles to test the fit of the pattern.

After adjusting the pattern, I made the final bodice, sewing in the sleeve ruffles.

Then it was on to cutting out and gathering rows upon rows of tulle for the skirt and then sewing them to each tier of the skirt.

Then sewing the tiers together and the bodice and skirt were ready to be joined.

I’m getting there.

Now, on to the underskirt and underpants.

Then to the construction of the garland. I studied the garland a long time until I finally decided how I would construct it give the best replication of the original without being exactly the same. I made larger ribbon roses of pale pink and cream for the shoulder and waist using 3/8” ribbon, picked out the best ones and glued they to green leaves made with 1/4” ribbon.  Then I made more than 30 tiny roses out of 1/8” ribbon and made stems by wrapping them with green embroidery floss. I glued them to a green 1/8” ribbon and then sewed the garland to the bodice.

Then it was on to the final item, the middle buckle shoes, with real metal taps and gold buckles.

Outfit modeled

So here she is, Shirley Temple as Shirley Ellison in Baby Take a Bow. On the left is a picture I took of the movie on the TV screen and on the right is the meet outfit, in black and white.

Here are pictures of the front and back of the outfit in color.

Here are a couple close-ups of her face.

Now some close-up shots of the shoes.

The underpants…

And the garland.

Also some shots of the outfit off the doll, showing the linings.

And now, Baby, take a bow.

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Voting for the 2014 Spring FDC 

Starts On May 28th, 2014.

Voting Ends June 11th, 2014.

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