Intermediate
Colonial
Ariel
Design Process:
For my design I
decided to go with my two favorite things: colonial ball gowns and mermaid
accessories. To keep with the ball gown idea I decided to use Felicity’s
Christmas Dress pattern from American Girl Playthings. When I think of mermaids
I think of pearls, tulle and seashells, so while I was designing it I knew I
wanted to incorporate these things. I really liked the green and gold theme of
Felicity’s Riding outfit and decided that would be my color theme. The dress
consists of three main parts- the petticoat, the stomacher and the gown. I decided not to make a pinner cap as I
wanted to make a head piece that would clip on to a piece of hair and hang down
the side of the dress. For shoes I decided to use the shoes from American
Girl’s Midnight Holly Dress, I decided to use them because the gold ribbon and
bow on the shoes would help tie together and the black would blend in. For the stomacher I knew I wanted it to
look like scales like a mermaid tail. The part of the petticoat that shoes
through I wanted to incorporate tulle with colors ranging from white to dark
green. The gown part I wanted it
to be dark green and gold.
In progress
pictures:
Here are all my materials; I found the gold netting, pearls, dark green
fabric and gold ribbon at my local goodwill. The rest I got at Joann’s.
These are some in
progress shots of pinning and cutting out the skirt and bodice. While designing I made some
modifications to the stomacher because I wanted the gown to overlap it, not to
go under it. I also decided that the gold netting would be perfect for the
stomacher, but I thought that it would be too flashy so I toned it down a bit
with three layers of dark green tulle.
For the gown part I used the dark green fabric and gold ribbon, I
gathered the decorative ribbon and trim, this was my first time pleating and
sewing sleeves so I also made mock-ups of the skirt and sleeves to practice.
The underskirt I wanted to represent the different layers of a green ocean so,
using white, shimmery green and dark green tulle I gathered about 16 layers and
sewed them onto the underskirt, this created the layers of the ocean. I added the finishing touch by creating
the hair piece and I was finished.
Completed Outfit:
What if Ariel lived
in colonial times? Even
though she turned into a human Ariel still loves to be reminded of the sea so
this is a perfect dress to wear, complete with tulle, seashells and pearls!
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