Belle blue dress - getting it wearable

I don't have time to get the costume completely finished the way I want right now, because I also have a deadline to get Belle's ballgown wearable in time for a holiday parade. Instead of spending time to make the blouse from scratch, I decided to modify something I already had in my closet.

Years ago, I made a renfest costume using M4091 (chemise), M4090 (skirt) and M4696 (bodice). In 2014, I purchased another yard of the red fabric and recut the costume into a new renfest dress, wearing it with the blouse from Lady White Mage. The original chemise was just sitting in my closet, ready to be repurposed into something new.

 
First off, the chemise was floor length.  I didn't want to cut it shorter in case I ever needed the extra length, so I hemmed it down to about knee length.  When I wore the original costume, the wrist drawstrings were always coming undone (and it's almost impossible to retie them yourself while you're wearing the costume).  I made cuffs for the sleeves instead using plain white cotton and lightweight interfacing. Once I sewed the cuffs on, I removed the strings (which had helped gather the bottom edges while pinning them in place). The new result is much cleaner.

For the apron, I used a heavier weight white bedsheet (that had a slight tone-on-tone floral pattern). I cut out two of the side skirt triangle shapes out of white and sewed them together.  I made a long waistband from the same fabric (in hindsight, I should have interfaced it also), which I handsewed to the top of the apron triangle shape.  It's not perfect, but it will work.

In the photo at the right, you can see the finished apron.  The chemise was unmodified at this point.  This photo was taken around midnight, so I was pretty exhausted and didn't get the dress smoothed down perfectly before the picture was taken.

For this initial wearing, I'm going to leave the bottom skirt edges unhemmed, although they are serged.

Next: Hairbow and First Photoshoot