DIY Peter Pan Group Costumes: Tiger Lily (Part 1)

Are you ready for Tiger Lily?  This was the costume I was most anxious about since I've never actually sewn clothing from scratch.  I had originally wanted for my niece to be a Lost Boy since I could easily make a costume from a hoodie with matching sweatpants, but I couldn't find any!  I mean, I know it was early August when I started gathering supplies, but I figured I would be able to find some, but no-can-do.  So, Tiger Lily it is!

I wouldn't necessarily call this a tutorial - I kind of was just wingin' it when I made this and there was a bit of trial and error (this is the first time I've made something that resembles actual clothing).  So, I'll just show you what I did and maybe that will guide you in the right direction if you decide to try this yourself.

The dress
I made the dress out of this light brown felt that I had leftover from my DIY Miss Potato Head Costume.   The felt was already folded in half (as it was on the bolt), so I left it that way - I used the folded part for the shoulders.  The crazy part?  I didn't take any measurements - I just laid the felt on the floor and had my niece lay on top of it.  I drew straight lines on either side of her, allowing extra room.  I then cut along the straight lines and I now had an approximate amount of fabric to work with.  Using one of my niece's long-sleeved shirts, I outlined around the shirt (except for the sleeves) for the top of the dress and allowed for extra room for the seam allowance.

I cut a little bit of a V-neck to start out with and also so I could do a fitting on her.  Using safety pins, I carefully pinned where I needed to stitch so the dress would fit her.  I also marked for the length of the dress.

And also marked where the arm holes would start/stop.

Using her shirt as a guide again, I cut out pieces for the sleeves.  I just made sure to cut a little wider and longer just in case.


This is how the sleeve will look after it's all cut out (you'll need 2 of these).


I pinned it to the arm hole temporarily with safety pins - when you actually sew it, you'll want to use regular pins.  :)


And pinned up the rest of the dress and got it ready to be all sewed up!

And...another fitting!  Looking good so far!

I ended up cutting the V-neck a little bigger.  Also, at this point, I had left the bottom of the sleeves open so I could fit the sleeves on her.  Again, I carefully pinned to get the width of the sleeves right and also the length.


Now is the part where you will learn from my ways.  As you can see in the title picture, Tiger Lily's fringe is more of a scallop.  Since I was using felt, which is thicker than regular fabric, I knew the scallop fringe wouldn't fall properly if I attached it to the top part of her sleeve, like how it is on Tiger Lily.  I had already sewn up the sleeves when I decided to just make regular fringe and add it to the bottom of her sleeve.  So, I had to rip out that bottom seam.  This wasn't a big deal, but it would save you some time if you add the fringe to the sleeve before sewing it all up.  :)

So, I just cut out 2 pieces of felt to be as long as the sleeves.  I left a top edge so that I could sew it to the sleeves and just cut little strips.


To attach it to the sleeve, you'll need to turn the dress inside out and turn the fringe so that the top edge is on the bottom of the sleeves.  Then, you sandwich it in between the right sides of the sleeves, like in the picture below.


This is how the sleeves will look once you turn the dress right side out. Perfecto!  Next, I needed to add fringe to the front.  I just cut another piece of felt that would go across the width of the dress and lined it up so it match the bottom of the sleeves.  Then, just like with the sleeve fringe, leave a top edge and then cut the little slits for the fringe.


And don't forget the fringe for the bottom hem of the dress!  Just cut 2 more pieces for the front & back and cut more little strips.  You'll pin the top edge to the bottom of the dress' wrong side and sew.


Time for yet another fitting!  WOW!  It looks like a dress!  At this point, I put a safety pin to mark where I wanted her belt to be.

Next up, I added these felt strips to the neckline using hot glue.  

Using more felt, I cut strips for a faux belt and just hot glued.

In the picture below, I had just folded over the top edge of the center fringe and hot glued it to give it a nice top edge and pinned it to the dress to figure out the placement.  Then, I hot glued that top edge to the actual dress.

You guys!  This came out so good!  I was so proud of myself for figuring it all out.  I really don't know how I did it, but I did!  In the next post, I'll share how I made her headband and shoe covers and a breakdown of the cost to make this.

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY