Little Leia Costume

Oh, I am so mad at myself!  I meant to finish this blog post last night so that I could upload it into the "Movie Inspired" week for Project Run and Play, and now submissions are closed.  Boo.  But I'm going to post it here anyway, since it's done and everything.

The Boy is having a Star Wars themed (SIXTH!!!) birthday party next weekend, and he already has his Luke Skywalker costume since that's what he wore for Halloween.  Little Sister will be the only girl at the party, so it seemed fitting that she have a Princess Leia costume to wear.  IF I could make it quickly, easily, and cheaply.

Well, check, check, and check!

I know, I know, Leia doesn't have a light saber, let alone a purple one, but give a girl a break!
Light saber is made from a wrapping paper tube covered in fabric from an old sheet and duct tape.

This costume is made from a couple of old t-shirts that I cut up and sewed together using a couple of free peasant top/dress tutorials.  Here are the links I looked at (free peasant dress tutorial from Trendy Treehouse and free peasant top tutorial from indietutes), and for reference, I cut the body panels out at 16" wide at the top, widening to about 18 inches at the bottom, and 25 inches in length.  I used the existing hem of the old t-shirts so I didn't lose any of that length to hemming.

I didn't have quite enough length so I had to sew two t-shirt pieces
together to get one of the panels.  I thought the belt would cover the seam...
maybe we should turn the dress around the other way!

For the sleeves I cut out two rectangles that were 12.5 inches wide and 18 inches long, and ended up cutting them off at an angle to mimic Leia's sleeves.  I didn't hem the sleeves since jersey doesn't fray.

The belt is obviously a defining feature.  It's the only thing I spent money on--I spent $1.35 on a quarter yard of silver vinyl fabric at Joann's.  I already had the velcro I used for the closure in the back on hand.  And Jess from Craftiness is Not Optional was nice enough to provide a free printable template and tutorial that I followed (except that I added a few extra inches to the belt's length).  Oh, and I didn't have any stitch witchery on hand, so I used regular double-stick tape to hold the pieces together while sewing.  It won't dissolve when washed, but since I'm not planning on washing or drying this belt in the machine anyway it should be fine.  I was surprised at how easy the vinyl was to sew--I expected more stickiness or something.  But you do have to be careful because every hole your needle pokes in that stuff is permanent!

And what kind of a Leia costume would this be without the hairdo?  I cut the toes off of a pair of too-small baby socks and made these mini-sock buns!  So crazy cute.

Ready to take on the galaxy!

And then have a rest.