When I saw the trailer for the new Beauty and The Beast I instantly wanted make her blue every day outfit that she wears in the beginning. I thought the designer was clever in designing a basic style that she could mix an match through out the film, keeping it from getting to boring and/or it was just a good way to keep with a low budget. It also, sticks close with the original animation design of the Belles' blue dress without being as plain.
I made the top and skirt out of linen that I got from fabric.com, I had a hard time deciding on colors because what you see on screen doesn't usually match up perfectly in person. In the end, I liked the blue I choose for the skirt but the top I would have liked a bit darker blue...
For the skirt I just cut 2 at the width of the fabric, with a length of 34in. and the waist band was 30in long by 5in wide. Sewed the sides up and gathered the top sewing it into the waist band. Waist band was then folded over and whip stitched in place Ta-da!
The top was a bit of a mish mashing of my own pattern making and a costume pattern. The fun, part was sewing by hand 18 eyelets for the lacing took me a couple days (probably 8+ hours of work)
The blouse, is out of white muslin that was easy. I used a simple chemise pattern from a mccalls for the sleeves and my regency bodice pattern for the rest.
I made everything except the pockets.. Yes, I said, pockets. They are not cleaning rags as I've heard said, they are pockets.
This is what a 18th century pocket looks like, though I believe they were usually worn under a skirt not over it.
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| pic. source: https://vads.ac.uk |
