Couture for a Sweet Little Witch

This detailed costume is procrastination sewing at it's very best. I really wanted to sew a winter coat for me and because I couldn't decide on a pattern, my time, sewing and creativity all went into this costume instead, and no, I haven't still started on the coat!

 

My daughter wanted to be a witch this year, and had no specific ideas, except that she wanted a 'spiky' skirt. Initially I thought a simple black jersey top with a simple gathered tulle skirt would be ok. A search through my stash however, turned up a black cotton stretch velvet, black lining fabric and an orange polyester 'silk' which was almost an exact match to some two-toned copper wired ribbon, the brain cells started whirring , and this is what resulted ......

The hat and bag were sewn first. The bag is the self-drafted pattern I used recently for the green velvet and Liberty bag. I sewed some cat ribbon (from janemeans) to the velvet, and used the copper ribbon (with the wire removed) for the handles.

 

For the hat, there's a free adult-sized downloadable witches hat pattern on Fabric.com which I used. The cotton velvet fabric, even though I interfaced it, isn't quite strong/stiff enough - a home dec fabric or canvas would have been better. It still worked, with some changes - I lined the hat, added copper wired ribbon to the top for embellishment, and where the pattern says push down the pointed part to create folds, I sewed the folds to keep them solid. The hat is quite high. If I was sewing it again for a child, I would reduce the height by about 10 cm at the widest part, or would sew the smaller witches hat in the pattern and attach it to a hairband.

The skirt was sewn next. I was wondering how to make it 'spiky'. I could have cut triangles out of the hem of the fabric, but thought the fabric would just fray. Then I remembered a dress in Ottobre 3/2007#16 which had a square skirt. I used the general square shape of the pattern, cut an orange square longer than a black square, both size 116 at the waist with no seam allowances. This meant the waist of the skirt was big enough to gather into a waistband I drafted myself.

 

When it came to the ruffled top, I liked the look of Ottobre 1/2011#20 (cover picture) and found I had traced it a few years ago. I didn't have enough fabric to cut 3 circular ruffles, so the lower 2 are gathered. I sewed the top ruffle to the outside back and sewed copper ribbon (with the wire removed) on top to cover the seams. The copper ribbon is also used for the hem of the front.

The couture part of the title? Well I know it is only a costume, but I bound all the seams of the ruffled top, mostly because the fabric frayed a lot. The raw seams of the skirt waistband and hem are also enclosed.

The front of the top was a very plain (the Ottobre pattern has a peacock on the front) so with a few folds and cuts of the wired ribbon, I made a little broomstick.

The skirt has some glitter spiders sewn on by hand, which I had left over from another witches costume sewn for my niece a few years ago.

She has worn it a few times already, to her school Halloween party and to her friend's Halloween birthday party. Every time I see it on her it just makes me smile - it's so over-the-top, and twirly and ruffly! and so NOT scary!

 

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