I asked previously for ideas for DD's Dress up like a book character day. and got some great replies, unfortunatly DD will not be swayed and still wants to be Emily Bennet, Molly McIntire's friend from the WWII
we have no dress remotely like that, She has jeans and TShirts, and a few sundresses,
I can work up a head band, any other ideas, DD has one whitetoo small blouse that i might be willign to try to dye blue and paint cherries on but NO idea about how to make the skirt,
I can sewstraight lines to make pillow cases and I do have a white sheet. but uggg.
Is there something else about Emily BESIDES the dress that makes her recognizable???
or can you give me some advice on how to hot glue a blue 1940"s cherry dress together??/
I'm thinking DD might have to carry a sign:(
tomorrow, i have 5 hrs ugg i really appreciate the suggestions!!!
we took one of dad's blue button downs stapled the heck out of it and in 10 mins i'll go to town with some paints, the white sweater helps a ton. and the headband is cute enough, Alas there is Only ONE red sock so we are going with white unless i get carried away wth the paint.
ugggg
the ugg is because DD is so head strong, and because i am un organized and didn't plan better becuse i was hoping she would changer her mind and go with Fancy nacy or my fav, Junie B Aloha ha
I enjoy being involved in my kids school life, and I especially love activites that help them love literacy. and a little bit i even enjoy being crafty, but I hate feeling all alone in my creativity, I need imput like i got from you great ladies that helped me to "see it" I actually looks really cute, AND definately homemade, lol but that means she put alot of effort into what was improant to her and i put some effort into puling it off. so I am definatley not complainig about the teacher or school, I'm lucky and they are truly wonderful.
When do you need this by? If you have time, run to the local thrift shop. Between womans and childrens, you might just find a basic blue frock you can modify. You can cut the length down, add a red sash to gather something too large (i think Emily wears a red sash), etc. Then you just have to paint on some red cherries and flowers. Don't forget the red socks!
Hit thrift stores, goodwill, salvation army and see what happens. Maybe you can find something close and work it? Good luck!
Go to a thrift store, goodwill or something, and get yourself some material in the form of some sheets (you might even score a light blue dress you can just alter). (wash them with bleach a couple times before you dye them and you'll be fine). Or, just go to Joann Fabrics and buy some with a 50% off coupon, they always have those floating around.
The skirt part you can do fairly easily, it looks like a simple elastic waist skirt. cut the fabric and fold it over, sew it to itself with the elastic in between. This will make it ruffle up when the elastic relaxes because there will be more fabric than surface. The dress sort of poofs out, so some of that netting they sell at the craft store for dresses would work just fine, and, honestly, you can just tack that to the inside of the waistband if you don't want to get fancy. Of course this is a "quick" version, a real seamstress would probably have a heart attack, but, it'll get the job done. You could even just roll the skirt fabric over the waistband of some shorts and safety pin it in, as long as you have more fabric than waist area it'll ruffle out so it's pretty forgiving.
Good luck!
Is she hard over on wearing exactly the same outfit as the doll, or can you go with something that looks like it is from that period? If she's flexible, then hit the thrift store and look for a short-sleeved dress, floral pattern, possibly button-up. You can make a collar if it doesn't come with one - just cut cloth and pin it on. Add a cardigan, white ankle socks, and mary jane style shoes, and you've got a WWII era girl. After all, I'm sure Emily had more than one dress.
You can probably manage the entire outfit from a decent-sized thrift store for under $10.
No advice, I just wanted to say I HATE parent homework!
I shop thrift stores often and very much doubt that you'll find a dress let alone one that fits the period. I wouldn't spend the time looking.
You can make a skirt easily. As OneLittleBigBoy describes. I suggest you could pair the skirt with anything, even a T-shirt if you add a white cardigan. I have seen white cardigan's for girls at Target and Sears and Macy's but it's been awhile. I'd call around.
I don't know about printing cherries on fabric so that it's an overall pattern. How would you do that? I suppose you could make a stamp and stamp it but that sounds like too much work.
Ankle socks with mary jane or similar shoes would work.
You could go to a fabric store and look for blue fabric with a small red and white print and then ask for the names of women who sew and hire them to make the dress. A seamstress would know how to modify a pattern to make it look like that era. It's the small print, colors and the cardigan that makes this costume Emily's.
A gathered skirt and blouse with a Peter Pan (rounded collar) and cardigan would work. It wouldn't have to be a print. Does she have an Emily doll she could carry?
Do you have a blue skirt or dress that she could use if altered?? You could take a blue Tshirt and glue on some sort of collar. Or if you or dad have a large light blue Tshirt that could be belted and decorated?? Tshirts with prints can just be turned inside out. You could draw cherries with a red sharpie! then just red belt, red socks and red head band!
I've been in your situation where things have been put off until the last minute (for various reasons) and I've had to tell my DD "I'm sorry, what you want isn't going to work this time. I understand that you are disappointed, but sometimes we have to adjust to the situation. I'm doing my very best to help you, but you have to help me out too. Your choices are A or B. Please pick one."
We had to do this before a Halloween party when I thought the costume from last year was going to work, but then my DD put it on the NIGHT BEFORE and we realized that it was too short--like obscenely short! She was disappointed and crying and we threw together something else and she ended up winning best costume.
Hope it turned out okay!
