My Disney Birthday Party, Part 1: The Dress

For my birthday party this year I decided to have a Disney theme.   What a fun idea!   At first I was going to limit it strictly to old school Disney classics, but then the more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted to go as Merida from Brave.   Because she's awesome and taught me that you can have masses of ginger curls and still be a princess.   Hurrah!  So I went online and started looking for Merida costumes.   There didn't seem to be any adult ones anywhere.   Nevermind, I thought, I've got two months.   I'll make one.   I've made a dress already, so I have a bit of an idea what I'm doing.   It'll be fine!   So off I went to Mandors to look for a pattern.   They're the best place I've found for patterns.   This is their website.   I decided to go for this one:

I did pattern C (bottom right) only without all the fancy decorative bits and millions of buttons on the sleeves.   Next stop was fabric.   I went to Edinburgh Fabrics for this (http://www.edinburghfabrics.co.uk/).   This being a costume I decided I wanted to make it as cheaply as possible, so I settled for some very cheap satin lining material.   Once again, going for a cheap fabric proved to be a BAD DECISION!   The fabric turned out to be fairly horrible to work with.   It unraveled itself pretty easily, so that I often ended up having to sew seams a couple of times to get them to stay.   Not only that, but it turned out to not be ironable, as I found out to my cost while trying to iron on interfacing.   Not only did I have to make a whole sleeve again, but I also had to buy a new ironing board cover.   So yes, no more cheap fabric!   Anyway, this was my fabric:

So I took my measurements and got started with the cutting of patterns, pinning the patterns to fabric and cutting fabric.   Boring!   The fabric was also annoying to cut.   I had to keep it absolutely flat to the floor to stop it pulling itself out of place.   I had to use lots more pins than usual while working with it.   Some pattern pieces pinned to the fabric:

  



So I started with the pinning and sewing, following the instructions.   They were pretty easy to follow, and when the dress was done it fit me pretty well!   Hurrah!   I added a bit of ribbon round the neckline, to be a simplified version of the white bits around the top of Merida's dress.   Pretty convincing, I thought!   I make a great Merida!  This is the finished product (I swear it doesn't make me look that chubby in real life; camera flashes seem to have an unfortunate effect on the fabric):

The final stage for the costume was for me to dye my hair extra red and make it extra massive and curly.   Fun!

 


All in all, I'm going to declare this dress a partial success.   I mean it served a purpose, which was to be a costume for a party, but after just one evening it developed four holes along the seams, due to crap fabric.   It's also stained and to be honest I have no idea how to wash it without destroying it.   On the plus side, it was pretty simple to make, feels AMAZING to wear, got lots of compliments, and even won a costume prize.   I do really like the design as well.   Perhaps I'll try this again sometime, but with a nicer fabric.  
     

Films

A couple more film reviews for you.   The first is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.   I really enjoyed this.   It's set in India but has a quintessentially British feel to it.   It's about a group of British pensioners who, for various reasons, all decide to go and live in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in India.   Each character has their own story, but all the stories are interwoven.   Some of them feel right at home in India and others can't cope.   It stars all the people you would expect it to, like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy.   It's the performances, rather than the story that make the film for me.   Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Celia Imrie were all great, but Dev Patel as Sonny, the eternally optimistic manager of the hotel was especially brilliantly funny.   A funny film that leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

 



And now, Brave, the latest offering from Pixar.   All of Scotland is going mad for it, because it's set in Scotland, and I must confess I'm no exception.   It makes Scotland look so pretty!   It's about a feisty young princess called Merida who doesn't want to get married, so she turns her mother into a bear.   As you do.   She then spends the rest of the film mending the damage.   Again, there aren't really any surprises in the casting.   Kelly McDonald, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane etc.   It's a great film.   Cute and moving and very funny.   It's also really easy to watch.  I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but it felt like the film doesn't expect too much of the audience.   It makes you feel like you to watch it you don't have to be clever or "normal".   Like being you is fine.   It's a very accepting film.   Yes, I am a weirdo...

And finally, Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate).   It's a very odd, but very good Mexican film.   It's about a young girl called Tita who is forbidden to marry the man she loves.   She starts expressing herself through her cooking, and this has very strange consequences on all those who eat it.   Plenty of magic, plenty of mystery, plenty of Old Mexico and some really excellent performances.   A really unique film!