Strawberry Shortcake Costume

Brief summary:
I attended a convention not too long ago and there was a 80's night karaoke. I originally was going to do something very "Madona" like but then people were saying that they were dressing up as the turtles, PacMan and Ghost Busters. My next thought was "ok outside of the box it is". So I made the original Strawberry Shortcake from the 80's. It will also be my 2014 Halloween costume too.

Pieces:

• shirt
• skirt
• socks
• apron/ bow
• hat
• wig
• synthetic strawberry scent (like the one you could smell in the 80's doll's hair)
• interface

Supplies:

• hot glue (high temp)
• clear glue - E-6000 (this will adhere to everything once it dries)
• white muslin fabric
• red acrylic fabric
• pink fabric
• red shirt of choice
• thick craft foam
• box card board
• cheap acrylic paint => pink, white, red, light green, dark green black
• white stockings if you can't find the right stockings in stores or online
• red wig
• shoelace 72"
• strawberry flavored car air freshener (wear this in your hat)

Step 1: Skirt & Top

Summary:
I could have gone with the typical full skirt with petticoat on the inside but to be honest I really wanted to capture the 80's and flavor Strawberry Shortcake with it. I remember most was my prom dress and the BIG puffy skirts to the dress. It was the same with the top. I wanted off shoulder.

Top:
Easy. I went to a thrift/secondhand store and found an off shoulder gathered top. It was perfect is only $2.

Skirt:
Not as easy. I original was looking for a red pin skirt that I could glue ruffles to. No dice.

SUPPLIES:

• 72" pink/red shoelace or in my case, 2 * 45" shoelaces I sewed together into one long lace
• 1.5 - 2 yds of white muslin
• 3-4 yds of red acrylic fabric. (I was getting rid of old fabric so, to be fair, I used 2 types of fabric)
• hot glue (high temp)

CONSTRUCTION:

1. So I found an Instructable called, The Puffle Skirt by AHome-Made. Absolutely beautiful DIY and it was perfect. I did have to made many alterations since it is for a tiny juvenile body and I am a grown older chick.
2. MAIN SKIRT: Follow all instructions for measurements except in the puffles "STEP 4". Instead of 6 pieces you need to make it 8. Otherwise the puffles will be too wide and not enough detail that I was hoping for. I needed a lot of puffles.
3. WAIST LINE: I didn't use elastic because I really wasn't the mood for one so instead I opened it on both sides where the elastic would had been so the the "long enough" shoe lace (72") would act as a drawstring.
4. SERGER: I also cheated a bit since I didn't want to take the time to finish off the edges correctly and used a serger instead for everything (puffles, skirt, ruffles, etc.). Bless thy holy Serger.
5. GATHERING PUFFLES: starting at "STEP 16-17", this is where I also altered things a bit. I gathered the puffle in 2 major folds and used strips of muslin fabric (1" by 2.5") and hot glued it underneath crossing over both major folds and main skirt.
6. WHITE RUFFLES: for every 1 inch of ruffle it takes 5-6 inches of fabric to make. Take the circumference of the skirt edge and times by 5-6 and that is the length needed for making ruffles.
   1. width of ruffle after edge finished off => 2.5"
   2. creating ruffle: once your long strip of fabric is ready, sew a very loose line near the edge. Once that is done slowly pull 1 of the 2 threads gathering the fabric with it creating a ruffle effect. When the ruffle is finished to the length needed to line the edge of the skirt, sew the gathered edge of the ruffle again to make sure it stays.
   3. sew ruffle to edge of skirt.

Step 2: Apron/ Bow

SUPPLIES:

• 1/2 yd of white muslin at least 45" in width (if you can)
• 1/2 yd of green material (something that would make a good bow) at least 45" in width

CONSTRUCTION:

1. Image A - main apron piece
   • cut 2
   • optional: interface the pieces.
   • sew together on the sides in blue leaving the top open
   • fold inside out and press (hot iron)
2. apron straps
   • cut 2 => 4" width by 45" length
   • fold in half lengthwise and sew together
   • pull inside out
   • press (hot iron) giving it a full 1.5" in width
3. Image B - attaching straps to main apron piece
   • fold in the top of the main apron piece by a little over a 1/4 "
   • press
   • then place inside the strap ends inside the top of the main apron piece
   • sew shut
   • press again
4. bow piece
   • cut 2 long strips of green fabric => 10" width by 45" in length at least
   • sew together the strips making on long single strip
   • finish edges (I used a Serger for all of it except the very ends. Those i turned in on itself and sewed again to finish it off)
5. Image C - attaching bow strip to main apron piece
   • place the bow roughly in the middle directly behind the main apron piece
   • hot glue the main apron piece to the bow in the pieces indicated in red. Just 2 strips is enough and make sure one at a time. You could sew it there too if you want.
6. attach straps to bow
   • no set way to but in the last 2 images put the apron on and cross the straps in the back
   • get a feel for how long you want the straps and where on the bow ends you want to have them remain
   • I safety pined them but you can attached them by hot glue or sewing.
   • make sure you allow enough room to tie off the bow.

Step 3: Hat

SUPPLIES:

• 1 yd. pink fabric
• 1/4 yd. green fabric (same fabric used for bow)
• 1.5 ft. of 1/2" width red ribbon or make one with the red fabric.
• SEE stamping step: red, green, white and black paint/ craft foam/ card board box/ E-6000 glue/ hot glue stick

CONSTRUCTION:

1. Image A - main hat piece
   
   • cut 1
   • serged the edge/ zigzag finish if you want
   • stamped and painted (SEE STAMPING)
2. Image B - bill
   • cut 2 => 1 cut of pink and 1 cut of green
   • sew darts
   • sew pink piece to green piece on the black lines in IMAGE B
3. Longest stitch around the edge of the circle cut (main hat piece)
4. Pull one of the treads to gather the edge until the circumference is 22" - 24"
5. Sew edge (normal stitch length) once at desired length
6. Attach bill to main hat
7. either sew or glue ribbon on the line between bill and main hat piece in 2nd to last image

Step 4: Stamping and Painting

SUPPLIES:

• Paints => white, pink, red, black, light green, dark green
• craft foam (prefer the thick sheet. but off season decorations using thick craft foam otherwise you will have to stack up 3 layers of the thin to make a a good stamp)
• 3" X 3" of card board
• E-6000 glue
• 1 hot glue stick
• foam brush (1")

STAMPING/ CONSTRUCTION:

1. creating stamp:
   
   • cut main strawberry shape from thick craft foam
   • glue foam cut out to a similar cardboard backing
   • let it set for an hour
2. apron:
   
   • paint 4 light green diamond shapes
   • line the edge of diamond with dark green
   • stamp 4 pink strawberries
   • paint dark green leaves at top of strawberries
   • line edge and dab a few "seeds" on strawberry with red
3. hat:
   
   • stamp random red strawberries on main hat circle and finished pink part of the bill
   • paint light green leaves at top of strawberries
   • line leaves with dark green
   • line edge and dab a few "seeds" on strawberry with black
   • use end of hot glue stick to stamp with white

Step 5: Stockings

SUPPLIES: only if you were not able to find green and white stockings online or in stores

• 1" - 1.25" cheap brush
• light green paint
• white stockings (Target has some year round usually)

PAINTING:

1. wear the white stockings
2. painting the green stripes on the stockings while wearing them
3. let them dry first before adding more layers