Honey and Beau - Cinderella and Prince Charming final photos!

Honey and Beau as Cinderella and Prince Charming!

The outfits are all finished now and had a fantastic response at the Disney party!

Everyone loved them and thought they were adorable and fantastic.

 

I also want to take this moment to mention that I only use an everyday standard sewing machine.  There are no gadgets or fancy bits or even an overlocker, although one day I would love an embroidery machine.

 

Anyone can sew, and it can look awesome!

You don't need the best of the best wizbang sewing machine to achieve a professional look, just a bit of patience and practice.

 

 Beau doing his best impression of Prince Charming.

Since the party, little Beau has put on some weight.  Trying the costume on I noticed it was a little tight in places.  Poor little guy will have to go back on his diet.

 

Honey being a princess in her super poofy skirt! I love how big this skirt turned out, it really does remind me of a ball gown and looks spectacular on.

The only thing that bothers me about the Cinderella costume is the chiffon ovals.  They were lightly stitched together and that helped to hold them in place, but a rough night of play with all the dogs resulted in a bit of fraying which weakened the bond.

Now that they are loose they do tend to flop forward, which on the whole is not too detrimental, just not how I wanted it.  If I did another Cinderella costume I would put a few subtle hand stitches connecting the chiffon directly to the dress.

I'll also put this change in place on the current costume for next time she goes out dressed as Cinderella.

The prince and princess posing together.

: )

 Beau loves his Honey!

 I will just mention, for those of you who are concerned about Honey's red eyes, they are the result of allergies.  Because of this she does have good days and bad days, depending on season and weather as anyone with hayfever or similar allergies can attest.

Honey doesn't sneeze with all the pollen and fresh cut grass around but her eyes do get quite red looking.

Although it can look quite confronting be assured Honey is not slowed down by these allergies, she can still see perfectly and they don't seem to hurt her.  Even on her worst days, Honey is always keen to play and is completely herself in every way!

Beau's outfit is definitely my favourite costume so far.  It was challenging because it does have quite a few new techniques for me and I had to completely redesign the pattern, but I think the extra effort was well worth it with the finished product.

There is nothing I would change on the design of Beau's costume.  The only changes I would make would be in my method.

I had some difficulty with the coat tails as I mentioned in an earlier post, and ended up folding the seams under and sewing on the outside.  I have since managed to work it so I could hide both the seam and the stitching.  I thoroughly blame sewing into the wee hours of the night for not coming up with the solution at the time.

The only other adjustment would be sewing the edging further onto the epaulettes to make them more resistant to playful Staffies with sharp teeth!

(The right one has been pulled out from under the edging, but is easily repaired.)

Honey and Beau posing as regal monarchs. 

(Beau was a bit of a sleepy monarch)

 

Overall I am much happier with these outfits than any predecessors and I hope this is a trend that continues as my sewing and design skills progress.

Both costumes could be made in any size so if you are interested in having your own Prince Charming or Cinderella don't hesitate to email honeyis@bigpond.com or niki.turner@bigpond.com.
Hope everyone is enjoying seeing the new outfits as much as I enjoy making them.

:)

 

Beau is Prince Charming -Part 3

Beau is Prince Charming

Decorating

A golden collar is a must for every handsome prince.  I cut this piece out and hemmed it up quite quickly.
The seam allowance from the pattern to the hemmed costume made a bigger difference than I expected and I had to cut the ends down a fair bit (more than I expected).
 I folded the raw ends under and used the stitching to hold them down to hold them hemming in place as well.
 



Photo above shows the costume laid out with the collar sewn down and the velcro pinned down ready to be sewn in place.  In the previous post I showed the velcro pinned down without the collar but I remembered in time that the collar would have to go down first otherwise it would get in the way of the velcro. 

Beau got to have a little photoshoot trying the outfit on before the belt was in place, but all he wanted to do was sleep!

 

Beau is just tooo cute!

Belt is all attached and you can see it quite neatly covers up the seam attaching the maroon to the blue.

The gold belt is what holds this outfit in place.  Normally in the Honey outfits the belly strap is alot wider and further forward, tucking just behind the front legs. 

Instead, for this outfit I wanted the golden belt to sit further back so it sits almost where a real belt would be.  I made it narrower than the belly straps I normally make on Honey's outfits to make it more belt-like.

The smaller surface area of the velcro didn't significantly affect the costumes ability to stay on and despite some rough play with Honey and a friends staffy, Beau's outfit stayed on the best out of all the dogs (and better than some of the humans!)

 

The epaulettes were the last bit of decoration to be added.

They were fairly straight forward, half an oval cut out with a small amount of extra material on the straight edge for the seam allowance.

I didn't do the seam before attaching the epaulette.  Instead I folded the seam under the epaulette and then attached the epaulette, making sure to go over the seam, hemming and attaching in one go.

 

I then got this fancy bit of edging which I found in the ribbons and lace section and pinned it around the outside of the epaulette, overlapping a little so the epaulette will be sewn beneath the edging. 

Final photos in the next blog post showing Beau in all his Prince Charming glory and a wrap up of both Cinderella and Prince Charming costumes.