Nancy Drew Outfit

I promise to post some before and after purging party pictures this week. Just in the midst of all that cleaning, I haven't had time to download the pictures.

But I did want to shart with you how I made Mouse's outfit. Like I said I got the idea here. Her work is truly beautiful and girly. Mouse though wanted something a little old fashion and very Nancy Drew.

To make the outfit I started with a yellow tank top. I really wanted this to be a long-sleeved t-shirt, but I couldn't find any in the right shade of yellow. The colors were choosen to match the colors of the original books. Mouse picked out the teal plaid fabric. She said plaid is very old fashioned.

Then on the computer I found the Classic Nancy Drew silhouette and edited to match the teal. Behind it I typed out the original titles of the books. Those I put in a medium gray color. I then printed out the entire thing on fabric. The printable fabric is available at any fabric store. I need to pick up more I love the stuff! Once you print it out you hand-wash it and let it dry. I always have to iron it after that. Which this time I didn't get all the ink out so I got blue ink on my iron. oops!

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This is what it looked like once it was ironed. Then I did a quick straight stitch on to the tank top.
The skirt, I forgot to take pictures of during the process but I will try and explain it best I can. Taking the plaid fabric I measured it out to the length I wanted then cut a strip double the width I needed I then fold it in half.  (the fabric was very thin and almost see through so I wanted it lined)
Turning the right sides together I sewed around all but one of the short sides. Turning it right side out I then top stitched all the way around the skirt minus the short side.
I then realized I should put some elastic in the back to help it fit mouse better. So I cut a piece of elastic that was 1/4 the length of width of her waist. Does that make sense probably not but enough to say I cut a small peice of elastic. This I put between the two layers of the skirt. I sewed one edge of the elastic into the side of the skirt and  then scrunched up the fabric on to the elastic and sewed it to the other side of the skirt. I then sewed a line underneath the elastic to make kind of a casing for it. It sounds complicated but it wasn't and I am sure there is an easier way to do this I just kind of threw it together.
Next I sewed the final side together. Then added buttons and button holes to each side to finish the wrap skirt. Mouse was very excited with the finished product. She thought she was very Nancy Drew. This is her trying to look like the silhouette. You can see the whole birthday party theme here.