Today I am going to share this simple Cinderella Peasant Dress costume {size 2T} with you. I think little chores are much more fun when you are dressed like Cinderella! Peasant dresses are very easy sewing projects, in fact I think that one of my very first sewing projects was a peasant dress. When I first learned how to make one, I followed a great tutorial from Pretty Prudent. This Cinderella dress is just a slight variation from this peasant dress. Since most of the steps are the same, except for the skirt, I don’t want to re-write someone else’s tutorial. Instead I will have you read their tutorial and tell you what I did differently.
Here are the supplies that you will need, for the dress only. I will tell you about the apron after the dress is out of the way!
~Fabric: You will need three different colors, but it’s all plain cotton. I found mine in the bargain bin, it does not have to be expensive! Sleeves: Light/Sky Blue 1/4 yard, Bodice: Dark/Chocolate Brown 1/4 yard, Skirt: Light/Coffee Brown 1/2 yard.
~35″ of 1/4″ elastic.
~Thread and basic sewing supplies
Below are the measurements for the dress. You will cut two of the bodice pieces on the fold. Cut along the red lines to create an armhole (a basic J shape, 6″ down) and a sloping neckline.
You will also need to cut two of the skirt pieces, and two of the sleeves (on the fold).
Size 2T
Cut out all of your pattern pieces above. You are going to make the bodice by following the instructions here: Long Sleeve Peasant Dress Tutorial. Start from Step 2: Cut Out Neckline and Armhole. To be clear, while you are following the peasant dress tutorial, you will be using the two bodice pieces and the two sleeve pieces to create the bodice. You will not be doing anything with the skirt until you come back to this page.
DO NOT: Hem the bottom of the dress (bodice) or insert elastic into the sleeves.
Creating The Skirt
You should now have your bodice made, with the finished sleeves attached. The bodice should have a raw edge along the bottom. Are we on the same step? Good, let’s create the skirt and finish the dress. Take your two rectangular skirt pieces and sew them right sides together down both of the shorter sides with 1/2″ seam allowance. Use a zig-zag stitch to finish the seam. Press your seams flat. Fold the bottom of your skirt over 1/4″ to the wrong side and press with your iron. Fold it over again and press; hem the bottom of your skirt. Sew a gathering stitch around the top of your skirt and make sure it is the same width around as the bottom of your bodice.
Attach Skirt to the Bodice
Pin the top of the skirt to the bottom of the bodice, right sides together. The easiest way is to have your bodice turned right side out, and your skirt inside out. Place your bodice upside down into the top of the skirt and pin around the top. It is a good idea to tuck the sleeves out of the way so that they don’t get in the way of your sewing. Sew the bodice and skirt together using a 3/4″ seam allowance. Use a zig-zag stitch to finish off the edge of the seam.
Press the seam upwards (towards the bodice) with your iron. Now you are going to stitch along the top of the seam, all the way around, to create an elastic casing (make sure you are using thread that matches the chocolate brown bodice). Leave 2″ open so that you can insert your elastic. Take 20″ of 1/4″ elastic and attach it to a safety pin. Thread it through the casing. Sew the ends of the elastic together and then sew the opening shut.
And that’s all! I left the elastic out of the sleeves because I noticed that Cinderella’s sleeves are loose, but of course you could make yours any way you wish.
I also made an apron with an applique to go along with the dress. It was very time consuming, and it was my first attempt at creating something like this, but here is a quick look at how I did it.
First I found a clip-art picture online of one of the bird characters from Cinderella, here is what my applique was supposed to look like:
I have to say that my little bird didn’t turn out quite so happy looking, rather a little worried looking!
Supplies used: various scraps of fabric, heat n bond, black thread, basic sewing supplies.
I printed the bird and cut it out around the outer edges. I pinned it to some blue fabric that already had some heat n bond applied to the back of it. I cut the bird shape out of the blue fabric (leave the back of the heat n bond on, do not peel it off yet)
Next I cut out pieces of the bird that were not blue (ie the hat, vest, beak, etc…) and pinned them to coordinating colors of fabric – these pieces of fabric also had heat n bond applied to the back. I cut out each little piece of the bird and applied them to my blue main bird piece, like a puzzle. Peeling off the back of the heat n bond I pressed each piece into place with my iron. Here is the little bird coming together: 
After all of the pieces were in place I peeled off the backing on my main (blue) bird piece and positioned it where I wanted on the apron skirt. Then, using black thread, I stitched all of the features and outlines onto the bird. I used a zig-zag stitch, setting the length at almost zero. The width of the stitch varied, as you can see that some of the lines on the bird are thicker than others – for example the black parts of the eyes are also done using a wide zig-zag stitch.
It can be pretty tricky to get the facial details just right, as I mentioned before, my bird seems to look a bit worried and the original picture the bird looked happy! As for the Cinder-Calleigh lettering, I don’t have a fancy embroidery sewing machine so this is just done freehand, again with a zig-zag stitch on a very short stitch length setting.
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have enjoyed this post!
Tags: appliqué, apron, bird, children, cinderella, dramatic play, dress, dress up, fun, girl, make believe, peasant dress, princess, sewing, skirt, tutorial
Sweet Benanna&Sam 