Snow White – Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

Made for: Halloween 2009

Background: I had a little side hobby of collecting pics of various Disney park dresses of the princesses, because I liked seeing the different ways the same dress could be interpreted. I’d made a Snow White dress for a friend a few years earlier, so I thought it would be fun to make one for myself, using some of those park dresses as inspiration.

Journal Entries: Read more at my Snow White tag

Related Costumes: Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty, Belle Ballgown 2005

Patterns Used:
Simplicity 5006, Simplicity 2813

I wanted to find a happy medium between the cartoon version, and some of the park dress designs, so I took some inspo from a lot of different sources for this.

Bodice:

The bodice is blue suede. I had a simple corset pattern that I used as a base, and I mocked up the upper section (the pattern didn’t go over the shoulders), and lengthened it a bit. It’s lined in cotton with spiral steel boning, and laces up the back. I was originally going to have 3 lines of piping up the front, but I thought it made it look a little busy so I took the middle one out. For the sleeves, I went off the pattern that came with the Simplicity Snow White pattern, but doubled the size. I made them out of the red fabric (same as my cape), then added the stripes of the light blue satin.

Skirt:

The skirt is alternating panels of matte satin and a silk patterned with floral designs. I didn’t use a pattern; I think all together it was nine panels – 6 of the matte satin and 3 of the silk. I loved how the two looked together! It was all gathered around a waistband with a small zipper in the back and hook-and-eye on the waistband.

Collar:

The collar was the part I was dreading most – I used the pattern from the Simplicity Snow White pattern again, enlarging it a little, and luckily it fit on my own bodice’s neckline without a problem! The front side around my face is simple white matte satin, and the back side is leftover white swirl velvet from Padme (with a stiff interfacing between them). I trimmed it with a pearl trim, and it snaps onto the bodice.

(Here is an FAQ Friday over at my blog where I talk a little bit about how I attached the collar to the bodice!)

Cape:

All of the red pieces are a sort-of velveteen with an embossed floral pattern, including the cape. I wish I knew exactly what this fabric was because it’s so soft and pretty and the pattern on it is so delicate! I’ve been trying to find something similar again for years! Anyway, I just draped and handsewed it into place on the bodice. I added gold trim along the bottom (leftover ribbon from Arwen’s Blood Red Dress)

Accessories:

The brooch in the front I found at Hobby Lobby and painted gold. The shoes I found at goodwill – I dyed them pale yellow. The wig was bought online, and I bought a headband and covered it in red fabric and added the bow. Originally I was going to add bows to the shoes too, but I ran out of time. I meant to go back and do it later, but never did 🙁

History:

As I mentioned above, I did run out of time on some of my little tweaks – I didn’t get to make the bows for my shoes, or add the snaps along the top back of the cape to keep it in place. Overall I was very happy with it. After a few years of wearing this pretty regularly for Halloween, it could use some repair and upgrades, namely to the bodice – I’d love to get back to that and finish off the other little things like the shoe bows eventually. I would really LOVE to make an entire new bodice that is a little more structured, shorter and maybe a different fabric. That’s an upgrade I’ve had on my mind for a while… maybe one of these years I’ll get to it.

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Please note that none of these costumes are for sale! This is my personal portfolio.