How to Become a Princess Part 2: Making Decisions and Making it Rain

This is the second in a series a about this year’s Halloween costume. Read the first part here.

Before you can become a princess, there are a few decisions that need to be made. First, what princess do you want to be? There are so many to choose from. You might, for example, want to pick the one that looks the most like yourself. Or maybe you want to emulate the current trend. You could pick the one whose clothing you like the best. Or, in my case, the one you can most easily make a pun or mash up with something else.

For me, it was Taco Belle from the start. It wasn’t really a tough decision. For you it may be. I know if I wasn’t looking for a pun costume it would be difficult for me, since I hate doing the same thing as everyone else, don’t look like any of the princesses or particularly love any of their outfits. I think Belle’s famous yellow dress would be the last on my list. I’ve always liked Belle for her love of books (in fact, she’s the only princess with an avid taste for learning. Does that make her a Ravenclaw? Not sure where Stockholm syndrome lies in the Hogwarts Sorting categories.) But I’ve always loathed the color yellow and, consequently, that dress of hers.

Additionally, I’ve always had issues with the fact that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast very clearly takes place in eighteenth-century France, and the clothes of all the other characters, if not historically accurate, at least make a nod toward it. I mean, no prince with hair like that and a schnoz like that would belong anywhere but eighteenth-century France. (And can we talk about that schnoz? I mean, his nose was smaller when he was the Beast. As a human it looks like his nostrils are large enough to swallow his entire face. ‘Nuff said.) In contrast to the rest of the outfits in the movie, Belle’s yellow gown is so incredibly not eighteenth century. The shape of the skirt is more mid-nineteenth; more Scarlett O’Hara than Marie Antoinette. It’s even more obvious in the live-action remake. I know Emma Watson had a say in its design and her main concern was being comfortable, but to me, it’s even less reminiscent of the eighteenth century than the original (and pretty underwhelming.)

But I digress. The point is, IF I was really going to chose Belle, which I would not have (Ariel or Jasmine would have won over her), I would not choose this fugly yellow dress. I’d have chosen one of her other dresses…probably the green one or, more likely, the pinky-red one because it has a cool cape. I like capes.

HOWEVER.

Yellow is very reminiscent of taco shells, so there you go.

Another thing you need to think about when becoming a princess is how dedicated you are to your costume. Do you want to go all out or do you want to do it cheaply? Do you want to be true to character, or do a funny version, or a sexy version? Up to you. I can’t half-ass anything, so all-out it is. This doesn’t surprise anyone who knows me personally, I’m sure. But for other people, do take into account a couple of things: how much time you have, your skill level, and your budget. If you’re new to sewing or can’t sew at all, don’t jump into a princess costume as a first project, because you’ll cry more than you’ll sew. Trust me. Princess Polyester is no joke. I’ll get into that more later.

In short: know your limits, and know that going full out comes with a certain level of time and monetary commitment you’re not going to see with the other options.

The next decision you have to make is how faithful you want to be to the original. Do you want to individualize the costume or stay true to the original? Then, do you want to go off a conventional store-bought pattern, or do it yourself?

Obviously, I’m not really sticking to the original; I never do, because for me being creative and interpreting the outfits differently is half the fun. I did decide to start with a store-bought pattern for time’s sake, because building a pattern from scratch—especially something this fitted—can take ages. For Belle, you could probably start with any sort of generic full dress with a detached strapless bodice but I was lucky enough to find an actual Belle dress pattern on sale somewhere: Simplicity Pattern #8406, below.

So this is going to be my base for the dress. It’s great, because I only have to then work out the taco accouterments. Or, at least, a normal person would only have to figure out the taco accouterments. Me, I’m never happy. I gotta change something. It’s a sickness. My issue with this pattern is that I feel like it looks really clunky. And that’s on a model, who is skinny and proportionate. What is this thing going to look like on non-skinny non-proportionate Jax? Frumptastic, probably. So, I made another decision: To modify the design to make it more flattering on my body.

How? Masochism, of course. I’m going to turn the bodice into a corset, which will a) fit precisely to my curves, eliminating the clunkiness of the zippered model-bodice; b) Be more uncomfortable than a zippered, lightly-boned version and c) cost more money and more time to make.

…

I might regret it later, but at the moment I’m choosing style over substance. So shoot me.

Once these decisions are made, it’s necessary to get a full pictorial version of your costume before you start buying. For me, this means making a drawing. NOT a professional-level costume rendering, because I don’t have time for that, but a quick sketch in color to help me visualize what I want. I made several different versions and ended up with this:

I plan to add tacos to the swoopies (official word) on the skirt, plus I’m going to lift the overskirt up and make the bottom look like the top of the taco. It might be smarter to do it the other way around but it’ll be easier to tack it to the bottom than ‘round sides. The roses, which on the pattern are yellow, will be replaced by sour cream “dollops.” I plan to make a garland out of Taco Bell sauce packets for the shoulder swoopy, as well as her rose, possibly with the stem being a fake burrito if I can figure out how. Finally-if I have time–I will “top” it all off with a Mexican Pizza fascinator. I’m most excited about having a Mexican Pizza hat, so I’m saving it for last as motivation.

Once the design is set, you need to make the toughest decision of the lot: What fabric to buy. This dress requires a whopping 30.5 (!!!!!!!!!!!) yards of fabric, between the lining, skirt, overskirt, swoopies, and bodice. Plus you need boning (which I’m making worse by buying steel corset boning instead of featherlight), two zippers (I just need one), thread, snaps, and in my case, grommets, a grommet setter, coutil for the bodice lining (so that’s 1 more yd of fabric), and lacing. PLUS gloves, and a crinoline (that skirt ain’t gonna hold up itself) as well as all the taco fixin’s.

Because I hate yellow, I ended up buying fabric that shifted toward gold. The overskirt is going to be lace, because I hate working with chiffon.

I’m not gonna tell you how much it all cost, but even buying literally the cheapest fabric I could find in the correct color, I made it rain. For the fabric store, at least. If you’re going to commit to something like this–even if you DON’T do the corset route, which I don’t recommend unless you’re crazy like I am–you are going to spend a lot of money. I hope you have somewhere to wear it.

I don’t. Yet.

A note for those of you actually planning on using this Simplicity pattern: I did not need as much fabric as they told me to get. Read my next post for details before you buy anything.