I love it when R makes dressmaking requests, and since seeing the beautiful Studio Ghibli film
Arrietty
she's been asking for a particular dress from the movie - a red one,
with a high neck and long sleeves, that the tiny Arrietty wears to go
'borrowing'.
When
R started asking for the dress it was nearly summer, so I told her
she'd have to wait until winter. I thought she would probably forget
about it, but no, the desire for the dress stayed with her and the
requests became demands. Then I came across some thick, red wool jersey
at Kim Anh Fabrics and knew this dress had to be made. There remained
only the issue of how to draft it, and after much indecision I used the
Oliver + S school bus T-shirt as the basis for the top part, shortening it considerably and adding a high neckband (much as Shelley did
here - thanks for the inspiration!), then using Dana's
First Day Dress for the skirt. All surprisingly easy and pleasant to sew, although it took a few fittings to get it just right.
I
sewed a little square of 'apple' jersey to the inside back neckline so R
will know which way to put it on, since the front and back of the dress are
just about identical except for the seam on the neckband. The dress is
such a great fit on R, and has a beautiful twirl to the skirt (not that I
could persuade her to demonstrate this for my photos - it was a cold
and windy afternoon and our photoshoot had to be extra quick).
In
the movie Arrietty goes 'borrowing' with her father, carrying a cross-body bag with a huge button. Just for fun I decided
to have a go at the bag. Copying a cartoon character's dress and
accessories can be a complicated process. Before you even draft the
things you have to figure out what they actually look like, and how that
might translate into real materials and designs. I thought I could
improve on the bag a bit, making it a less sack-like and more practical,
so I drafted a curved messenger-style bag, added some pockets to the
lining and put a little stamped cat tag inside (R's favourite bit!). The
tape I'd bought for the handle was too narrow so I improvised some
'adapters' to join the handles more neatly to the body of the bag. These
echo the design of the bag in the film, conveniently enough! Despite
the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, the bag worked out
beautifully - in fact, I kind of want one for myself now.
In
the movie, Arrietty is a tiny person who lives with her family beneath a
house, surviving by secretly 'borrowing' items from the people
upstairs. I promised R that I would photoshop some pictures to make her
small, so I enlisted the help of some local wildlife:
I
made Arrietty's giant pin (which sadly got cropped out of the cat and
cockatoo photos above due to my limited photoshop skills) from a
knitting needle and a polystyrene craft ball, just so R would have
something to swish around while I took the photographs. I was tempted to
keep going and make Arruietty's other accessories too, but they can wait until Halloween (if that's what R chooses to dress up as. She dressed as
Studio Ghibli's Kiki one year and that was
super cute).
Anyway, both the dress and the bag are practical and and R loves
both of them. Besides, it is DEFINITELY the weather for high necks and
long sleeves!
