I absolutely love Disneys “Beauty and the Beast” and also “The Enchanted Christmas”. Belles red dress is just beautiful and as I had a lot of red velvet but unfortunately not enough for a dress anymore, I decided to sew a shirt inspired by Belle.
Both fabrics are from Buttinette:
I started by draping the pattern from my dressform. I used some lining fabric that I bough for a very good price but will never be using for a real garment… But it is great for draping patterns. I decided to do the neckline slightly different than Belles dress as I personally prefer it like this.
Then I cut the pattern out, transferred it to paper and cut out all pieces from red velvet. I cut the pieces on the fold, so the shirt is in the end made of two pieces of red velvet. I didn’t line them and this is something I am going to do different next time. It is ok for now, as the shirt stays really stretchy, but I prefer lined garments, as they look so much prettier…
After sewing all pieces together by machine I had to figure out how to do the sleeves. I decided to do them in red velvet too and use a second layer made of white chiffon for the bell shaped sleeves.
I did hem the chiffon by machine before gathering it. The sleeves were sewn by hand. I gahtered them by hand and I attached them by hand. I prefer this method as it always looks crappy when I do it by machine… So, attaching the sleeves was quite time consuming but I really like the outcome.
After attaching the sleeves I did all hems by machine. I was very careful but still I made mistakes. The sleeves turned out to be a bit uneven in the end…
So this is what the finished shirt inspired by Belle looks like. Some mistakes (sleeves… as always) but I think it turned out to be ok .
I hope you enjoyed and I wish you all the best 🙂
Ella
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