Let’s start with the tummy patch. You can just use this as your costume or you can add any of the other elements along with it. Make this costume your own. It’s up to you which parts you want to include.
Supplies:
Gray dress/shirt
Scissors
Permanent marker/paint and paintbrushes
Hot glue gun and glue
White scrap fabric
Safety pins (You can also glue or sew your patch on. I used safety pins so I could take off the design and wear the dress again. All about versatility here.)
1. Using a marker (light colors are best to they don’t show through), sketch out the rough shape of your tummy patch.
2. Cut out the patch, cutting a little off the line so there is extra material around all of the edges of the shape.Like so.
Note: If you are very detail oriented and want your patch to be symmetrical, you can fold it in half and trim the edges to make sure it is even.
3. Place a line of hot glue on the sketch line and gently fold over the edges, creating nice, clean edges that will not fray.
4. Place your tummy patch on the dress/shirt to make sure everything lines up the way you want it.
5. Cut your tummy ruffle shapes out of scrap paper to get the shapes right (or just draw them on if you are confident in your tummy-ruffle-drawing ability).
6. Trace the tummy ruffles on.
You can use markers to color in your ruffles or you can use paint.I chose paint, because I just happen to have a ton of acrylic paint lying around my house.
7. Carefully fill in the tummy ruffles. When painting, I used a larger brush for the inner part and then a smaller brush to clear outer lines.
8. Fill in the rest of the ruffles.
Once your creation is dry, you can begin pinning it onto your dress/shirt. Again, if you want to, you can just glue the patch on to create a permanent costume. I chose to pin my on, because this is a dress I wear on occasion (although after seeing how cute it is, maybe I should just always wear the tummy patch). You can also sew the patch on and take out the stitches after you wear it if you choose.
9. To pin the patch on, grab a handful of safety pins.
10. Reach inside the dress and poke the pin through the dress and tummy patch.
11. Poke the pin back through and secure.
12. Continue all the way around the patch, making sure to secure the upper corners.
You can leave the costume as if (see how many of your friends get the references) or you can continue with the tutorial by following the links to the Optional Face and Ear Headband.
Here is a full list of all of the parts of this tutorial:
