Lemon Meringue Costume

Serenity’s Halloween Costume is finished at last!  She decided to be Lemon Meringue from Strawberry Shortcake, and here is our inspiration. 

Source: squidoo.com via Chrissie on Pinterest

So cute =)  I bought her one of the dolls before she was even interested in dolls, just because I loved them when I was little.  She enjoys them now too and it’s such fun!  She wanted to be Lemon because she has yellow hair and eyes just like Serenity’s.  The best part about the costume is that Lemon wears all kinds of clothes, they just have to be yellow and blue!  So I got to play with all these great patterns and tutorials I’ve been seeing around the internet!

I started with this great pattern for a raglan sleeve dress from Lier at Ikatbag.com.  She has fantastic ideas!  I will probably never sew clothes that well but I really enjoy playing at it. Sewing like this makes me long for a serger, but I only do this once a year, so I get by without =)  To adjust it for lemon meringue I just had to add the lemon details that I hand sewed in felt at the neckline and pockets.  Then I made the little belt out of a ribbon with a simple snap, and did a gather in the skirt so that her little blue skirt shows underneath, just like the doll!

I didn’t find striped knit fabric, and the only yellow striped leggings I found were twenty dollars.  At that price I might as well have bought the store bought costume!  So I figured out how to make my own.  =)  I took an old white t-shirt, and ironed on stripes that I cut from my leftover yellow knit.  I just took a square of steam a seam (the softest kind with the sticky back) and attached it to the yellow fabric, then used my rotary cutter to cut strips.  Then I just had to line them up and iron them down!  If it was more than a costume I’d probably reinforce it with a little stitching, but it will last well enough for now!  I used this tutorial on simple, two piece leggings from Make It and Love It to figure out how to make it.  The only problem with this is that t-shirt knit doesn’t stretch as much as the pants I used as my pattern, so it’s a challenge to get them over the heel.  I either needed to use a wider leg or cut a slit at the ankle, but as it is we’re just going to use them as they’re perfectly comfortable when on.

Eric was trying to teach her to curtsey... didn't quite come out right =)

Then there are the accessories!  I made the lemon headband, using hand-stitching to make the lemon and leaves.  Working with all the felt food recently has cured me of my phobias about hand-stitching.  I knew I could do it, but I always thought it’d be stronger on the machine.  Well, some things are just easier by hand, especially felt!  Here’s a link to my details on the headband. 

And if you’re still hunting for easy Halloween ideas, here are my previous posts on costumes! 

DIY Care Bear for adults and children

M&M costume

Ballerina Costume and Ballerina Basket

Saturday you can see the alternate Lemon Meringue outfit! Stay tuned!  Or be a follower, I would LOVE that! =)