Merida – Brave

Made for: Memphis Comic and Fantasy Con 2015

Background: I have had Queen Elinor on my “want” list since the movie came out but have never gotten to it… somehow I ended up making Merida instead 🙂

Journal Entries: Read more at my Merida tag.

(Patterns Used:
McCall’s M5155 (sleeves), Simplicity 9891 (I think?))

Dress:
I had nearly an entire bolt of green crushed velvet just hanging around my sewing room. I made my mom a Professor McGonagall robe out of it, but still had a ton left. What to do? I thought the colour would be really nice for a Merida costume, so I decided to just leisurely put it together for fun.

“Leisurely” turned into pretty quick – this was a fun, easy project so it came together relatively fast! I decided to use the wrong side of the crushed velvet, it had a really neat texture that I liked for Merida. I THINK I used Simplicity 9891 – if it wasn’t that one exactly, it was one that was very, very close. The dress is just one layer, with a facing at the top edge. At the bottom hem, I hemmed it backwards so the crushed velvet shows – it was rolling up like that before I hemmed it, and I liked how it looked.

I punched metal eyelets into the opening at the top, and then bound them in green embroidery floss and used some brown cording I had to tie it closed. The two trims I found at my local fabric store – the larger one I attached right at the hem of the collar, and then hand-stitched over the edge to make it appear a little smaller.

Sleeves/Faux Chemise:
I thought about making a separate chemise for this project, but at the end of the day I decided against it – I was able to use up the last of some silk chiffon leftover from another project for the pieces you can see (I would have had to buy new fabric if I’d made a full chemise).

Besides, I also had McCall’s M5155, which featured one faux sleeve puff that I could use. It worked very well, although the actually sleeve pieces were HUGE and I could have fit 3 arms in each. For the puff at the elbow, I tripled its width so it would be extra poofy. I used the same idea as the elbow puff for creating the puff at the shoulder as well. Both puffs are backed in a white linen.

For the neckline and sleeves, I cut a long strip, doubled it over, and pleated it. Then I just stitched into place on the collar/sleeves.

Belt:
I was lucky to find a long enough strip of leather leftover from Boussh in my leather scrap bin. I cut it out, hemmed it, and my husband added a snap for me. I decided to use a green/blue plaid scarf I had as the main piece to hang off of it (it’s from Disney World so it has a Mickey head embroidered at the bottom – hidden Mickey!), and I made two other pieces from my leftover crushed velvet to mix in with it.

Accessories:
I wore some boots I already had, and for the brooch on the belt, I found a wooden piece at the craft store, painted it gold, and put a pin-back on it. It was a last minute thing, but I was happy with how it looked!

Originally, anytime I planned to wear this, I’d have to sleep in curlers the night before to have my hair curly for it – which was a pain. Plus my hair was never big enough or long enough. So I’d always wanted to get a wig. In 2020 I finally did – it was a cheap amazon wig that was surprisingly halfway decent? I’d still LOVE to style a really nice wig for this one day, but for a quick fun costume like this – a quick cheap wig will do 🙂

Progress Photos:

History: I wore this to MCFC on Saturday (had to add a cape because it was cold and rainy! but I have a cape that looks pretty similar) and then we did a quick white backdrop shoot! This wasn’t supposed to be a serious project but I really love how it turned out… I kinda want to go ahead and get a wig and make a bow…

                             

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