At barely 2, our daughter was invited to her very first dress-up princess birthday party. Obviously she had to go as Princess Leia. Luckily for me, she didn’t know what a Disney princess was yet, so there were no objections. Now of course Princess Leia IS a Disney princess, so parents don’t have to feel guilty amusing themselves at the expense of their young children’s happiness… This costume was the first one I made by hand. Due to poor time management, I only had an afternoon to do the whole thing (the party was that evening). So it was a mad dash to JoAnn’s, then a flurry of fabric and yarn flying for the next few hours.

To keep it simple, the hooded dress was modeled after the purchased Yoda tunic she wore the year before. I added a belt, and to complete the ensemble she wore a white turtle neck and a white stockings and tights underneath.

Needed:

• White Fleece
• Brown Fleece
• Hank of thick Brown Yarn
• Silver Fabric
• White, Grey and Brown Thread
• Ribbon
• Needle
• Good Scissors
• Sewing Machine
• White Turtle Neck
• White Tights/Stockings

How To:

Hair: (I used her Yoda hat as a pattern)

1. Fold the brown fleece in half.  Cut the shape of the cap, it should be more the shape of a hood than a hat – shorter in front, longer in back, with the seam going from the forehead to the back of the neck.
2. Sew together.
3. Try on, to make sure it fits – it should be about the size of front hair-line to back hair-line (and covering the ears).
4. Unravel the yarn and fold into about 3 ft sections (more or less depending on how big you want the buns)
5. Pick the yarn up at about the mid-point and spread evenly over the middle seam of the cap.
6. Sew the hair in place (by hand) along the seam of the hat (this will be the “part” of the hair)
7. On each side, make a pony tail (with the yarn, gathered at about ear level).
8. Gather the yarn pony-tail, twist and roll it into a bun.
9. As you go, use a needle and thread to fasten the bun to the fleece cap.
10. Repeat on the other side.
11. Sew a ribbon or elastic by the ears, so you can tie the cap in place.

Robe: (I used her Yoda robe [sans the vest] as a pattern)

There are only 5 pieces:  2 front sides, and 1 back + 2 sleeves.

• Cut 2 rectangles for the arms.
• Cut the 2 front pieces.  If you look carefully at the photo, you can see that the hood is formed out of extensions of the 2 front pieces, so making a pattern is probably a good idea to make sure the hood is the right size.
• Cat a large rectangle, for the back.
• Sew together into 2 tubes. Turn right side out.
• Place front sections face-to-face.
• Sew the top and the back of the hood.
• Place the 2  front panels face-to-face on the back.
• Sew the back shoulders together with the bottom of the Hood and front shoulders
• With the robe still inside out, pin the arms (right side) in place, and sew.
• Sew the sides.

Belt:

• Cut a long thin piece of fleece with a triangle in the front (make it about 8″ longer than the waist – to tie in the back)
• Cut 3 silver fabric pieces and pin in place.
• Sew on with zig zag.

Tips:

The beauty of using fleece is that it is so flexible. You don’t have to hem, so if the sleeves are too long, you can simply cut them (though we usually make everything a bit big so we can reuse next year).  It is stretchy, so you can adjust as you go, and it is warm for Halloween nights.

Get Supplies:

• White Fleece
• Brown Fleece
• Brown Yarn
• Silver Fabric
• White Thread
• Brown Thread
• Grey Thread
• Any Ribbon (or elastic)
• Needle
• Good Scissors
• Sewing Machine
• White Turtleneck
• White Stockings