My soon to be six-year-old daughter presented me with her book, turned to this page, and said, “I’d like to be Belle for Halloween. This is what her dress looks like.” First stop: more cheap, synthetic, ravelly costume material, this time in yellow. I hate working with this stuff so much that I begged the kids to choose costumed next year that didn’t need to be silky and shiny. This dress already has one spot where the fabric has pulled through the seam. I touched it up with Fray Check glue and will hope that it holds through Halloween. It’s so frustrating!
I adapted a bodice pattern that we had to one that was fully lined so I didn’t need to use bias tape. I also made tiny shoulder straps since it wasn’t practical for her to wear a dress without straps. She was ok with that change. However, she wasn’t going to let the covered buttons slide.

She drew my attention to them last night as I was working on her dress. She pointed to the picture and said, “I like how the dress has buttons here.” in a slightly questioning tone. I assured her that I was two steps ahead of her and had the buttons ready to stitch on. She was pleased. If you try to cover buttons with flimsy, silky material, you will find that it doesn’t work very well. I tried adding a little sheer weight iron on interfacing to the back of the fabric and then the buttons were easy to cover…just a tip for you moms with demanding princesses.