Miss Mad Hatter Costume

The concept Miss Mad Hatter, portrayed by my daughter Nadia, all started with with a hat. Nadia saw the hat she is wearing at a party store. Our next stop was the craft store. She picked out colors and fabrics she wanted. I got a pattern, which really just ended out being inspiration, because I didn't use it. I decided to go with a steam-punk inspired look. An adult McCall's pattern M6770 helped me figure out the basics of how I needed to sew it. I attempted to resize it to my daughter's size 7 girls, but I'm not a seamstress, so I ended out comparing items in her closet and only using the concepts of the pattern. I had to rip and redo to get the sizes, and used some of the embellishments to correct errors. For the skirt, I used one of the skirts in my daughters closet to compare sizing. I was originally going to make the skirt with ruffles attached. However, my daughter stated that she would like to have them separate. I made the skirt, a bustle, and a black crinoline as separate pieces to make them more versatile. This was my first time using a ruffler foot, as well as doing anything close to this complicated. I managed to break 3 sewing machine needles and sew my finger in the midst of completing this project! I also learned how to effectively use my steam ripper! I managed to complete the project with a few days to spare. I decided she needed the perfect accessory for her treat bag. I used a papercraft round "box" from the craft section as a base. I then took some cardboard from a box and cut slits in it, and wound it around the box. I used a circle form on the bottom, and a ring on the top, placing the ring in the slit cardboard tome. I used a lot of duct tape! I then glued felt to the top hat form I made. In the process, I ran out of glue gun glue, and used some crazy glue . . . which I managed to get on my teeth somehow. I then used some embellishments that I got at the craft store to decorate in, including items from a mini-sewing kit. I also embellished the hat we bought. I topped it off with red hair attachments and sparkly make-up! It was definitely a hit, everywhere we went!