Most Sensational, Inspirational, Celebrational, Muppetational; This Is What I Call The Muppet Dress!!

My cousin Elizabeth informed me that she had special Disneyland tickets. Tickets that would get her entry into The Muppet’s Christmas Party on Main Street. Sounds like an incredibly important event to me! Of course, she needed a custom dress for the party. I already had yards and yards of this Muppet fabric in my stash. When it comes to a great fabric like this one, I buy it, and in bulk!

I told her to look through my patterns and find a dress pattern that she liked. I have all of my patterns digitally on an app, and she has access to them, which is convenient since she lives in Southern California. She chose three different patterns, and had a first, second, and third choice. I was determined to give/make her the first choice, which is this reproduction pattern from the 1960’s.

But here’s the catch, (why does there always have to be a catch?) Elizabeth has scoliosis. She informed me that never in her life has she been able to wear any garment that has darts in the bodice. Something that I never thought about before. On her, the symmetrical lines of waist or bust darts don’t look symmetrical, because she’s not. She buys clothes that are not fitted, and that hang loose on her.

Elizabeth was about 5 when she was diagnosed with scoliosis. She went often to specialists at UCSF, and was fitted for braces that she wore as she grew. The different braces did help to correct some of the curvature, but she still needed surgery. When she was 12 she had metal rods put into her back to straighten her spine as much as possible.

I warned her that the pattern she had chosen had bust darts and waist darts in the front and the back. It also featured a scooped back, so her back would show in this dress. She said she didn’t care if her back showed, she has never been bothered by her spine curvature, so wasn’t going to be bothered by it now!

The question remained, could I make a fitted, symmetrical dress that looked fitted and symmetrical on someone who was not? Challenge accepted!

*Please keep in mind that I know a whole lot of nothing about pattern drafting and design…but determination will get you far!

Since Elizabeth lives about 5 hours away from me, I decided the first thing we needed to do was to get a bust of her. She needed her own, custom dress form that was exactly her. Guinevere couldn’t do this job! She was at my house one weekend, for her niece’s birthday (our sweet Alice is her niece, see previous post “Alice”).

We got to work making a custom dress form. First, I put a garbage bag on Elizabeth, with a neck hole and arm holes cut out. Yes, this is the type of strange thing I do in my spare time.

I then wrapped her in layer after layer of duct tape. The duct tape would be strong enough to keep it’s shape when I cut it away from her.

Now you can really see the challenge in this picture. I had no idea what I was doing. I could make a form of someone, but could I alter a pattern this much?

My confidence was a little shaken after my failure on the Jackie O hat.

I cut the back open to get it off, then taped it back up. And thus Edna was born! Edna is the name Elizabeth decided to give her dress form, since dress forms do need names. Guinevere had a new friend!

Edna held her shape. Now I had to get to work altering the pattern. The real challenge was beginning.

I decided to do a mock up first. There was no way I was going to mess up my Muppet fabric. I had a lot of it, but not an unlimited amount. There is one fabric I seem to have an unlimited amount of though, Grandpa’s WWII fabric!

I had to size this pattern up first, then adjust it to fit Elizabeth. I traced out my up-sized pattern. I knew that between the right side of her back and her left side, there was a 4 inch difference. I added the extra space onto the right back pattern size.

Here I am, getting ready to wrestle around with this giant roll of fabric again.

Once I got the pieces cut out, I pinned them onto Edna to see how they looked. I thought the left side needed to come up a bit, so I pinned it there. I had no idea if I was even kind of doing this right!

I adjusted the waist darts in the back.

Now before you start looking close, thinking I needed to iron this fabric, let me just tell you, I DID! When this fabric gets a crease in it, it doesn’t want to come out!

This is the front bodice of the dress. This picture shows the waist and bust darts pinned terribly, but in their placement as per the pattern. I knew I had to figure out how to adjust the darts, and at this point I had no idea.

So to the internet I went. I watched hours, yes, hours of videos on pattern drafting. Some helpful, some ridiculous, but I felt confident enough to try.

The bodice front of the pattern is supposed to be cut on the fold of the fabric. I had to draft the pattern with waist and bust darts that were different, depending on which side they were on.

Confused? Don’t worry too much about it, I had it figured out!

I got the new back and bodice together and attached the skirt. The skirt on this dress is a full circle skirt. This means it is very full and has lots of twirling abilities. It was at this point that I suggested to Elizabeth that she buy a petticoat so the dress could live up to it’s full potential if I was successful.

Here is Edna wearing the completed dress, minus the side zipper. Looks straight on an asymmetrical body to me!

And the back looked straight too!

It was time to play the music, it was time to light the lights, it was time to meet the Muppets in my sewing room tonight!

Just for fun, let’s take a Muppet break, since the theme song to the Muppet Show was now in my head.

I love the Muppet Show so much, but let’s keep sewing.

Making sure I knew what was what with my altered pieces.

The Muppet fabric wasn’t wide enough to cut the skirt out. I was going to have to piece it together and hope it doesn’t show in the finished project.

Did I mention that the entire bodice of this dress is lined? What does this mean for me, the person sewing it? It means I have to do everything to the bodice, twice, mirror imaged since each side of the dress was different, and had to had stitch it all down on the inside.

Beaker’s face with a pin near it is an accurate portrayal of my face and nerves while making this dress! HA!

Putting in the zipper. After this I only needed to hem it, but decided to wait to hem it until Elizabeth could try it on. I had to do a fitting with her in person, and deliver the dress. I only had one weekend free to do it before the Muppet Christmas party.

So off both dresses, myself, and my sister Michelle went! Just like Kermit and Fozzie in the Muppet Movie, we were heading to Los Angeles! Here’s a fun sing along of how our trip went!

Movin’ right along ourselves!

The welcome sign for our arrival at Elizabeth’s apartment!

My sewing machine made the trip and was ready for any necessary alterations. And guess what? There were alterations that needed to be done. I had to take in the sides of the bodice slightly. This meant taking the liner apart, to take the sides in correctly. I also had to remove the side zipper. Plus I still had to hem it.

I told Elizabeth it was a little loose on Edna, and she reminded me that “she is Edna” so it would be loose on her too! LOL! No matter, I could fix it. I’d come this far in this project, I wasn’t about to give up now!

Hemming it.

Putting the zipper back in.

Looks straight to me! The dress was as ready as it was going to be with my skills.

So off to Disneyland Elizabeth and her custom dress went!

Here’s Elizabeth getting royal approval of her dress. It turned out to be an incredibly cold night, so leggings and a sweater were a must!

Who needs the Disney Dress Shop when you have a cousin that can sew?

Goofy giving Elizabeth a pat on the back for her stunning fashion sense!

A matching mask is a must! Minnie agrees!

Here they come!

The Muppets!

I think Miss Piggy looks a little jealous of Elizabeth’s dress in this picture!

Elizabeth said she lost count on how many compliments she got on her dress that night. She did say some people gasped when they saw her dress, they were so excited by it! A gasp is a pretty big compliment!

But for Michelle and I it was “good-bye Orange County”, and…..

hello Dos Palos.

I was happy to challenge myself by making this dress. I’m glad that Elizabeth liked it, and that I was able to give her a custom creation.

I learned a lot making this dress, but mostly I learned that I still have more sewing knowledge to gain! Each new project teaches me something and I get a little better at sewing clothes each time I do it.

I also had to reflect that something so simple, like a dress with darts, is something I’ve taken for granted. And like Elizabeth, we should all not be bothered by whatever imperfections your body might have. After all, what is perfect?

But the best wrap up for this post comes not from me but from the Muppets themselves.

“Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending, we’ve done just what we set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.” ~The Muppets

As for me, onto the next!