It’s a Jolly Holiday Dress for Birdie

Since coming back from vacation a few weeks ago, I’ve been into making stuff, but admittedly, very lazy about posting about any of it. I have to play some catch up now. It might seem silly to be posting about Halloween costumes with Christmas right around the corner, but that’s how it goes sometimes 😉

This Halloween my daughter Grace planned a family group costume to recreate the characters from the Jolly Holiday scene from my 2-year old granddaughter’s favorite movie – Mary Poppins. Little Birdie dressed as Mary, Dad as Bert, and Mom as a penguin. So cute!

A group costume like this is a lot to accomplish for a busy working mom and dad, so Grace asked me to collaborate on Birdie’s costume. I agreed to sew Birdie’s Jolly Holiday dress, while Grace took care of making all the additional Poppinsish accoutrements – fancy shoes, parasol and hat.

Jolly Holiday Dress Pattern

I found Amanda’s Dress from Lily Bird Studio on Etsy to be a great base pattern for making a Jolly Holiday dress. I wanted this dress to be durably made, because it will be worn a lot, even after Halloween.

Amanda’s Dress is a classic style – a fully lined, button-back bodice with a very twirly circular skirt. I like that the dress included an attached petticoat for fullness. To make the dress extra Poppinsy, I made the following adjustments:

• turned the short puffy sleeves into sheer long sleeves with elastic cuffs
• added wide ruffle at the hem
• added a ruffled jabot at the neckline
• redrafted the sash to make it look more like Mary’s red corselet

My Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Stash

When I checked the stash to see what I might have on hand, I experience a Poppinslike magic moment. I had absolutely everything I needed, right sown to the tiny red ribbon and buttons! (This truly only happens when I’m making little clothes) The stash revealed 2+ yards of 60″W white chiffon eyelet that was just waiting to be turned into a Jolly Holiday dress. There was enough eyelet to also make several yards of ruffled trim for hemline, cuffs, neckline and jabot.

Among the remnants from past projects I found scraps of white poly satin for the bodice lining, a piece of white micro tulle for the petticoat, and a nice size chunk of red satin for the little corselet.

More Than A Spoonful of Sugar –
Poppinsish Details & Embellishments

Grace is much like her mom, in that she tends to take her costume making very seriously. For Birdie’s footwear, Grace painted the toes and heels of a pair of white dress shoes to mimic Mary Poppins buttoned boots.

For the parasol – or as Birdie likes to call it, the “umbellum” – not only did Grace hand sew a ruffle onto the edge, she painted the parasol fabric gold on the outside and pink on the inside to match the movie parasol. She then used white epoxy modeling clay to create the flamingo head handle.

A child size sunhat was purchased on Etsy and then embellished with silk roses and white micro tulle. Note, the roses are encased within pockets of tulle. Grace is a true Makeling!

I also added the following details to best interpret the Jolly Holiday dress on a miniature scale:

• All of the ruffled trim was fashioned from the same chiffon eyelet fabric as the dress, and finished with a serged rolled hem edge
• Besides using narrow red satin ribbon for the bows on the skirt, I laced narrow red ribbon through the eyelet openinngs on the ruffled trim at neckline and cuffs
• I used a machine embroidery stitch to imitate the piping on Mary’s corselet
• Using some of the ruffled trim, I made a frothy little jabot that buttoned on just beneath the neckline

Practically Perfect In Every Way!

It was a cold Halloween in Milwaukee this year, but the dress was roomy enough for Grace to add warm underlayers that did not spoil the overall effect of the costume for trick or treating. And although Birdie preferred Bert’s cane to the “umbellum”, between the dress and the wonderful Mary Poppins accessories Grace made, the Jolly Holiday costume was practically perfect in every way!

Check out my @makelingsmakethings instagram grid for a reel of Birdie in full Jolly Holiday mode.