Star Wars R2-D2 Dress Costume FOR GIRLS…plus, one to GIVE AWAY!

Hey guys….it’s been more than an hour since my post this morning.  I just KNEW it would take longer! ;)  Oh, and if you have no idea what I’m talking about….I posted the Strawberry Costume winner and mentioned posting again later today.  Anyway, go read that if you’re confused!

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Okay, onto today’s post.  And my goodness, this one turned out so fun!  Okay, I say that all the time but Star Wars isn’t necessarily my thing, but my husband loves it…and so does my 7-year-old Connor.  So, it was fun to study the real R2-D2 and try to add detail to impress the 2 of them! :)  And Chloe has never even see Star Wars bus she knows who the characters are (mostly because of her older brother) and she knows who is good and who is bad, etc.  But when I made this little dress……she shrieked!  But not only because she recognized R2-D2, but because it was a frilly DRESS!

Star Wars costumes are definitely popular with the boys and an occasional Princess Leia for the girls (I’m sure there are girls who dress the male roles, and that’s cool too)…..but how about really adding some girly flounce to R2-D2 and entice the girly-girls to participate in the Star Wars craze!  Because if it doesn sparkel shine, or flounce my girls aren’t digging it……anyone else out there like that?!?!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show you how to create something a little more girly for your Star Wars costume theme this year, but we don’t actually need to keep another costume. So, once again, if anyone is interested, this one will be mailed off to one of YOU!  More info on the giveaway of this costume down below!

This little dress is a cheater dress and is actually a really full circle skirt with a bib front that ties around the neck, kind of like an apron!  And the reason for that, was to keep the nice rounded look of R2-D2…..so there would be no guessing as to who this was.  Yep, it’s our favorite little droid from a few decades ago!

The bib top and skirt bottom also speed up the process for this “dress”…..because there are no sleeves, necklines, zippers, etc.  And that’s pretty cool when it comes to making something that is only worn for dress-up!

But boy is the skirt portion flouncy.  And twirly.  And a whole lot of girly fun!  (I decided to put one of our dress-up pettiskirts under to really fill out the skirt….and of course that makes it even more fun to wear!)

The whole dress is made from felt.  Why, you ask?  Well, felt is stiffer and helps give the skirt more of a flat (rather than gathered) surface to show off some of R2-D2’s details.  Also, felt is pretty cheap….so that’s another perk.  For a costume, it’s perfect!

The skirt portion has an adjustable tie in the back and another at the neck.  All you need is a white Tee to wear underneath and an optional pettiskirt to wear underneath.  And depending on your Halloween weather, you could wear a white long sleeved Tee and white leggings to help keep warm.

All I know is that this flouncy little dress definitely passed Chloe’s test.  And caused her to dance and spin and do her little thing…..over and over and over!

Then, I brought out R2-D2’s friends……and Chloe had a ball pretending.  And talking for the characters.  And telling Darth Vader that if he kept talking so rude to her friends, she was going to “Pow!” his face with Yoda’s light saber.

Then, I handed her Luke and told her to have him battle it out with Yoda!  She said, “uhhhh, no, these guys can’t fight.  They’re BOTH good guys.“

What was I thinking??  Here, have Darth Vader back……he’s a “bad guy”!

So much fun!

And since Stars Wars is coming out with another movie, I’m sure their costumes will be filling the store shelves this year.  But this one, my friends, won’t be there!  So, hooray for another girl option for the Star Wars costume line up…that won’t be a thing like anyone else!

SO—

If you don’t sew, don’t have time to sew, or would rather not sew…….this costume is up for grabs!  It would work for a 3 year old (and would be longer and maybe a little high up on the neck) up to probably a 8 year old (but would be a little shorter…..and possibly a little tight in the waist).

If you’d like the costume, leave a comment below (make sure you leave your email address in the comment form, not inside the actual comment, just the form) and let me know who you’d like this costume for! :) Hopefully it will work out for one of you!  ****Giveaway closes Friday September 18th, 11:59 p.m.

Okay, and for those who’d like to just jump right in and make your own R2-D2 costume…let’s do it!

SUPPLIES:

• white felt (amount depends on size…but felt is very inexpensive, AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE)
• blue felt (not very much…1/4 yard is plenty, AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE)
• red felt (a tiny piece)
• silver costume fabric (1/4 yard is plenty…the stuff I bought from Joann’s was pretty sturdy, similar to canvas, with a shiny silver coating on it)
• white grosgrain ribbon, 1 1/2 inch wide (AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE)
• white grosgrain ribbon, 7/8 inch wide (AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE)
• blue Bias Tape, 1/2 inch double fold
• silver bias tape or 1/2 inch silver ribbon (to use as bias tape)
• lighter or candle (to heat seal the ribbon ends)
• epoxy glue (optional…more info on that below, AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE)
• sewing supplies (here’s a list of my favorite sewing supplies, in case you need a few ideas) 

***Check out my Sewing Terms 101 post, for additional help.

Start off by measuring your subject’s waist.  Then measure down from the waist and decide how long you want the skirt portion of the dress to be.

Now, draw a circle the size of your waist circumference onto your white felt and then measure out from the circle, the same dimension as your desired skirt length.  Create a line for the outer circle and cut it out.  (Refer to the Simple Circle Dress tutorial for cutting out a circle skirt.)  Now, this is optional, but I really think it helped stiffen up the skirt…..but I cut out a second identical circle piece and placed them together, treating them as one.

Next, cut a line straight out from the inner circle (both circles together), that’s 3.5 inches long.

Then cut little triangle slices down to the length of the cut you made in the last step, which creates a larger triangle opening.  (This is to give you some variance in how loose or tight the waistband of the dress can be.)

Now, grab a piece of the 1.5 inch wide ribbon and cut a piece that’s long enough to go around the waist and tie around the back, with ends as long as you’d like them.

Find the center of the ribbon piece and match it up with the center front of the skirt, which is opposite the triangle cut (and remember, the two circle layers are still stuck together, acting as one circle).  Overlap the ribbon 1/2 inch over the the edge of the inner circle and sew them together.  (To sew a straight edge to a curved edge, you have to sew a small section at a time and adjust both pieces frequently.  While attaching them together, they should both be relatively straight while stitching them together.)

It will look a little wonky when the skirt is laying flat….

….but when the waistband is flat, that’s when the skirt falls in ripples, creating the fullness.

Now, cut another piece of 1.5 inch ribbon, that’s exactly the same length as the first one, and then sandwich it on the opposite side of the skirt, enclosing the upper edge of the felt skirt inside.  Line up the ribbon edges exactly together, and then attach this 2nd piece of ribbon, using a 1/8 inch seam allowance from the bottom edge of the ribbon.  This second piece of ribbon will now become OUTSIDE of the skirt.  Because when you attach it, it will create a second row of stitching on the 1st piece of ribbon you attached….and it’s not as pretty!

Leave the upper edges of the ribbon open, and it should look like this when you lay the skirt flat…

But when you lift up the skirt and flatten out the waistband, it will look like this…

Now, moving onto the top section of the dress.

Cut out 2 pieces of white felt in a curved shape, that is as tall as you want it to hit your subject on the chest and then about as wide as the width of the skirt.  (This section doesn’t need a seam allowance, so the size you cut it will be the actual dimension.  So holding it up to your subject is helpful.)

Also, cut a piece of your silver fabric that has an identical curve as your felt pieces but is only about half as tall.

Place the silver piece on top of the 2 pieces of felt and tuck under the bottom edge of the silver fabric about 1/2 inch.  Sew in place, right along the bottom edge of the fold.

Then, using your silver/grey bias tape (or your 1/2 inch silver ribbon), sandwich around the outer curve of this section, and sew in place.  If you’re not super skilled with Bias Tape and sewing around curves, using the straight ribbon is a lot trickier.  Using actual bias tape is a lot easier.  (If you need it, here’s a Bias Tape tutorial that explains a lot more.)

Now, you can either look at a picture of the real R2-D2 online and pick and choose the details you want…..or scale it down like I did.  Whatever sizes and placements you choose, lay them onto this section and decide how you want them.  Then sew them in place, stitching nice and close to the edges of each piece.  Cute, right??

Just be sure to keep the lower 1 1/2 inches free from anything because it will be tucked into the waist band later on.

Now, place a pin at the very center of the upper portion of the dress and then another pin at the very center front of the skirt (opposite the V notch in the back).

Slide the upper portion of the dress down in between the 2 layers of ribbon, sliding it all the way down to where the felt edge is from the skirt….making sure you match the 2 pins at the center marks.

Pin in place.

Then make sure the back ribbon is even with the top ribbon and sew along the very top edge of both ribbons, securing this top section to the dress.

Now, you can continue sewing the edges of ribbons together, all the way to the very ends, but I decided not to because that would stiffen up the ribbon and I wanted them to hang freely. So, I sewed out about an inch past the felt at both ends and then sewed a vertical line to connect the top seam and bottom seam.  Then I heat sealed the ends of each ribbon piece with a lighter, so they wouldn’t fray.

Now, cut 2 pieces of 7/8 inch ribbon and heat seal one of the ends.  Then attach the heat sealed ends to the back of the upper portion of the dress, for the neck strap.  I sewed 2 stitches along the curve of the dress just so it wouldn’t be noticeable on the other side.  Then, I placed dabs of epoxy glue to hold down the rest of the ribbon flap.

Now, be sure the bottom edge of the dress is even and that the 2 layers of felt match up…..and then attach your blue Bias Tape to the bottom edge of the skirt.

Now, cut out more piece of your fabric pieces to mimic the bottom half of R2-Dr.

I didn’t place the pieces exactly straight up in down next to each other, because the skirt ripples, so I angled the sections out just a bit.

Sew around each piece, just like you did with the upper portion.  At the last minute, I decided that instead of sewing around those funny shaped silver pieces in the middle, I decided to use epoxy glue to secure them in place.  Then I wondered if I could have glued down all of the pieces down.  I’m just not sure how secure they’d be, or if they’d peel off.  But, since it’s felt and really fuzzy, I bet it would work just fine.  It’s up to you though….and might be a great time-saving option!

And that’s it!

A cute little flouncy R2-D2 dress! :)

Enjoy!

-Ashley

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Need a few other costume ideas??

DIY Strawberry Costume

Lumberjack with Beard Costume

Easy Parrot Costume

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Ashley

Ashley Johnson is a DIY sewist, crafter, costume maker and home interior designer.

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