Wonder Woman!

It's getting close to Halloween so I thought I'd post a brief tutorial about how I made Jo's Wonder Woman dress. I feel almost silly posting a tutorial because it was really, really easy - so easy that I didn't even think to take any pictures while I was making it. So I guess this is more "sharing an idea" than posting a tutorial.

Jo loves Wonder Woman - and all the other DC superheroes. She asked for a Wonder Woman costume for our annual family vacation to Dragon*Con. Fun, but I needed to do a bit of thinking for this one. Bustiers and tights are fine for grown ups, but Jo needed something age-appropriate - and comfortable enough to wear all day. Here's what I came up with.

I started with a simple A-line dress. One pattern piece for the front, perfect for applique. Jo is most familiar with the animated series look so I used that as my inspiration. I used the (simple) chest emblem from the newer look Wonder Woman instead of some of the older eagle emblems. I also knew I wanted the distinctively-shaped belt, and a star-spangled skirt. So that's it - just a few appliques - actually pretty simple.

I traced the A-line dress front onto some large paper so I had a full-sized dress front that I could sketch my appliques on to get the proportions right. I sketched in the chest emblem and the belt and figured out how many stars I needed and what size they should be.

Once I figured out where the belt would fall I drew a line there so I could piece a red top and a blue skirt. The belt applique covered the seam so its placement didn't need to be too precise, as long as it fell somewhere under the belt.

Trace those applique shapes onto fusible applique like Wonder Under, iron the fusible to the applique fabric, cut the pieces out, and iron them to the dress. Use a satin stitch around the edges so the dress is washable. Now put the dress together. You want to do all of the applique BEFORE you assemble the dress so that you're working with nice flat pieces.

Voila! You're done! Jo has already pointed out that she's the fastest kid in the world so she "really needs" a Flash dress. That will be even easier - a red dress with appliqued Flash emblem. She's also asked for a Star Sapphire costume for next Dragon*Con, so I see more of these dresses in my future.