Wonder Toddler Pinafore

Nothing says "I am Womyn, hear me roar" quite like a pinafore.

It all started when I was walking around the grocery store on a Friday afternoon with toddler in tow. I spied a Wonder Woman action figure in the toy aisle and decided that if my child was ever going to have a Barbie-like thing it would be this one. Into the cart it went.

I haven't seen the movie yet -- waiting for it to be available for rent -- but Wonder Woman was now on my mind.

Saturday rolled around and I was scrounging for a project. I thought about starting a new quilt, but I wanted something I could finish in a day. I poked around my stash and noticed this super cute star pattern that I just got from a Hawthorne Threads Scrap Pack.

Inspired, I poked around a bit more and found half a yard of the cherry red above, and a gold-ish print. These latter two fabrics were purchased for home decor projects that they were ultimately not suitable for. They even still had the sticker on them from when I got them from Fabric.com.

I gathered an inspiration picture or two...

...and then I basically just started slapping stuff together.

The goal of this garment was to be a sort of play costume that would fit my daughter now and in the future. Therefore I didn't want to make it too fitted. 

I started with a little gathered skirt/apron using the blue star fabric. 

Then I mocked up half of the bodice, using the skirt as my guide. Above Average Toddler was sleeping at the time, so I didn't really have an opportunity to measure or anything. I just kind of felt it out. 

I liked the angular neckline. It seemed powerful.

I cut it out on the fold and made a few more tweaks. I cut a double layer so I could make a full lining.

To make the back straps, I cut a width of fabric the same width as the top of the bodice and roughly as long.

Next I sewed the necklines together...

...notched the corners...

...and then flipped it right side out and pressed it.

Then I sewed together one side of the straps and matched it to the bodice, keeping the arm sides open so I could insert the sleeves.

I have never made a ruffle sleeve before so I just winged it. I knew I had some extra fabric to redo it if I messed it up too badly.

I cut out little notches so I could turn over the seam and have it lay relatively flat.

I was using navy thread for this whole project because I don't have any red. The most visible place is here on the sleeve hem.

I pinned the sleeve so it was turned to the right side of my bodice/strap sandwich and then sewed it so all the seams were nicely hidden.

And then I was left with this when I turned it all right side out!

I laid everything else out. I had cut a band of the gold-ish fabric for a sash/belt.

I realized that the straps would just continue to fall down if I did them straight up and down, so I crossed them in the back. If I had planned this I would have made them a bit longer to compensate. 

Also at some point not pictured, I sewed everything together. I hadn't found an elegant way to attach the top and bottom to the belt, so I used a star stitch on my machine. I figured it was going to be visible anyway so might as well go with it.

Also, in an effort to make this fit a variety of sizes, I added buttons to the bottom of the straps so they could be reconfigured on the belt. I had some really adorable gold hunter buttons in my button jar. 

AAT wouldn't put this on until today, so I finally got a picture of her wearing it. She is saying "cheese" and holding her Wonder Woman figurine. I'm glad she finally got excited about it, although I always knew she'd come around to it eventually.

Modeling the back:

All in all, it was a fun project and a nice stretch of my creative muscles. I held back on getting too constumey with it after considering adding a star applique on the front. I like that it's a relatively subtle homage to the character without being too literal.