One of my daughter’s favorite book characters is Madeline, so this year I thought I’d make her a Madeline costume for Halloween. It also worked out well, since it is Kid’s Clothes Week and the theme is storybooks!
The dress is an Oliver + S Playtime dress in blue cotton knit with red top stitching and red press studs at the back. I used an embroidery stitch on the sleeves and pocket detail, in an attempt to mimic a 3 thread coverstitch, but it didn’t really work too well. Just before I top stitched the hem, I discovered Rae Gun’s tutorial for hemming knits. Mind. Blown. It worked a charm and so I did that for the hem, even though it was different to the rest of the stitching (that I didn’t feel like unpicking).
The cape is from a Simple Simon and Co. tutorial and is made from some fleece that I picked up for a steal from the Joann remnant table (I think it was around $2 for a yard!), a scrap of lining that I had leftover from another project from probably 15 years ago (lol), some leftover red satin, also from another project, and some white fleece that I think I have had in my stash forever.
I picked up the straw hat from Michael’s for around $2 and hot glued a strip of black fabric to it (also from my stash).
The shoes and tights I got from Target.
One thing I love about this project is that the dress can be worn throughout the year either as a costume or as a regular dress.
One thing to note — I didn’t realize until after I was starting to sew it that the back facing pattern piece was incorrect. If you have the first edition of the small size pattern, you will need to download the new pattern piece from their website before you cut!
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