Construction Details:

There are two camps of people in life. Cake or ice cream? Puppies or kittens? Aurora's dress... blue or pink? Both are very lovely, but I'm definitely more of a blue gal :] Truth be told, I was disappointed with the end product of my Elsa costume. I had rushed to finish it, felt like I settled on techniques, and did not put in the time to experiment with what would work well to my liking. I really needed a pick-me-up and wanted to take another go at creating a Disney dress. I've been in love with Aurora's blue dress for a very long time. I love the 1950's influence and the clean elegant lines. Plus, Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite Disney films!

I started this costume by first creating a petticoat from Simplicity pattern 5006. This same pattern was also used to create my corset. It had the perfect center seams seen on the top portion of Aurora's dress. I was really inspired by how FireLilyCosplay challenged herself with the undergarments for her Aurora. I've always wanted to make a petticoat and figured this would be a good opportunity at making my first one.

I had decided early on that I really wanted to have fun making this costume and took some artistic liberties. I decided on what areas I wanted to make focal points and where I would leave some breathing room. In the end I decided to make the bodice portion the main focus of Aurora's dress and add on to the jewelry with motifs inspired by the visual language used to describe Aurora. The corset was created using a blue dupioni silk, a matching silk brocade for the center panels, white duchess satin, along with some pearl trim and appliques to go on the white collar for accents. The corset is boned with a combination of flat and spiral steel boning. I also added small pieces of plastic boning into the white collar to insure it would stay in the appropriate position. For the sleeves, I opted for a matte milliskin spandex. Haha, it seems to be the best method to try and have -SOME- movement if you opt have the collar attached to the sleeves (Aurora's dress= range of motion, what's that?).

The "petals" attached to the corset are made from a tone on tone blue floral fabric, which I dyed because it was slightly too "green" in appearance compared to my other fabrics. I created the pattern for it, by making a mock up mini circle skirt pattern and taking it in a bunch of times, until it was the appropriate shape over my petticoat. Then, I figured out the placement for the points, so that I could create the final product. Once the final version was sewn, I added a satin stitch detail along the edge and appliques that were hand stitched on the front and side petals. The back petal has an invisible zipper installed in the back seam, so that I can easily slip the corset over my head, but still keep the back petal closed, when my costume is on.

Aurora's skirt has very specific seams on it. I ended up combing the internet on 1950's fashion to figure out what kind of pattern it was I was looking for. In the end, I found what I needed was a gored skirt. I eventually found Simplicity's 4259, which I then modified quite a bit. I added additional seams that go between the gores that line up with spaces between the points on the corset "petals" and brought the gores up, so that they would sit higher. I was a little unsure of the fabric I found for my skirt. I sampled fabrics for a month online, only to not find quite what I was looking for. At the time, I was watching a lot of historical shows and really had my heart set on a pretty taffeta. Unfortunately, none of my swatches harmonized well with the top portion of my Aurora costume, and I finally found a crepe in the perfect blue at Joann's. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the look of the crepe. I think it photographs rather well and has a nice drape.

My jewelry was inspired by the rose imagery they use to describe Aurora. I found these really pretty rose beads at my local craft store and some flourishes in the scrapbooking section. The actual crown and necklace was created using worbla. After adding my accents, I primed my surface with gesso. The paint job was done using acrylics in gold, brown, and a touch of silver mixed with the gold. In order to create depth, shadow, and highlights, the brown was added on in areas surrounding the raised areas and silver-gold mixture was added sparingly onto the raised areas.

My wig required very minimal styling. I added Aurora's iconic curl and added volume to the bangs using a tiny flat iron. Just a bit of hairspray to hold everything in place and it was good to go.

Personal Thoughts:

This costume is incredibly special to me. It has continually gone on the backburner for years and I'm so happy I was finally inspired enough to make it. Magical Disney princess feeling achievement unlocked! :D

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