Pocahontas costume!

My cute niece Callie came to me one day and asked if I would make her a Pocahontas costume for Halloween. I don't have much experience with sewing... really at all. But how do I say no to a 4 year old?? So I started thinking, and I decided to attempt it! Everyone kept telling me I needed a pattern... but that is not really how my brain works. So I just winged it.

Here is the necklace I made from felt

I dug through my bag of clothes to be donated and I had this shirt I bought for my dad that was printed wrong. I decided it would be the perfect fabric! 

I cut off the bottom and used that as the bottom of the dress, using that bottom hemline.

I cut out the front side of the dress from the back of the t shirt and then had to piece together two pieces to make the back of the dress. I used another piece from the back and a sleeve. To know the size, I traced around one of her dresses that had a similar shape, just slightly larger so I could sew the seams. 

This is the back that I sewed together. 

Then I sewed around the neckline and sleeves (with a double needle, which I learned how to do just from my instructions that came with my machine but it made it look a million times better). Then sewed the shoulders together and then down the two side seams. So then I basically had a tank top.

For the white fringe, I dug again through my old clothes and found a tank top I hadn't worn in years. I cut strips and then fringes in it. 

Made the bottom gathered to sew it on the top by sewing one long straight line on the largest stitch and pulled the strings! You can see how to do that here. Pinned and sewed it all together and done!