Part Two: Donald Duck Ahoy, let’s just call it Orange Bird, Tangled in threads and Refunds a plenty

All Aboard!Welcome to the second instalment of a very special mini series where I curate a Disneybound wardrobe for my first-ever Disney Cruise. Back in Part One, please go back and give it a quick squiz, we looked at our planning for the huge undertaking that about 9 garments long. However, we made a plan, we ordered some bits and pieces and started on the projects we could start straight away. Today in part two we start sewing the first five garments out of the total 9 we are making. Coming soon to a screen near you will be part three where we finish off our sewing projects and then part four which looks at some other outfits I wore on my trip. This series is full of twists, turns and spontaneous musical numbers so feel free to stay as long as you like. No point procrastinating anymore, let’s actually sew something.

As there are 9 garments on my ‘to-sew’ list, part two will cover the following makes;
-Donald Duck’s Sailor Dress
-Orange Bird Gingham Dress
-Tangled Dress
-Star Wars Dress
-Cubed Dress

Donald Duck’s Sailor Dress
We are kicking off this epic Vintage Sewing Adventure with a Donald Duck themed Sailor dress that I can wear for embarkation day as well as just on the ship in general. As I wanted to shop my stash as much as possible, I ended up finding about 3 meters of Sailor-themed border print cotton sateen fabric which I’ve had in my stash for several years. Originally purchased from Spotlight, this fabric was part of Gerties nautical collection and it’s no longer available unfortunately.
Once I had my fabric chosen, I looked through my patterns and, in the end, decided to sew with the Night and Day Dress from Gertie’s Charm Patterns. As I’ve already sewn this dress pattern before, I knew it was a relatively straightforward make. Since I knew the pattern worked, I decided to stick to my usual size of 6 with the c cup bodice. The main reason I chose this pattern was because it features a cute scarf collar that creates a sweet bow along the front neckline. It was this feature from the pattern that meant I could add elements of Donald Ducks sailor outfit.

I started by marking out on the fabric where I wanted my skirt to fall in conjunction with where the border print pattern was on the fabric. With the stripes and larger anchors along the bottom of the fabric, I ended up deciding to cut the skirt panel (one very long rectangle), at 28 inches long and the fabric was 2.5 meters across. The bodice pieces were cut out within the last full half a meter so I got all the pieces cut out with my prefered print from the boarder pattern. The scarf pieces were cut out using plain red and white cotton fabric I already had in my stash. With everything cut out, it was time to sew.
Once I started sewing, the dress came together relatively easy. Whilst making the scarf collar, I played around with different fabrics, combinations and other adjustments before I decided to cut the scarf collar piece along the point hidden by the loop. The scarf collar was then cut out in both red and white fabric and sewn thus that when put onto the garment, the collar looked white and the bow stood bold in red along the neckline. Everything else came together super speedy and the whole dress was done within two afternoons.

Wearing this dress was so much fun and it was one of my most complimented outfits. As we were boarding the ship, so many people came up to me to tell me how much they loved my dress which meant that by the time I actually entered the ship, I was all happy and even more excited. This Donald Duck inspired sailor dress perked me up on my trip and it was super comfortable as well. I also added pockets to this dress which I’m so happy about because they came in so handy.
To complete the look, I paired this dress with some classic Minnie ears, a white belt, and my navy Charlie Stone shoes.

Orange Bird Gingham Dress
One of my biggest goals in this sewing challenge was to try and use what was already in my stash so I really went a little loose on the term “disneybound” and it was more like “Disney-esque”. Within my stash I had a few bits of gingham and not wanting to make a Dorothy themed dress (I have various blue ginghams for some reason), I spotted my orange gingham and it caught my attention. Years ago, I remember hunting online for orange gingham as part (I think) of another ‘greetings card recreation’ that got buried in my never ending project list. Later when I was hoping to revive my ‘Vintage that Got Away’ series (where I try to recreate true vintage pieces as close as I can because I’ll never own them otherwise), this fabric was the first inline after I saw this true vintage dress somewhere on Pinterest. I have no actual details about this dress but I loved it for it’s simplicity and just how effortless it looked. It’s obviously no surprise that this project never saw the light of day which is why I decided to combine the two for this project.
But ‘how is that Disney themed?’ I hear you shout at your screen! Well Disney devotees don’t you worry, Nemo. The little clownfish who is orange and white, just like my orange and white gingham fabric. Oh look, its even kinda striped. To be honest, this dress was supposed to be more Orange Florida Bird inspired but it wasn’t till after I made it that I realised the essence of the Orange bird characher would have to be added to this outfit through accessories and in the end, I just didn’t want to buy anything more, so honestly, this dress just got left as in the end and only paired with a white belt. Before we jump the gun too much, let’s get back to the sewing.
With our fabric selected and sewing, inspiration found, the only acceptable sewing pattern we could use was Butterick 6453/ Simplicity 9293. Simplicity 9293 was the first dress I made in 2024 so getting to sew it up again was actually a real pleasure. Now for those in the know, this pattern has a bit of a cult following and is considered a staple patern for anyone sewing vintage inspired clothing. I have made this dress so many times that I have found versions of it in my closet I have no recollection of ever sewing. Pray tell you why when I made this particular version, it didn’t fit me in the end?
At this point I don’t think we need to have a full chat about the sewing process as I’ve covered this sewing pattern on this blog a few time already. I sewed my usual size of 12 and didn’t make any adjustments to seam allowance or anything within the pattern itself. My princess seams were well made and smooth and the only major deviation from the original sewing pattern was that I added double tie up strings to the shoulders to match the original vintage inspiration. The dress came together super quick; about an afternoon for this pattern and it was lined with white cotton instead of using just the facings. It wasn’t until about a day after she was done that I actually tried her on and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. What happened?

The bodice of the dress is super tight and very unflattering to my bust area. I felt completely pancaked across the bust and felt like my shoulders were pressed together. If I moved around or wiggled in a certain way the zip would start coming undone. When I realised this, I didn’t know what to do. Tossing up between abandoning the project, pretending like nothing happened or having my third melt down of the week, I decided to come back to this dress when I felt a little better. Unfortunately this dress was made when I was getting very ill and would end up needing medical assistance within the week. Oh and it’s almost Christmas too by this stage so just a bit more pressure to add.

At the end of the day, I did take this dress onto the cruise but she was only worn twice with a bralette underneath due to her fit. Despite looking back on everything, I still cannot figure out what went wrong as my other versions of this dress fit me fine so I havn’t gained heaps of weight and although I was having a severe Endometriosis flare up, I don’t think I was so bloated to the point I could unzip myself by breathing in…could I have been? Some mysteries may never be solved so even though this dress was super fun for photos and a half day on the cruise, I don’t think I’ll be wearing her much after due to the fit. I might offer it to a friend or donate it if someone doesn’t take it off me.

Tangled Dress
I’m just a girl. Of course, I want to make a princess dress. Years ago, I started a sewing project using Butterick 6322, and after cutting out all the pieces, I left the project on hiatus for about 6 years before I actually finished it. The pattern was this sweet cottage-core-inspired peasant dress with a ruffle puff sleeve and bust and a cute faux-corset tie-up front bodice panel. It’s a classic peasant style sewing pattern thats very sweet and feminine and an aesthetic I’ve always gravitated towards due to my heritage. After completing my first version of this pattern, I realised I made it too large and that most of the pattern pieces were pretty damaged and it took me years to hunt down this pattern as it’s discontinued. Luckily, my prince charming husband found the pattern in my size online and I’ve been wanting to sew it ever since.
Butterick 6322 has always given my Tangled/Rapunzel vibes, especially with the bodice and sleeve styles, as well as how cute the little corset part could be. This pattern was destined to become a Rapunzel Disneybound dress.
Within my stash, I found some plain lavender cotton left over from this project, but I had to go and get some light pink cotton from Homecraft Textiles as I just didn’t have the right shade that I wanted. This also gave me the chance to get some matching ribbons for the ties in the corset, plus a few other things, but it was a worthy trip.
As I wanted my dress to have both pink and purple elements, I decided to make the bodice bust pink, the bodice waist and back lavender, the skirt lavender and the corset tie-up pieces to be pink. After much deliberation, this felt like the best solution and looked the best overall. In case you’re curious as to why the front bodice underbust is in lavender and not pink to match the bust, it just looked better with the bodice back pieces being lavender otherwise the dress felt too split in half between the colours instead of a cohesive mix. So much deliberation went into this plan.
Sewing up this dress wasn’t too difficult, but it was very fiddly as were are lots of gathering sections, and using the double thread method, it got a little chaotic and messy. The bodice came together slowly but when I got to the corset overlay pieces, I realised I didn’t have any stiff interfacing so I only could use some very soft interfacing. This meant that the corset overlay wasn’t going to be very stiff or sturdy. I had the option of adding boning but I was really starting to feel ill at this point and decided to just accept a floppy corset.
The skirt of this dress was just a simple rectangle at 27″ from waist to skirt end and about 3 meters long. Once attached, I stared at this dress for ages because it felt like something was missing; it needed a Tangled element or two. I decided to use gold hardware for my corset overlay to pull in all the sun imagery from the film and within my stash, I found a few short reems of lace cotton trim which was perfect along the skirt hem. If I had time or the resources, it might have been cute to find a Pascal or Sun decal that I could have ironed onto my skirt but I am super happy with the outcome.

This dress was so much fun to wear on the cruise and I’d put it on several times because it was really comfortable. Having a pair of matching Tangled-themed Mickey ears really sold the whole look and I felt super cute in my outfit. Having limited shoes for the trip, my pink Converse were such a great touch as well comfortable choice. The only negative I have about this dress is the arm holes are still a little too large for me but at least I know that next time I make this pattern, thats the only thing that needs fixing and I’m already shopping my stash for the next make of this pattern. This might have to be the best Disneybound of this project as there was no mistaking who I was inspired by. We definitely watched Tangled on the trip.

Star Wars Dress and Cubed Dress

If you think back to Part One, you may remember that the planned Star Wars dress and the Cubed Mickey dress had the fabric coming from the same seller on AliExpress. When the fabric arrived about two weeks after order (no problems there to be honest), I noticed that the package felt a little thin. At this point i remember breathing out a long sign because another thing had gone wrong, this was towards the end of my sewing adventure and I was getting very sick and tired. When I opened the parcel, I saw what I knew was in there, not my order. Instead of 4 meters of cotton for both Disney prints, I instead received half a meter of two different Barbie fabrics. Although cute, not really helpful for me. Luckily, AliExpress have a super straightforward and simple returns system and I even managed to chat to a real person (shock!) which meant I was able to be helped straight away with no issues. The customer service was a serious 10/10 and my full refund came through a few days later once I sent back the incorrect fabric at no cost to me.

At this point I knew there wasn’t going to be enough time to reorder new fabric and maybe it was a way of the universe trying to get me to slow down and not take so much on but as far as my Star Wars and Cubed Mickey dresses were concerned, they would forever just me an idea. I know I can go back and reorder the fabric and remake the dresses but honestly, I’m ok not owning two more Disney dresses as I was already wondering how much wear I’d get out of them. So for all intensive purposes, we are down two dresses from our sewing adventure but we must carry on.

And onwards we go!
With the first two parts of this project covered, we have two more to go with out next installment completing our Vintage Sewing Adventure and our final installment looking at the other outfits I packed for the trip. See you all in the next one.

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