The girls have been wishing for Princess Mulan dresses for quite some time. I finally found time to get to the fabric store and while I was there, I actually remembered to grab up some pretty blue fabric for the waist band. Really, that's what the big wait was all about. I've had the pink satin and the red trim for quite some time.
I only made one dress because my older girl is growing out of the dress up stage and she would rather wear something normal but themed. I haven't figured out what to do for her yet, but I did buy some Star Wars fabric for when I figure something out. In the meantime, only one hanfu is in order. Which works because Libby's 5th birthday was quickly approaching so the dress could be a gift.
It only took me a couple of days to make the dress, which would equate to a couple of hours in normal person time. It's been proven many times that I am not functioning in any level of normal, sewing or otherwise. But it should be noted that it was a quick project.
I used a normal looking dress pattern, mainly for the measurements of the shoulders and sleeves and bodice width. The hanfu does not at all resemble the pattern I used, but I am growing out of a need for much of a pattern; I just need the major cutting points and then I can wing the rest of it.
I made the hanfu just like a dress in that it has a top bodice section and a bottom skirt with a zipper up the back. I'm not so sure that is the proper way but I wanted it to have some flair at the bottom and I wasn't so sure a shift or A line cut would have the same effect. Besides, the gathered waistline would be covered by the waist band so it didn't really matter. I also made the skirt ankle length (or so I thought until my kid put it on and I discovered her legs are a lot longer than they used to be!)
I cut the sleeves the right length and then added "bat wings" to the wrist. I also made the tip of the wings longer than the top of the wrist so that it resembled Mulan's long sleeve tips without going overboard. Just a bit of effect for authenticity but not enough that it would be annoying to wear.
The bodice top gave me some pause. I had to think about how to make it overlap like a robe. I ended up cutting four bodice pieces and then folding them and ironing them down the way I wanted them, trimming off the unwanted half at the diagonal and stitching the two pieces of bodice together at the waist. It has a lining of the same satin, which is why I needed four pieces. Two outer and two for lining. There is probably a hundred easier and more conservative ways to cut the bodice out, but to keep it straight in my mind, that's how I did it. I will have to practice or draw up a little pattern piece.
I used some of the leftover cheap red stuff that I used for the Captain Hook Halloween costume last year to trim the bodice and make the red waist belt. The embroidered blue piece was easy to make into a waistband. I measure the child around the middle and made a rectangle to match. I sewed the red band to the middle of the blue rectangle and added apron ties.
Now I had the pink satin underdress with the red trim on the bodice and the separate blue and red waist band. Done!
There were just a couple of problems. I forgot the red upper skirt and the waist band slid straight down that satin covered kid. It wouldn't stay up.
I added a piece of gathered red to the bottom of the blue waist band and that fixed that issue. Then I tacked the waist band to the dress in the back, front and under the arms to keep it from sliding down. We don't need to spend all day yanking the waist piece up over and over again. Now, it's done!
Princess Mulan's pink hanfu was an awesome birthday gift for my little birthday girl! We hauled it around all day at Disneyland on her big day, but it was too hot to wear satin. Also, Mulan wasn't "home" when we went to the Princess Fantasy Faire. In the evening when it cooled down, she put her hanfu on over her clothes in lieu of a jacket. It was so cute! We sure heard a lot of compliments in the couple of hours that she wore it and her little friend instructed me to make one for her and her sister.
Happy Birthday to my little princess!
*** UPDATE ***
11/8/2013
My little Mulan met the real Mulan at Disneyland. Mulan saw her and gasped with excitement! She was like a little princess on Christmas morning when she saw Libby in her Mulan hanfu! Very exciting! Here are the princess twins together:
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