Like most things I do, my journey to learn to sew started because I had an overwhelming urge to do something silly. Halloween, that magical time of year, was approaching and my decision to be Fiona from Shrek (based solely on the fact that both of us have ginger hair) was proving a difficult one. Turns out you can’t really buy adult sized Fiona costumes in England, but I did have one saving grace: a sewing machine! My partner inherited a beautiful Singer 99K a year or two ago, and since then, it had only been used to mend our curtains.

My beautiful machine.

Built in the 1950’s, this sewing machine was clearly destined for greater things than mending curtains, and last September I embarked on my quest to make Fiona’s green and gold dress. I decided to make it a little easier on myself by buying a (honestly horrific) velvet dress with sleeves, so I could cut off the sleeves and skirt parts and attach them to a newly made bodice. For the bodice part, I found some sutiable green and gold material (Christmas fabric that was on sale on Ebay, which was hilarious but it totally fitted the dress), and some gold ribbon (I’m not sure what to call it if not ribbon, it was more like edging material or something), and then I followed this tutorial, ignoring the skirt part and replacing the neckline part with my thinner gold ribbon.

Here are some photos of the in-progress garment. I have to admit, despite never sewing anything before, it didn’t go terribly. The fit of the bodice is truly awful but since it was for Halloween, who cares! Apart from that, the bodice definitely resembled Fiona’s, and it went over my head so I’m calling it a win.

In progress Fiona costume.

And finally, what you were all waiting for, the finished costume! I didn’t take any picture of me attaching the sleeves and skirt, but rest assured it was full of stabbing myself with pins and terribly uneven seams. On the end, there is bonus teenage Fiona (the dress was hot and itchy so I changed back into my normal clothes halfway through the night and took out my contact lenses, I like glasses better anyway).

Final costume.

Okay so the ears aren’t great, but they were shop bought as I ran out of time. I’d love to redo them so I look more like an ogre and less like a weird ogre-cat hybrid. Anyway, that concludes my first ever sewing project. Not too bad to be honest. After this, I didn’t touch the sewing machine again until this January and there will be many more posts describing my next adventures!

Thanks for getting this far, love Rhiba.

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