Princess Merida Costume: Inspired By The Movie Brave

It's October my friends and that means it's costume season!!  I've been saving this creation to share for Halloween.  Now that it's coming up fast, it's time to do a bit of a reveal: my Little Merida Costume.  Disney's latest princess movie, Brave, inspired the complete ensemble. And here is my little Princess Merida in all her Scottish-style, archer glory:

We saw the movie 3 times over the summer and fell in love with this independent Highland princess. Her feisty and determined personality is much like my own daughter's (heaven help me when she's a teenager like Merida!).  As we walked out of the theater the first time around, my designing wheels started turning on how to make a dress-up outfit for her to pretend in.

I modified a basic dress pattern to have the right length and shape, plus added a back zipper for easy dressing. I found the perfect blue-green velour and golden satin fabrics to get the color and textures right.  Some braided, pleather trim made the hip slung belt.

I wanted it to have the right details like the one in the film, such as the layered, suspended sleeves:

And the lace-up v-neckline with ruffled collar behind it:

A big part of the look is the full, wild red hair and, as many of you know, my daughter is a barely-past-bald toddler.  Needless to say, we needed a full-on wig to make her a fiery haired maiden. I wasn't about to go buy one, so after some searching online, I picked up some tips and made my own:

 Add in a $6 plastic archery set and she's ready to aim her bow:

My daughter was so excited when she first saw what she calls her "Mer" dress, but her first question was where could she put her arrows, so I made a quiver out of brown fleece to fit on the snap-on belt:

And as if the gown, quiver and hair wasn't enough, my little lady requested that I make her eyes blue too.  Well, I can only do so much kid, but thanks to the wonders of photo editing, I am able to make her wish come true in the photos.  There's no way I'm getting a 3yr old colored contacts, feisty girl or not!

My wee lass is looking forward to trick or treating in character and having a new princess outfit for playtime too.   And I love seeing our new favorite princess frolicking around the house.

I did take pictures of how I created the outfit and made the wig, but since those tutorials would take a bit of time to put together I'd want to make sure that would be of interest so I can make some time to do detailed write-ups.  So if you'd like to see those, just let me know below and I'll try to share my tips on how to get Brave on your own;)

UPDATE: My dress how-to can be found HERE and a full tutorial for making the yarn wig and quiver belt can be found HERE.

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