How I made a Princess Jasmine Costume (Using Ellie & Mac Patterns)

One week ago, my daughter saw a picture of her friend wearing a Princess Jasmine costume to watch the Aladdin musical at Marina Bay Sands Theatre (Singapore). She immediately asked for two things – 1) if I can sew a costume for her and 2) if I can also sew a costume for her cousin.

I went to People’s Park Centre the next day and bought teal and gold knit (aka stretchy fabric), gold chiffon (aka sheer fabric) and some teal and gold trims and gems. It was my first time to work with chiffon so I was a bit worried. Turns out there was nothing to worry about except extra careful not to snag it with my nails.

When I got home, I remembered I actually have 2 yards of teal cotton jersey at home. I bought it to make a shirt for my husband and son – until I realized at home that it had silver sparkles on the fabric itself. So I ended up using that.

Since I did not have a lot of time, I looked through the patterns I have to figure out what I can use for the costume without too much effort. I decided to hack the Be Invincible skorts and mash with the Kids Paper Bag Pants, and use Be the Leader pattern for the top. All three are from my favorite pattern company Ellie and Mac.

Bottoms:

I thought of using the Paper Bag Pants and just adding a skirt overlay, but Lia wanted “poofier” pants. So I googled how to make harem pants and did that.

I put the front and back pieces over my fabric on fold. I added 5 inches in between, and cut it down on a straight line. For the length, I used the Paper Bag Pants pattern.

You will get two mirror images of this.

Fold it over and sew from crotch to hem. After that you can just follow the instructions on the Be Invincible pattern to assemble the rest.

I used gold knit for the waistband and added trims to the hem of the chiffon skirt before sewing the pants, skirt and waistband together. After that’s done, all that’s left is to put elastics on the ankles, and again I went to the Paper Bag pants pattern for the instructions and length of elastics.

Top:

The top is Be the Leader pattern (shirt length). I chose the short flounce and ended up cutting an inch off as I wanted it shorter. I then did some hand sewing and gathered the centre and put a gem in the middle. The pattern actually has a cropped top version if you like that.

I made a simple headband from the teal fabric and put a gem to finish off the look. Here they are on the way to the theater.

The girls loved the costumes and were thrilled with the comments they got when we watched Aladdin last night. The ushers called them Princess Jasmine and people were waving and complimenting them all night.