Me as Mary Poppins

In May of this year my sister had a murder mystery party for her birthday. All of the guests were assigned a storybook character to come dressed as and to emulate during the party. My character was Mary Poppins. What fun!

My first job was to make a costume. I love sewing and creating and going to JoAnn, so this was very enjoyable. :)

Here are some of my inspiration pictures:

Her first appearance costume

To see the essential parts of her first costume

Mary Poppins inspiration on Polyvore

It would be so cool to have found a coat like this!

I also considered coming with soot on my face!

Julie Andrews in her Jolly Holiday costume - so beautiful!

Mary and Bert on the picture disc vinyl record

Disneyland Mary Poppins costume. - this is what I decided to copy.

After finding pictures of what I wanted to make, I looked for people who had done it before me, to see if I could find a pattern or anything. I found these lovely sites:

Make It & Love It - little girl costume with great photography

Homemade Mary Poppins Costume

Coolest Homemade Costumes - Mary Poppins & Bert 

I also looked through what I already owned and decided to use a lace tea-length dress I had as the base and borrow some petticoats from my mom's costume trunks. 

I went to JoAnn and bought a cool shiny red fabric, white cord to line the red, lace for sleeves, tulle for the hat, and red ribbon for the bows.

I ended up having to create my own pattern. I used some bendy cardboard and held it around myself while drawing the shape that I wanted. (highest points at my sides).

Then I pinned it down and used an adhesive spray to temporarily attach it to the fabric.

I bent the red fabric over the sides of my "pattern" and sewed around the edges. I sewed the white cord in lines along the front. I ended up leaving the cardboard in there to keep it stiff instead of using stays. It turned out great! The only thing I wasn't pleased with was the splotches the adhesive left in certain spots where it was too thick.

For the hat, I bought a straw hat at Goodwill to redo. I cut the top off to shorten it, and I also turned the brim upside down to make it look more like Mary's hat. I used a glue-gun to hold it together, then painted it white. I also glued on some fake flowers and used tulle to hold it on my head.

Here's what the underside looks like.

Instead of sewing full sleeves onto my dress from the lace, I ended up just making long gloves by doing a quick sewing job down each sleeve, leaving the finished scalloped edge for right above my knuckles.

The last finishing touch was to tie ten bows out of the red ribbon to safety pin onto my skirt all the way around. I also tied a red bow around my neck to mimic the one Mary has on her collar.

The final product turned out amazingly! I won 3rd Place in the costume contest! It was fun to make and fun to wear. :) Thanks for hosting the party, AO!

All of the pieces

Me as Mary Poppins

My husband Andrew and I!

As a P.S, my husband and his two siblings were also Disney characters. Here's the animated versions, and the live versions!