Princess Dreams: Making Princess Tiana #1

So right now, one of my current cosplay projects is a Princess Tiana costume.  First off, I want to talk about how much I adore The Princess and the Frog.  Disney did a really good job with this film.  If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching!  A friend of mine described it as being really "pure," and it really is.  The main protagonists have simple desires: Tiana wants to make her dream have owning her own restaurant come true and works extremely hard to accomplish that, and Prince Naveen simply wants to enjoy a life of little responsibility.  The villain, Dr. Facilier, simply wants money and power, he's not after anything else.  In the end, Tiana and Naveen end up finding something they never knew they needed: each other.  Naveen begins to understand being a more responsible person, and Tiana learns to loosen up and do more than work constantly.

Tiana's lily pad dress is absolutely iconic.  It's a gorgeous reflection of nature's beauty and elegance.  There was also a special edition doll, and the artwork for her is amazing.  The artwork is by Steve Thompson for the Disney Fairytale line of dolls

I actually started this dress a while back, but I'm starting over because as I learn more about costuming, I have found things I want to include to really do my best to give this dress justice.  Thanks to the 2015 Cinderella film, I'm OBSESSED with impossibly big, floofy ballgowns.  So I decided to start with trying to make a petticoat to go over the hoopskirt I have, and give her dress as much volume as I'm able.  Yeah, I did say "make a petticoat."  If you think I'm crazy...  you would be absolutely correct, lol.  Initially, I was thinking I'd need like a nine-layer petticoat, but thankfully that's not the case!  I started out by buying a TON of stiff netting from both Joann and Hancock, and after a lot of searching, I found a petticoat tutorial that sounded good.  After a lot of math, I figured out the dimensions of my hoopskirt at the largest hoop, and calculated the dimensions for my tiers.  The petticoat has three tiers, and so far, I have made three skirt layers.  It currently looks like this:

I was going to do a six to eight layer petti, but for the sake of my own sanity, I'm sopping at five.  The fourth skirt layer is going to have extra ruffles attached to it, so that will give me my five layers and keep me from completely pulling my hair out. XD  So far, I've used about 50 yards of netting for this!  I might make another post at a later date with what I did for the petticoat since it's not finished yet.  I've already decided that I might use crinoline, the next time I need to make one of these bad boys!  

More progress is on the way! <3