Meet our Nutcracker ballet doll cast! Here's part one: the Sugar Plum Fairy...

One of the first ballet costumes pattern maker "Pearl" made while designing our iconic Ballet Performance tutu and bodice patterns was this gorgeous pink-and-gold Sugar Plum Fairy outfit for American Girl® Caroline.

This CLASSICAL TUTU and SEAMED BODICE ensemble is still one of our favorites. We love the subtle interplay of ombré shades of pink tulle under the glittering gold top layer of the tutu — and the deep gold lace that we cut into flattering shapes and basted onto the pink brocade bodice.

But while designing our most recent pattern — Pattern 1074: Mix-and-Match Ballet Costume Accessories for 18 Inch Dolls — Pearl realized that she could take this costume to an even more gorgeously glittering, just-like-the-real-thing level with a matching TUTU PLATE, dainty tulle SLEEVE PUFFS, and a sparkling painted plastic TIARA!

Doesn't Caroline make a perfect Sugar Plum Fairy prima ballerina, waiting in the wings for her holiday Nutcracker debut?

This may be our absolutely favorite costume of all time, and in this newsletter we're going to show you all the lovely details that went into making it!

First, let's talk about that tutu plate.

Tutu plates are lightweight, flat pieces that ballet costume designers adorn with lace or jewels or any other trim they like, and then baste or stitch onto the costume as an easily swappable element that can turn a stock tutu into a whole range of different character costumes.

Our tutu plates work exactly the same way!

Pattern 1074 includes five standard shapes — the Flower, the Snowflake, the Folktale, the Princess and the Rose — that can be decorated any way you like and then tied or hooked on top of an existing tutu for costume changes that are as easy as tying on an apron!

For our Sugar Plum Fairy, we used the Princess plate — a graceful shape that emulates the look of swept back 18th century skirts.

For the top layer of the plate, we used the same pink brocade that we used for the bodice and tutu basque.

Though this fabric looks sturdy, it's actually a very light polyester silkie that frays easily and can't be turned neatly. So we made it into a crisper, sturdier fabric by bonding it to crisp, sturdy pink silk organza, using sheer fusible webbing from our interfacing stash.

Though we're showing all three layers in the photo above, do not iron directly on fusible webbing — it will melt and make a mess on your sole plate. In fact, we recommend using a pressing cloth to make sure that the webbing can't touch anything except the fabric it's sandwiched between.

Once we'd bonded the silkie to the silk organza, we were able to stitch up the plate easily, using another piece of organza for the bottom layer.

To decorate the tutu plate, we found some more scraps of the gold lace we'd used for the bodice overlay and arranged them into an attractive design around the edge of the plate. Though the finished result looks like a single piece of curved lace, it's actually quite a few pieces, with the round rosette shapes pinned on top of the loose edges.

Once we were happy with the arrangement, we basted the lace to the plate with matching thread and small stitches tucked between the lace motifs.

But wait — there's one more bit of sparkle needed to match this plate to the bodice!

In the photo below, you can just see that there are tiny pink beads basted here and there on top of the gold lace. These are light pink, translucent glass 8/0 seed beads with silver lined holes. And here's the fun part — those silver lined holes are SQUARE, not round.

So even though you can barely see the beads in the finished outfit, you'll definitely see the little square sparkles they create, which look like a scattering of sugar crystals across the surface of the Sugar Plum Fairy's costume.

Isn't that a pretty effect?

We used the same beads — interspersed with gold translucent 11/0 seed beads — in an easy, looped bead embroidery edging all around the top edge of each tulle SLEEVE PUFF, another fun ballet costume accessory included in our Pattern 1074: Ballet Costume Accessories.

The nice thing about a looped edging like this is that it remains stretchy, so the elastic around the top of the sleeve puff is still flexible enough to fit over the doll's hand. That's something you have to be a little careful about when attaching trim to the elastic edges of the sleeve puffs or ruffles — keep your trims flexible or the doll won't be able to wear her pretty new accessories!

Finally, we decided to make a new tiara for our newly refurbished Sugar Plum Fairy costume.

At Lee & Pearl, we love painting plastic — turning inexpensive toys into stunningly realistic doll-scale accessories — almost as much as we love sewing!

For all our costume tiaras, we start with crazy-cheap plastic princess party favors, which can be found in lots of different sizes and shapes in party stores or big box retailers like Target and Walmart.

Tiaras like these can also be found online — CLICK HERE for the actual tiara we bought on Amazon to make this costume!

To get the tiara ready for painting and decorating, we snipped off the attached plastic comb and spray painted the tiara with plastic primer. Here's a tip: use white primer for light, sparkly tiaras, and black primer for rich, jewel-toned tiaras.

Next, we pulled out our favorite Lumiere® by Jacquard metallic paints, a sponge pouncer and a small rectangular brush. We applied several coats of the metallic paint, starting with the bright metallic brass and then applying darker coats in mottled patterns with the pouncer.

Before the darker coats dry, lightly wipe off some of the color from the high points with a scrap of microfiber toweling to let the brass underneath shine through as a highlight.

Use the small rectangular brush to apply touch-ups until you are happy with the coverage and the arrangement of colors, then let dry thoroughly before coating the whole tiara with a gloss sealer (below, right).

You can leave the painted tiara as is — or add even more sparkle by gluing beads or tiny rhinestones into the round openings on the tiara. We ALWAYS add more sparkle, of course, and have quite a collection of tiny manicure rhinestones for this purpose!

NOTE: We often use permanent E6000 glue, which must be used in a well-ventilated area or while wearing a properly rated mask.

And that's that!

Isn't that a lovely tiara? It's hard to believe it started out as a hunk of cheap plastic, but that's why we love crafts like these.

And there's our completed Sugar Plum Fairy costume.

Stay tuned for future newsletters, where we'll be breaking down even more costumes from our Nutcracker ballet cast...

CLICK HERE to see the Ballet Performance Bundle for 18 Inch Dolls in the Lee & Pearl Etsy store.

The Ballet Performance Pattern Bundle is also available for 16 inch and 14 1/2 inch dolls — as well as a super-discounted bundle that includes all three sizes!

CLICK HERE to see Pattern 1074: Mix-and-Match Ballet Costume Accessories — Tutu Plates, Sleeve Puffs and Sleeve Ruffles for 18 Inch Dolls in the Lee & Pearl Etsy store.

And don't forget — our gorgeous SILK ORGANZA sale is still going strong!

CLICK HERE to go to the Fabric & Trim Kit Section of our Etsy store to see all our 100% Silk Organza Curated Kits!

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See you next time!