Ever since the Talk Gertie to Me podcast episode where Andrea shared her hatred of Halloween (due to an unfortunate Miss Little Bo Peep incident), I’ve wanted to recreate something with a similar pastoral vibe, but spookier, to help her re-find her love of the holiday. 

Since we still have a gallon of fake blood in the studio (from the 2022 Halloween Extravaganza with Bloody Mary), this somehow led us down a rabbit hole where we ended up creating a many-layered Marie Antoinette costume. 

And with Jacky Sanger working with us in the studio this summer, we were able to make this costume (relatively!) historically accurate. Of course, I doubt Marie would have appreciated the cocktail-length skirt or all of the attempts to photoshop my head into a basket, but we tried! 

If you want to recreate a similar 18th century costume, you’ll need all of these layers:

1. A three-layer Charm Foundations Petticoat in silk organza. We affectionately call ours the Sea Monster.
2. Another chiffon petticoat. Ours is from Malco Mode, but any will do. You want LOTS of fluff!
3. A muslin circle skirt to smooth out the petticoat layers. Since this is a costume, we didn’t even bother to hem it!
4. A custom-made bum roll. We made ours from muslin and polyfill, with grosgrain ribbon for a waist tape. This is a bit like a padded donut belt, with all of the padding at the hips and back. (You might be able to hack something together with heavily stuffed fanny packs, but don’t tell Jacky that I suggested something so historically inappropriate!)
5. A pleated and gathered Liz skirt in pink silk satin. We made ours in a long cocktail length, but you could also make it go to the floor. When hemming, don’t forget the added complication of the bum roll. 
6. The bodice with attached overskirt.

The bodice is a heavily hacked Maria Dress bodice, with a squared neckline, basque waist, and center front closure. 

The sleeves started as the Maria sleeves, but then Jacky taught us how to create a single-seamed, historically accurate fitted sleeve with a layered cuff. She then hand-tacked Alençon lace motifs to flocked tulle to create the perfect oval ruffle as a bit of decorative trim. If you want to see every crazy step of how they were done, check out charmpatterns.com/marie-antoinette-sleeve.

We then added even more frosting with more lace at the neckline, fork-pleated trim along the princess seams, and graduated bows tacked at center front. 

The overskirt is a simple pleated rectangle, attached to the bodice starting at the front princess seam. Then we tucked the front corners of the skirt into the side seam at the waist and stuffed the folded skirt hem with lots of tulle to create even more floof. It looks like magic, but it is very easy to do!