Akram's Ideas

How to make Gravity Falls’ Mabel Pines Sweater

For Halloween, if you haven’t seen already I decided to dress up as Mabel Pines from the Disney animated series Gravity Falls.

I had so much fun wearing this costume and even got recognized by a few kids that showed up at my door for trick-or-treating.

Gravity Falls’ Mabel Pines Sweater

I’m thoroughly happy with my costume and thought I would share just how I made Mabel’s icon rainbow shooting star sweater.

Bodice Construction

New Look 6145 is a really easy pattern to work with and sewed up in no time. The fabric for this project was a dark pink jersey knit fabric I had in my stash. While this pattern isn’t specially for knit it seemed to work well with no real issues.

To make the bodice of the sweater, I cut the dress pattern 4 inches from the waist to give it a good length. Then I cut the front piece as directed by the pattern, including the front darts.

I eliminated the zipper on the back piece and simply cut the back on the fold of the fabric. I kept the ⅝ inch seam allows meant for the zipper, as part of the back, to make the sweater a bit baggy and big.

After sewing the darts on the front I sewed the side seams of the bodice at ¾ inch to give it a little bit more room.

Seam Finishing

One thing I didn’t really mention in the video is how I finished the seams. I don’t have a serger so What I did was sew another row of stretch stitching about ⅛ inch from the seam line. Then I cut the seam allowance back as close to this new stitch line as possible.

I used this method for pretty much all interior seams.

Cowl Neckline

The cowl neckline on this pattern was the main reason I choose to use this pattern for this project.

I cut and sewed the cowl neckline as the pattern directed. However, I opted not to include the neckline facing as I was afraid that it would add too much bulk. Thus I just finished the neckline seam with a zigzag stitch and understitch the seam allowance to ensure that it would stay in place.

Adding Cuffs

The cuffs were a sort of hack I decided to add to the sweater. I wanted to give the illusion that the sweater had really long sleeves that were rowed up.

The cuffs were a bit tricky and kind of hard to explain so I do suggest you watch the video to get a better idea of what I did.

Basically I started by measuring the width of the sleeve pattern at the bottom. Then I determined the height I wanted for my cuff and created a rectangular pattern piece.

When making my cuff pattern I forgot that I would end up rolling the cuff, so it would be only half the pattern size. So I ended up cutting the cuff fabric on the fold so that I got the right height for the cuff.

Since I wanted the cuff to look like a long sleeve rolled up I decided I wanted to add a little more bulk to it. For this I decided to add some quilt batting to the cuff.

I attached the cuff to the sleeve at ¾ inch seam. Then on the roll over I attached the other end at a ⅝ inch fold. If this sounds confusing again, I suggest you watch the video for a visual explanation.

Rainbow Shooting Star

Now to really pull off the Mabel look her sweater needed the rainbow shooting star logo on it. To make this I simply took some colored felt I had in my stash.

I used a star cookie cutter to cut out my star. For the rainbow I just sort of free-handed the color rows.

Using a hot glue gun I glued the star and rainbow piece down to a backing of felt. Then I cut the whole thing out and sewed it onto the sweater.

Finishing Touches to Mabel’s Costume

To complete Mabel’s costume I paired the sweater with my purple maroon Delphine Skirt that I made back in September. I also wore white socks with my black Mary Jane shoes. Lastly I added a pink hair scarf. Much like Mabel I wear a lot of scarf headbands.

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Learn the process I went through the make my Gravity Falls’ Mabel Pines sweater using New Look 6145 pattern.

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Akram Taghavi-Burris

designer, writer, educator, tech nerd, crafter, baker, sewer and vintage collector, who Brings Creative & Crazy Ides to Life.

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