Jacquelyn Elizabeth Long

Disney’s 1964 film Mary Poppins is a favorite of mine, and I’ve been thinking about the dress Julie Andrews wore during the “Jolly Holiday” scene since I was a child. For Halloween in 2025, my partner and I dressed up as Bert and Mary, fulfilling a childhood dream!

With limited resources and time, I knew I was never going to be able to completely recreate such a beautiful ensemble by costume designer Tony Walton. My goal was to be as faithful to the colors, textures, and silhouette as I could within my tight budget and time frame.

I started by visiting thrift stores. I found a dress similar to the image below, and used it as the base of my costume.

I seam-ripped the lace to remove it from the bodice. I originally intended to remove the bodice completely and only use the skirt, but that would have been unnecessarily time-consuming for this project.

Next, I cut the hemline down to tea-length. The poly chiffon was slippery, and I do not have a rolled hem foot, but I did have quite a bit of spare lace trim. I opted to finish the hems of both the lining and the outer chiffon layer with the trim.

To help create volume and shape, I added a petticoat I had laying around (as seen in my ren faire outfit), as well as a red skirt I made from a thrifted red dress (also trimmed with lace, for consistency). The real dress includes layers of red in the skirt that really pop when Mary Poppins dances, and it’s one of my favorite details. I hand sewed bows of red ribbon to the outer layer, and the skirt was completed.

I purchased this shirt from an online thrift store. No shirt was exactly what I was looking for, but I chose this one as it was sheer, and had a collar I liked. I hand sewed red ribbon to the cuffs and the collar.

To create the ruffles on the front of the bodice, I used the leftover skirt fabric. I sewed two long rectangles with one curved end together (with the lace trim in-between), and turned them inside out. From there, I gathered the fabric at the center to create ruching, and sewed one more layer of lace ribbon on top.

The blouse appeared whiter in the listing online, but ended up being off-white, meaning it didn’t quite match the skirt. Truthfully, this drove me nuts, but you have to know when to move on!

With a corset (purchased online) and a parasol (borrowed from a friend), the look was completed!

Most of my partner’s outfit was purchased online, but I did thrift the pants and shoes for him, and I sewed him a pocket square made from leftover skirt fabric and the last of the lace trim. Additionally, I hot-glued cardboard to his hat to give it some structure, as it was originally rather sad and floppy.

I had about 15 hours to complete this project, including the time spent gathering materials. I am proud of what I accomplished in that amount of time. The most wonderful part was how much fun I had doing it! My partner and I ended up winning best couple’s costume at the Halloween party we attended, too!