How to make a Belle blue dress running costume

A look at how I put together my Belle blue dress running costume:

This year’s Princess half marathon is less than two weeks away. I figured this is a good time to go back and look at the costume I made for last year’s Princess half marathon!

2024 marked 10 years since I started running the Princess race weekend. I’ve now done it every year since then (not counting 2021, when it was virtual only). That first year I ran the Enchanted 10k – my first Disney race and first race longer than a 5k. I didn’t know at that time running would become one of the most important things in my life!

For that race I chose to dress as Belle, as she is one of my favorite princesses. I did a version of her yellow dress. So it seemed only natural that 10 years later, I’d do Belle again – but her blue dress this time!

I was also running this race weekend to raise money for the American Cancer Society as part of Team DetermiNation. When you join the team you get a team shirt, and they have a fun contest to try and incorporate the shirt with your costume. Blue and red are their main colors, so it’s usually a blue shirt. Perfect for Belle!

And while I may not have won the costume contest, I still had a lot of fun putting it together – plus I was featured on the banner image they used for their website (check me out all the way on the right down there!).

All in all, this was a pretty simple costume to put together and comfortable to run in. And I think it was definitely clear who I was supposed to be!

I don’t typically sew my costumes. That’s not a skill I have, so I assemble costumes. I prefer to do that over buying one because it’s unique and personal, and I like doing some crafting! Most of the costumes I share start with a base layer of a shirt/skirt/ etc. Then I add some details here and there.

Here’s how I put together my Belle blue dress running costume!

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As I mentioned, I planned to use my Team DetermiNation blue tank top. You can start with any blue top you may have. Since the blue part of Belle’s dress is sleeveless I think a tank top re-creates the look the best, but it’s really about what you’re comfortable in!

In the movie that blue dress is layered over a long-sleeved white blouse. Depending on the temperature you’re running in, you could easily put a long sleeve white tech shirt under your blue top. Since you can never really predict Florida weather in February, I was prepared with a few options. I did have a white long-sleeve shirt, but I ultimately ended up going with some white arm sleeves to re-create the look while staying a bit cooler in the heat.

I chose a simple blue skirt with built in shorts for the bottom half. You could also do any shorts you like with a glitter skirt over it (I’m a big fan of that look for RunDisney costumes!).

But the real key to a good RunDisney costume is the accessories. To go from vaguely dressing in the same color as a character to really representing that character, just a few good details will take you far!

In this case, it’s the apron and the hair bow. Once you add those pieces, it really gives a “Belle” look. Some people also run holding some simple accessories. In this case, the obvious choices would be a small basket or a book. For a shorter race I might choose a book prop to carry (as a librarian I’m used to carrying books around all the time anyway). But for the half marathon I decided to forgo any additional props.

And that’s really it! My Belle’s blue dress running costume was one of my more simple costumes. I’m happy with how it turned out, and I think it’s pretty easy to replicate!