Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your ... dress?

So, back in January of 2011, Disney released a new film, Tangled. And the girls loved it (of course). No prizes for guessing what kind of dresses Auntie Sandra would be making next.

Katie's birthday's in March and Charlotte's is in May, and they both decided that they wanted the same dress.  This is actually quite unusual.  I actually really like Rapunzel's dress.  It's a bit pink for my tastes, but it's not too "princessey"I like the purplely colour (I'm just making up words left, right and centre now) and all the details.  Not quite so keen on the details when I had to incorporate them all.  Snow White and Cinderella were both simple dresses without much detailing, but as computer animation gets better the dresses seem to get more and more elaborate.  I suppose it's because you don't have to keep drawing them all by hand!

I used the same bodice pattern as Snow White and Cinderella, Simplicity 2817 (notice the point at the front of Rapunzel's bodice).  I thought I could change the Snow White sleeves up a bit to make them three-quarter length and put a piece on the front of the bodice like the witch dresses for the lacing on the front.

Only make it a bit smaller and try to line up the ribbons better.  I didn't realise how far out I was at some of the edges until I enlarged that picture.  Or more technically enlarged one of the front of Katie's dress and I decided I couldn't share that with the World!

I had some purple crepe backed satin left over from Katie's witch, so that was going to be the over skirt.  I also got some pink and lilac satin for the bodice and sleeves.  The underskirt proved more problematical.  I wanted something in a similar purple but with a pattern on.  In the end I found some fabric with what seemed to be tinsel running through it.  It was a bit of a pain to sew, but nothing like as bad as organza!  The main problem seemed to be when my needle hit one of the strips of tinsel. It would stretch that strip and pull at the rest of the fabric.  D'oh

I used wide pink ribbon for the stripes on the sleeves.  I managed to find some almost exactly the same colour as the crepe backed satin.  I also found the cute butterfly trim that matched the lilac.  It's not strictly the same as Rapunzel's, but I thought she would approve.  The way I tried to extend the sleeves wasn't great.  It wasn't until after I'd made them and lined them (I think that was the main problem) that I discovered I had a pattern with the exact sleeves I needed.  The witch pattern!  Double d'oh.

Always check what patterns you have at home people!  The sleeves pull a bit funny and don't quite lie right, but neither of the girls seemed to mind.  I'm not looking forward to them getting older and wanting perfection.

You'll notice on the completed bodice that my ribbons line up much better than in the witch dress above.  Please, please notice.  Just don't take too much notice of the point at the front.  Again, I didn't trim it enough so it's quite bulky.  

More trim.  The 'lace' at the bottom and around the neckline is more than double the width showing.  It's got large holes down the centre of it.  I'm not sure if you knit with it or thread ribbon through it, but I thought it worked quite well here.

I seemed to take loads of photos of one of these dresses while making it, but I can only find a few with a child actually in it.  None are very good I'm afraid.  They all involve Katie being her naturally stylish self.

Ah, socks and messy hair.  A killer combination.  How she's going to love these photos when she's older.  If you look carefully, you can see her Rapunzel plait. Blonde plait with brown hair.  You just can't tell it's not natural can you?

This is Katie's cute face.  Terrifying.

And finally

There was a reason for the red hair and cheeks.  She was going to school dressed up for Red Nose Day (Comic Relief).  I'm not sure what the theme was supposed to be that year, but I'm sure a princess dress, red hair and a clown face was appropriate!