Rapunzel Dress!

As I was talking to my girls about Christmas, they both told me that they wanted a princess dress! I knew I wanted to get an Elsa dress for Chi, and Luz told me she wanted a Rapunzel dress. After looking at Target and Amazon, I decided on this dress for Chi (I do not regret it -- it's great!). But Rapunzel. *Sigh* NONE of the dresses I found (not even the expensive ones!) looked ANYTHING like the dress in the movie. So, I decided to make her one. 

I based my dress off of this tutorial from Make it and Love it, this tutorial from Homemade Toast, and the look of this Simplicity pattern. Bascially, I like the look of the pattern (but am too cheap to pay $15 for a pattern), the details in the Make it and Love it tutorial, and the comfort of the Homemade Toast dress (more on that later). Here is what I came up with:  =)

 Here is the comfort part. Most dresses have a zipper (which I am secretly afraid of sewing anyway...) but the Homemade Toast dress used shirring. Have you ever tried it? Basically you sew with regular thread on top, and elastic thread in the bobbin. Then you sew row after row until you have a nice stretchy swatch of fabric! Easy, and comfy. Just like little girl dresses should be.

I am so happy with it!  And Luz loves to twirl in it!

Since Luz knew all about the dress (I made her try it on many times to check fit), I wanted her to have a little surprise on Christmas morning, so I made a matching dress for her doll. Nothing fancy. I shirred a little swatch of fabric for the bodice, and a little tube for the skirt. For the sleeves, I just used some pink elastic I had as little straps, and tied a little bow at the neck to match Luz's lacing. Easy. And who doesn't love being matchy-matchy with their doll?

I love this little Rapunzel!!!

Part princess, part goof ball!