Halloween Princesses

Last year was Abby’s first year Trick-or-Treating.  It left such an impression on her that she talked about “getting candy for her pumpkin” all.year.long.  So she was super excited to learn that yes, Halloween did come again!

I asked her what she wanted to be.  She said “I want to be a princess like Foofa” – which, if you haven’t seen or heard of Yo Gabba Gabba! you’re missing out.  In the Halloween episode Foofa is a fairy princess.  A few weeks later, she very specifically told me she wanted a “purple princess costume.”  Well.  There you go.  I was sort of hoping for a superhero but what can you do.  A purple princess it is.

I knew this year I wanted to make her costume – so long as she didn’t ask for anything too elaborate, haha.  And while a princess wouldn’t have been my first choice for her, I knew it would be a fairly easy costume to make.  I soon found out that Christina’s little girl, Sydney, also wanted to be a princess for Halloween.  And, since I was in the crafty/creative mood, I volunteered to make her a dress too!  Yep.  Two princess dresses.  I went to Joann’s and got lucky in finding some great pink princess dress remnants.  But I had to buy Abby’s purple princess fabric full price – which…nothing is ever really full price at Joann’s, since, I used a coupon!  Anyway, supplies and all I think I spent maybe $25 for BOTH dresses.  And if you think about what they charge for those Disney princess flimsy fabric costumes, this was a deal!

Here is what I used:

2yds of fabric per dress (1yd of each color) – this is probably a generous amount, but since this was my first attempt at princess dress-making, I wanted to make sure I had extra in case I mis-cut something (which, I did!) 

Gold Ribbon (for both dresses)

Pink Ribbon (for both dresses)

Matching bias tape (one for each dress)

Matching thread (one for each dress)

Velcro (for the back closure)

 

I did a lot of web and Pinterest searches for princess dress tutorials.  It was tough at first, because I couldn’t seem to find one that had everything I wanted for the dress.  So, I decided to mix & match two of them. 

I made the front of the bodice from this tutorial: Rapunzel

I made the back and the sleeves from this one: Cinderella

And, I pretty much winged the skirt – but I followed the second tutorial mostly for construction ideas. 

The whole process was much easier than I thought it would be.  It was a little tough working with the satin, but, I figured, since these dresses were meant for 3 year olds, they weren’t going to be critiqued too harshly! 

They came out SUPER cute and I felt very “domestic” that I was able to create something so fun!