Rapunzel Dress (Simplicity 2065)

(Originally published on BurdaStyle 12/10/2015)

My daughter is obsessed with Rapunzel so I decided I would make the Simplicity Rapunzel dress (2065) for her birthday.

A month after her birthday, I finally decided to go back to working on it.

Honestly, this dress was a bit of a hot mess. The instructions were quite lacking, and there were more pattern pieces than were really necessary. I would say, if you have the Elsa Simplicity dress, to use the instructions from that, and omit the tulle, skirt lining, and facing pieces. I nixed the tulle and facing but still did the skirt lining.

Per some reviews that I read, I used the size 5 bodice pieces and the size 4 skirt pieces for my 4 year old, 75th percentile daughter. It fit exactly, so I think it would have been better to do a 5 for the skirt too, or slightly lengthen the 4 skirt.

I didn’t have an eyelet tool, and didn’t think eyelets would work well on the fabric (it’s so easy to create runs in it!), so decided to try doing thread loops instead. They worked ok, but I should have also sewn them into the pink lining part as well as the purple top layer so that it kept the front nice and flat. As a result, it is a bit buckled.

I wasn’t happy with the lace application. I couldn’t get it looking right on the sleeves, and it kept folding up the wrong way on the neckline and waist. At the end of the day I just had to declare that it was a costume and I was DONE with it! And my “client” adores it! (Which is why by the time I got around to taking photos of it, it already had some stains on it 😦 )

Material Notes

Dark purple – Casa Satin, Joann (this has started pilling in some areas 😦 )
Pink – Costume Satin, Joann
White lining – Costume Satin (?), Joann
Lace – Joann
Costume Organza – Joann