When my sister decided to throw a tangled party for my niece Elsie’s second birthday she asked if I could help with a dress. The original plan was to just take a Rapunzel dress she already had and alter it to better fit Elsie. After a bit of thought we decided it would be easier to sew something new.

Since the Rapunzel dress is quite detailed I thought I would go for a Tangled inspired dress that would work great for the party but that didn’t require things like embroidery and a corset. Because really a 2 year old would just be happy with a purple dress.

To get the neckline I wanted and the style of dress most similar to Rapunzel’s I knew The Claire dress by Shwin Designs would be perfect as a base with a few modifications.

So off to the fabric store with the kiddos we went and it only took two Cadbury cream eggs to keep them occupied while I picked out fabric. I learned very quickly that Cadbury eggs should never be sold at a fabric store because the mess that resulted required lots of wet paper towels to clean up.

The kids surprising went to bed at 7:00 giving me a perfect time to put the dress together. Because I was modifying a current pattern that was already a quick sew I figured I could knock it out in just over an hour. I started out by tracing the 12-18 month pattern and then went to work modifying the front bodice and one of the skirt pieces.

To add the corset detail to the front bodice I took the front bodice piece and decreased the width, I then cut two mirror images instead of on the fold. I cut a piece of the lighter purple and attached the new front bodice pieces to make the correct size piece to match the lining. The addition of some simple ribbon loops and a piece of cording completed the corset look.

The current sleeves on the dress were the perfect style for what I was going for but the simple addition of adding the ribbon helped it match the inspiration dress a little bit more.

Putting the dress together took quite a bit longer than I thought it would but the finished product was exactly what my vision was.  Even if I did have a reluctant 2 year old who wasn’t interested in posing for pictures at her party 🙂

The best part of it all is that I have a very happy little girl who has the perfect Rapunzel dress for her Tangled party.