I used the Butterick 6630 pattern as a starting point. I made this costume in two pieces: a dress and a coat.
For the dress, I purchased a deep purple jacquard satin fabric with a floral theme, along with a lilac satin for the swags across the front of the dress. The swags are gathered pinned to the dress with handmade sun brooches. It's quite a simple dress since I plan to wear the coat over it most of the time. It features an empire waist and puff sleeves. There is a short sweep train in the back.
The sun brooches have been handcrafted from gold Sculpey and cut with a sun cookie cutter. Red opal dragon's breath cabochon stones are the center jewel. They have pins on the back for easy attachment/removal.
The coat's main fabric is a purple-y stretch taffeta. The puff and slash sleeves are accented with light pink glitter satin. Light pink organza makes up the rest of the sleeve, while remnants from the dress make the wrist cuffs. The bodice slash front uses the same lilac satin as the skirt swags. I hand embroidered the trim on the skirt of the coat, and used extra fabric from the dress for the ruffles at the bottom. The dress is embellished with light purple glass pearls and white organza lace. It opens in the front with hooks, so I can take it off if I get too hot! The coat, like the dress, has a sweep train in the back. Overall, the dress took more than 55 hours of work to complete!
This was the first wig I styled by myself! It was a pain in the behind to work with such a long wig (40 inches)! I started by separating the bangs, then putting the rest of the wig into a half updo. I used a clip on ponytail to create the bun on top. I teased the center of the bun, clipped the extension over the half updo, then arranged it to look neat and bun-like. I curled the bangs with rollers and a hair dryer. Topping the look off is a gigantic flower that looks like the sun flower from the movie!
In December 2015, I restyled the wig, mainly to add lights since Rapunzel's hair glows in the movie when she sings! I first washed out the old styling. I then took apart the ponytail clip and harvested the wefts. I used wefts to cover thin spots on the half ponytail, and to fix the part between the ponytail and the bangs. I stubbed the ponytail, and used a Styrofoam ball to make the bun. I first covered the bun in LEDs, then added the remaining wefts harvested from the ponytail clip. I left a space for the flower to be glued on, then glued it all to the stubbed ponytail. I added a string of LEDs to the wig cap with hot glue, and then added three more LED strands to hang down the back of the hair. The battery packs will rest in a pocket sewn in the overcoat.
