A is for Ariel and Her Pink Dress

A is for Ariel and Her Pink Dress

To start off my A to Z series of Pattern Picks for making costumes based on specific characters, there’s, of course, Ariel for the letter A.

The Little Mermaid was by far my favorite Disney movie growing up. Honestly, it still probably is. Now, while the Pink dress isn’t the most -iconic- costume from the movie…it’s one of my favorites. Also, I have the perfect pattern that you should use if you want to make this costume a reality for yourself.

The Simplicity Pattern 1728 is an almost SPOT ON design to the dress that Ariel wears to dinner with Eric. Granted, you will have to make some slight changes to the layout, but they will be so easy to do. While looking through the directions to this pattern, I learned that the outfit is made as two separate pieces even though the back of the envelope doesn’t really allude to that. So, making the skirt properly just got 10 times easier.

Simplicity Pattern 1728 for making Ariel's Pink DressChanges that you need to make to the pattern

First off, would be the skirt…You will have to make the skirt twice, once with your Pink fabric and again with your white fabric. My idea would be to have the seam in the front of the skirt for the pink one and leave it open to allow for draping in the back.  I would suggest just laying them out on your mannequin and going at it free handed. I do plan on making this costume one day, so I hope to make a tutorial to show how I did it.

Secondly, I don’t remember the back of Ariel’s dress, but I seriously doubt you need that huge bow. There are dresses, like Cinderella’s, that does have a large bow like that, but I think that this dress for Ariel is an exception. Plus…what a pain to have on your back while you’re sitting and eating with a Prince, right? No…seriously.

And lastly, the sleeves will need some changes made. I have seen the puffs done in a couple of different ways, with the cutouts done and another white puff sleeve underneath it…which would obviously be the harder route…I’d prefer to make it more simple and I would do over appliques of the white fabric on top of the pink puffs. Just put some interfacing to the white fabric, cut out the shapes, and sew them in place along the edges on the sleeves. Obviously…try this one a scrap piece before hand…no use in testing something out on your almost finished project…just to find out that it didn’t work out and you ruined your piece.

Of Course, You Need Fabric, Too

I decided that, with the options of fabric types on the pattern envelope, that I would probably go with the shinier option of satin. Now, with my measurements, my size would call for around 10 yards of fabric…not including enough to make a whole second skirt. So, if you don’t find a fabric that is cost-efficient, this is going to be an expensive costume. I, however, think I found the jackpot on Amazon…

The pink outer fabric

The pink lining

White for the skirt

Not to mention, you also need to acquire things like elastic and boning and the such, but mostly all of this you can use coupons for at your local craft stores because they’re normally regularly priced products.


Well, that’s what I’ve got…I hope this helps with creating your own Pink dress of Ariel’s from The Little Mermaid. I finally got the chance to bring this to life, you can see the blog post here!

 

Save

We want to hear from you!