Christmas Sneek Peek (princess apron)

I'm very excited to share this dress-up apron with you!  Dragonfly's favorite princess, and the only one she knows by name, is Rapunzel.  She watched Tangled 3 times with her Aunties over Thanksgiving and the princess era was born.  I'm not completely comfortable with buying/making costumes that only apply to a certain character.  Therefore, when I set out to make this dress-up apron, I wanted it to be reminiscent of Rapunzel, but not a clone of her dress so completely as to rule out other "pretends" and characters.  Whether I have succeeded or not has yet to be seen.

 

The apron was built from a yard and a quarter of sparkly purple fabric and a scrap of dark purple fabric.  Additionally, you need 1/2" elastic and basic sewing supplies.  I started with the skirt, a full yard of fabric folded along the bias (?), and rounded the corners a bit before sewing it together with the wrong sides out (don't forget to leave a hole for turning).  Turn the skirt right side out and sew along the edge all the way around to flatten the seams.  Next, sew the 1/2" elastic about an inch from the top edge, stretching the elastic out as you sew to make an even ruffle.

 

For the bodice, create a template for the sweetheart neckline on a piece of cardstock (one regular sized paper is about the right size for the bodice).  Cut out two pieces of fabric to match your template.  Before you sew them together, make the neck piece (don't know what it's called).  I did mine by sewing a piece of dark purple fabric into a tube about 4x longer than I wanted my finished piece to be.  Then, I threaded a piece of elastic through it and sewed it about an inch from each end.  Pin the neck tube in place on the bodice, with the tube sandwiched between the layers.  Sew the bodice pieces together (right sides together), leaving the bottom open.  Turn the whole piece right side out (and hopefully your neck strap will be on the outside of your piece), poke out the seams, and top stitch the sides and top to make it lay flat.  Center your finished bodice on the skirt and sew in place, maintaining the ruffle.  Lastly, either put some ties on the ends of the skirt or some velcro (which is what I did) to finish the apron.

Hopefully, what I have written makes sense.  Here are a few of my inspirations and tutorials which explain the methods better.

Elastic Apron Bands
Bodice (also, she has aprons for all the Disney princesses)