Merida Princess Dress

It makes me really happy that Elena loves Merida from Brave. Merida is such a spunky character and a nice strong princess in a world of princesses who too often are waiting to be rescued. Elena has been asking for a Merida dress for months so I finally made something.

I wanted to stay somewhat neutral so it could be more multi-purpose so I went to Joann's and bought some navy blue panne stretch velvet. I think that's what they call it. I call it crushed velvet. I used Craftiness is not Optional's trusty Nessie top pattern lengthened to a dress. The Nessie already has a swingy shape so I just continued the same angle down to the length I wanted.  I also went with long sleeves and flared them out from the elbow down to be just a little bit bell-shaped.

I made separate "cuffs" like Merida has at the elbows with some cream cotton lycra and more of the crushed velvet. Again, going for versatility. The wig is from Target to complete the Merida look.

Elena has been living in this dress. The girl who formerly didn't wear clothes in the house or to bed, now lives in this thing in it's stripped down plain version. Notice in the picture below that she was watching Brave, again. This was the first try-on so it isn't hemmed yet on the bottom or sleeves. She wouldn't take it off to do that until later that night, and only with tears. Aww.

I had more crushed velvet in my stash so I made a second one. I made this one about 2 inches shorter because the original is a tad scary with her running up and down the 3 levels of this house. She still prefers the blue, but wears the red when the blue is in the wash. She evens wears them to bed. Soft, cozy nightgowns.

How's that for versatility? She can be any princess/queen she can imagine or Merida. We also bought Merida's bow and (suction cup) arrows with a quiver. She did wear this for Halloween but 15 minutes before Trick or Treating started she said she wanted to be Sophia the First. I said it's too late to change your mind now. She said she would pretend to be Sophia. So every door we went to that someone said something like, "Oh you're that girl from Brave. What's her name?" Elena said, "I'm Sophia." Whatever. I got tired of explaining the mind of the 3 year old.