Raggedy Sleeping Beauty

American Girl-sized doll modeling PINK!

Last year, my niece Maggie had a princess-themed birthday party.  My sister (Borg #7 of 8) had recently introduced her to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. It’s one of my favorite Disney princess movies despite its lack of a feminist message. It has that glorious Tchaikovsky-inspired score, beautifully designed backgrounds and the most terrifying Disney villain of all: Maleficent. Of course best of all is her beautiful PINK gown. 

Obviously, I take the side of Flora, one of the 3 fairies who raise Aurora secretly in their little cottage in the woods.  Borg # 7 of 8, however, sides with Meriweather who insists the dress should be blue.   

 

Out of print. New version available

I had this pattern in my collection and decided to make the Sleeping Beauty gown for Maggie’s American Girl doll.  In light of the controversy. It made sense to me to make a reversible version of the dress so that Flora and Meriweather could each have her way. 

I found perfect fabrics for it in the Jo-Ann Halloween collection – two tones of each color with glitter embedded in the fabric. I made two dresses separately and then attached them when I applied the collar.  I simply folded up the hems of the sleeves and sewed those together along with the hem of the skirt.  (I skipped the ribbon along the hem because it is not authentic to the dress in the film.) The back is closed with strips of Velcro. 

 

Meriweather (and Borg #7 of 8) say "Blue!"

I think the dress came out beautifully and thought it would be fun for Maggie to switch back and forth between pink and blue.   

Flora and I say "PINK!"

What I didn’t anticipate was that she decided her Raggedy Maggie needed to wear this dress.  The size is actually fairly close, but Raggedy hands are somewhat bigger than American Girl hands and I imagine by now the dress looks a bit more like Cinderella’s rags than Sleeping Beauty’s beautiful 16^th birthday present gown.

Maggie with her reversible Raggedy Sleeping Beauty

Fergus provided inspection services, although from this picture, it appears he is considering trying on the gown himself.  I had no idea he was interested in cross dressing.  But really, who can resist a beautiful princess costume?

Fergus would have tried it on if only he had opposable thumbs. 

Simplicity has re-printed this Disney Princess pattern as #1581.  Get it while it's hot!  (Or wait til it goes on sale for $1.99 at a large crafts & fabric chain)