Princess Ariel

Princess Ariel - Simplified

Ariel is one of the Disney princesses and in the tale she was a mermaid. For their vacation to Florida, I made identical dresses for my granddaughter, Brooke, and her friend, Jordan. The dresses needed to be cool and comfy for the Florida heat but reflect an Ariel theme. I purchased two basic T-shirts and added a gathered triple-tiered skirt to each. I trimmed the sleeves and neckline with baby ric-rac and machine appliqued a sea horse to the front.
The skirt was made from fat quarters of batik in tropical colors I had in my stash. The first tier was made from 4"x2" strips sewn together on the long side. The second tier was made from a band of fabric decorated with colored ribbons and different sizes of variegated ric-rac. It was sewn perpendicular to the vertical design on the first tier. The third tier was from a wider band of fabric decorated at the hem with polka dot ribbon.

T-shirt dresses are so simple to make! What takes time is the triple-tiered skirt. I recently made a number of T-shirt dresses for the Little Dresses for Africa charity and made them with single tiered gathered skirts to simplify the design. The important thing to remember is that the T-shirt will require you to trim several inches (maybe 4" to 6") from the hem before adding the skirt. Not doing this results in a very long, peculiar shaped T-shirt dress.