Shhhh....don't tell my girls.

Remember how I can never make up my mind about anything? Yes, well, I'm once again asking for opinions to help me make up my mind. I'm planning on making Elena and Isabel dress-up clothes for Christmas (I know, I know, that's all I ever do is sew--but really, I loved dress-up clothes as a kid, and still do in fact. And they play with the ones they do have all the time.) So what dresses do you think I should concentrate my efforts into? Bear in mind that I have a limited amount of time, money, and most of my fabric I have stashed is DI curtains, bedsheets, etc.

Now this dress, I love, from Sense and Sensibility, and I plan on making it someday for a nice church dress, (when I can afford fabric instead of my DI tablecloths and curtains) but that doesn't mean I can't make it as a dress-up dress too right?

I love these ones, but they look pretty time intensive. Plus I'd have to find something to puff out that skirt.

These are costume patterns so they shouldn't be too hard, right? I would have loved this dress as a girl.

I really think this is at the top of my list right now. It's got kind of a Rapunzel look--that's what Isabel say's she wants, a Rapunzel dress. There are actual Rapunzel dresses, but personally I think her dress is kind of blah.

Adorable, but given my constraints of time and money, this might have to wait a bit. (Not too long though, Elena will be out of it's sizing in a year or two).

Same idea but the working girl version. Again, not likely to make the cut this time I'm thinking.

This might be perfect, except that I don't think I have any appropriate fabric. I bought mostly fancy odds and ends. It certainly would be nice because of the easiness of it all.

I am definitely going to make a cape. (Another thing I secretly crave to wear everyday--how would that look, me out at Macy's in a long burgundy velvet cape doing my grocery shopping?) It will be easy to make and fast. Plus my neighbor, Natalie just made a gorgeous cape for her little boy Joshua--he's going to be King Arthur--the one in the top right-hand corner in the picture below. And my girls were going crazy for their own.

I bought some black velvet curtains at a garage sale this summer for four dollars and if I have enough of it, I think that's what I'll use. So my question on this one is, should I make the first Mccall's pattern or the second Simplicity one? I love that white cape in the Simplicity pattern, I just don't think I'll have enough fabric of the black velvet. I do have these gold curtains that might work and I may have enough, but it's really, really light-weight material. Hmmm....

So, no telling my kids, alright? And give me your opinion. I'm almost finished Lindsay's and Sterling's costumes, and then I only have all of my kids' costumes to sew, so I'm almost ready to start sewing these? Right?? Ha. I will start cutting the pattern pieces out though while I'm at my girls' gym class.

Oh, and my other question is, should I make these easy to get into and out of--using velcro, or should I just keep the buttons or zippers like the patterns call for?