🕯️ Cinderella (Grimm Brothers, 1812)
After her mother dies, a devout young girl named Cinderella prays every day at her grave beneath a hazel tree in the forest. Her father remarries a cruel woman with two daughters who mock Cinderella, dress her in rags, and force her to sleep in the ashes by the hearth.
When the king announces a three-day royal festival to find a bride for the prince, Cinderella begs to attend. Her stepmother agrees—on the condition that she completes impossible tasks. With help from magical birds at her mother’s grave, she finishes them all.
The birds reward her with a gown spun of silver and gold, and golden slippers.
Each night, Cinderella dances with the prince, leaving before he learns her name. On the third night, the prince lays pitch on the palace steps and her golden slipper sticks.
He travels the kingdom, searching for the maiden it fits. The stepsisters, desperate, cut off parts of their feet—one her toe, the other her heel—to try to deceive him. But the birds cry out the truth, and blood betray their lies.
At last, Cinderella tries on the slipper. It fits, and the prince knows she is his true bride.
At the wedding, doves peck out the stepsisters’ eyes as punishment for their cruelty.
Thus, Cinderella rose from ashes to crown—by patience, sorrow, and justice.
I printed this fabric using transfer paint and laid it underneath templates of a peace bird.
These Skirts reflect a fairy-tale in the dark wood theme.

