IMO, the villains, male and female, have wonderfully expressive faces that show off well on clothes. Most of the princesses and heroes, on the other hand, don't have nearly the range of expressions. The newer princesses (and Tink) have more options but still not what you get from the villains. The villains often have more colors in their clothing as well which can make them more visually interesting. If you look at the princesses, they have a fairly limited range of colors in their hair, clothes, etc.
That is really cute. Ottobre has something similar for bigger girls that I want to try for Zoe. First I'll have to show it to her to see if she'd actually wear it.
I recently made her a simple shirred summer dress and thought it would be cute to add ruffles on the straps. She still hasn't worn the dress so I may have to replace the straps and see if that makes it more 'her style'.
Well I've now taken the pink skirt apart completely. I worked out some dimensions based on the Tink skirt to test. I'll be trying the pink version again using those dimensions to make one that is longer. I also decided to replace the pink w/roses for more of the striped fabric. I think that will add a nice contrast that was lacking before. Lastly I'll be redoing the rolled edge of some of the pieces with a dark pink. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be more what I envision.