More Frozen: Costumes for Elsas

2 Elsa dolls

The Elsa costume actually came first.  Many years ago, my sister had sheer fabric with flocked snowflakes draped around her bedroom windows.  When she got tired of the snowflake motif, she passed it on to me.  I made these curtains with it. 

Snowflake curtains. Fun for cats to pretend to be brides with

I had been charmed by the idea that these curtains would make it look like it was snowing since we usually get very little snow around here (compared to Western PA, for instance)  And then we had the winter of 2013-2014. We were socked with unrelenting snowiness from November to the end of March.  (Most of the time I count on the first real snow to come around my birthday in the third week of January and it's always gone by St. Patrick's Day.)

After a winter like that, I didn’t hesitate to channel my inner Maria von Trapp and make clothes out of  snowflake curtains.  (I suspect the charm of snowflakes as a motif will probably be lost on me for years to come.)

So my design ideas started with the curtains.  I thought if I made Elsa’s cape removable, the girls could just wear the blue dress as a generic princess costume rather than being limited to performing Frozen. 

I found these old buttons in my grandmother’s collection.  They were kind of snowflakey (and by now are probably antiquey too)  The cape can be buttoned on or off.  I used a tiny iridescent rick rack to trim the gown and the cape to give it a little shine.  

Snowflakey button and iridescent rick rack trim

 I left a couple of one-inch sections of rick rack unstitched on either side of the cape as to serve as buttonholes so the cape can doubled up and shortened if the long train is getting in Elsa’s way. 

Doubled up snowflake cape

The gown is McCall’s M5498   without the peplum or scarf.  I like the nice A-line it provides. 

Lily lets it go.

As you can see, Lily can completely channel the Elsa attitude. I would not mess with her. I made both costumes approximately the same size so they can take turns being each princess.  Their mother assures me Maggie will never get to be Elsa until Lily outgrows that costume.

Let it go! (Eat your heart out Adele Dazim!)

Here is the doll’s matching gown, complete with tiny buttons at the shoulders.  I used Butterick 5661 for it. 

Elsa for 18" doll

Here again are the 2 Elsa dolls:

Lily and an 18" doll whose name I don't know.

Maggie just needs a white streak in her hair and the two of them are dead ringers for the sisters in Frozen.

Annas and Elsa. Do you want to build a snowman?

Succumbing to the Lure of Frozen: Anna Costumes

A couple of months ago during the great Frozen obsession of the winter of 2013-14, a former colleague sent out an SOS on Facebook.  Did anyone have an Elsa costume that they could lend her for some special showing of the movie that she was taking her daughters to?  I didn’t have an Elsa costume just lying around, but was inspired to make one for Lily, whose birthday was coming up.    

As everyone knows, Frozen is about two sisters who happen to be princesses.   That gave me an opportunity to make a coordinating costume for Maggie.  And, as usual, if I make an outfit for the girls, I would make matching ones for their dolls.  

 So here’s Anna, the little sister.  (I’ll share Elsa next time)

Two Annas

This project took some research.  I looked for images on line but there seemed to be quite a few outfits on these princesses.  I broke down and streamed the movie to figure out which costumes were most emblematic of the characters.  Anna has an adorable costume that had this lovely floral trim around the hem.  I didn't have anything similar sitting around, so I substituted this snowflake fabric. 

Anna's dress and Cape

For the cape, I used purple velour that my sister had given me to make costumes for the girls.  (She had planned to make a princess dress with it. So a princess cape is close enough.)  I didn't have a pattern for this two-layered cape, and if I had to do it again, I would make it shorter to be more like the movie.
I loved the detail of the ball fringe in the movie.  Pity the poor animator who was in charge of keeping those balls bouncing!  I actually did have ball fringe on hand, but it was hot pink and lime green, so that was one of the few things I had to hunt down at a local discount fabric store.  The gold trim isn't really kosher, but I thought a princess cape should have a little bling. 

Cape with dress

The doll outfit is very similar.  I substituted rick rack for the ball fringe at this scale because I couldn't find any that was tiny enough. The velvet I used in the bodice was too heavy for this little doll dress, so I used some satin left over from the Sleeping Beauty costume.

Anna costume for dollies

The dolly ensemble

As soon as she tried it on, Maggie wanted to go outside and play in this outfit.  I guess she liked it. 

Two Anna Dollies