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

Cat's Pyjamas and More Poodle-less Poodle Skirts

Maggie & Lily model their cat pjs

Honestly, I have been making stuff since my last post in November. I just haven’t been writing about it.  I have a lot of catching up to do here!  I am also thinking about doing a TBT entry each Thursday to show stuff I have made in the past.  (Maybe I will go all the way back to my 8^th grade graduation dress…hmmmm)  Today’s throwback only goes back to November.

 

 When I left off, I had sent a package to Lily and Maggie with poodle-less poodle skirts.  I also made them cat pajamas which I thought were the “cat’s pyjamas.“ Maggie and Lily liked them enough to model them.  (along with a little stuffed cat.  They really want a cat.  Their mother really doesn’t want one)

 

Little cat pajamas. Lily:pink, Maggie: blue

Of course the American Girl dolls and Raggedies couldn’t be left out, so they got cat pajamas too. 

Tracing the smaller cat applique on my "light box"

And if twirly poodle-less skirts are good enough for the girls, they are good enough for the dollies too.   I had a pattern for 18” doll poodle skirt, but I wanted to replicate the appliqués from the full-size skirts.  How to downsize the appliqué pattern to the right proportions for dolls?

Since I had photographs of the finished child-sized skirts, I simply put them into a photo editor and sized them to fit the doll skirts.  Then I taped tissue paper to my monitor and traced the pictures turning the screen into a makeshift light box. 

 

Voila! 

Just like the ones Maggie and Lily have.

Victorian Ensemble for Dollies

Gown, underthings, muff and hooded coat

After making the Colonial doll clothes I was inspired to move up a century and make a Victorian ensemble. 

Undershirt and pantaloons

This pattern included lovely underwear that I trimmed with lavender beribboned laces.  There was no corset or bustle with this outfit, but I doubt the doll minds.

I went into my stash for another tiny calico print and came upon this pale blue fabric with royal blue and hot pink flowers among green leaves.  This is a fairly plain skirt and blouse, which is probably a reasonable every-day garment.

Muff and hooded velvet coat

It was this hooded coat that really inspired me to make a Victorian outfit.  How could I resist making a matching muff?  I had such fun plucking this deep green cotton velvet from my stash, discovering a pretty blue polyester lining fabric and putting together the pink and blue trim to coordinate with the pink and blue of the dress.

Back hood detail

Here, a dolly models the ensemble

Undies, dress and coat with muff

Next up for these dolls?  Something from the 20^th century?

Felicity's Colonial Dress (with bumroll!)

Several years ago, my cat Felicity sent a little American Girl doll  to Maggie and Lily because the doll shared her name.  (Fergus sent them his namesake Tank Engine too.)  The Felicity doll’s story is set in the American colonial period, so she seemed especially appropriate to send as a gift from Philadelphia where there is so much rich history of the American colonies and the Revolutionary War. 

Sadly, American Girl has retired Felicity. I decided that Lily and Maggie needed some Colonial dress-up clothes for their American Girl-sized dolls. (Or possibly their Raggedies) .   I love the process of making doll clothes.  I first learned to sew making outfits from commercial patterns for my Velvet and Mia dolls. 

I think you can really learn to appreciate history when you look at the clothing and learn about the lives of women and girls of the past.  When I was in grade school, I made Pilgrim and Native American clothes for Velvet and Mia for a school project. I don’t remember much else from 5^th grade, but I do remember researching and making those costumes.

Mop cap, bodice, skirt, bumroll, shawl, pantaloons and apron

I used McCall’s pattern3627  and dug into my stash to find a suitable tiny print for the skirt and bodice.  I think I bought this pink beribboned fabric in the 1980s when I was working at So-Fro.  I had some tiny lace in my collection and even found a pink one to use on the edge of the sleeve.

Historically accurate bumroll, apron & shawl. Not pantaloons. 

I love this pattern because it includes under- garments. When we were kids, it seemed like there was never enough underwear for all the dollies.  Not only did this have not-exactly-historically-accurate pantaloons, but the pattern included a bum roll which really gives the skirt an historic shape.  (The pantaloons would have been crotchless to be historically accurate.  I am not sure Lily and Maggie would be all that impressed by that kind of authenticity)

Detail of bumroll shaping

Princess-seamed bodice with pink lace and waist point.

Here is a close-up of the bodice which has princess seaming and comes to this tiny point at the waist. The skirt is actually attached to an under-bodice which, while not historically accurate, makes the outfit work better for the doll.  And let’s face it, there is not going to be a lot of historically accurate play here.  So that skirt can also be worn as a modern-day jumper if one were so inclined.

The outfit is topped off with an apron, shawl and mop cap.  I made the cap reversible from plain white with a pink bow to pink with a blue bow.  Apparently I am still channeling Sleeping Beauty.

The girls were delighted to have new outfits for their dolls.  You can really never have enough doll clothes.   I am so grateful to my sisters who had daughters I could sew doll clothes for.

Here is one of Lily’s dolls modeling the finished product along with the back view of the outfit (including the reverse of the mop cap.)   

It wasn't long before a Raggedy was wearing this outfit.

Raggedy Sleeping Beauty

American Girl-sized doll modeling PINK!

Last year, my niece Maggie had a princess-themed birthday party.  My sister (Borg #7 of 8) had recently introduced her to Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. It’s one of my favorite Disney princess movies despite its lack of a feminist message. It has that glorious Tchaikovsky-inspired score, beautifully designed backgrounds and the most terrifying Disney villain of all: Maleficent. Of course best of all is her beautiful PINK gown. 

Obviously, I take the side of Flora, one of the 3 fairies who raise Aurora secretly in their little cottage in the woods.  Borg # 7 of 8, however, sides with Meriweather who insists the dress should be blue.   

 

Out of print. New version available

I had this pattern in my collection and decided to make the Sleeping Beauty gown for Maggie’s American Girl doll.  In light of the controversy. It made sense to me to make a reversible version of the dress so that Flora and Meriweather could each have her way. 

I found perfect fabrics for it in the Jo-Ann Halloween collection – two tones of each color with glitter embedded in the fabric. I made two dresses separately and then attached them when I applied the collar.  I simply folded up the hems of the sleeves and sewed those together along with the hem of the skirt.  (I skipped the ribbon along the hem because it is not authentic to the dress in the film.) The back is closed with strips of Velcro. 

 

Meriweather (and Borg #7 of 8) say "Blue!"

I think the dress came out beautifully and thought it would be fun for Maggie to switch back and forth between pink and blue.   

Flora and I say "PINK!"

What I didn’t anticipate was that she decided her Raggedy Maggie needed to wear this dress.  The size is actually fairly close, but Raggedy hands are somewhat bigger than American Girl hands and I imagine by now the dress looks a bit more like Cinderella’s rags than Sleeping Beauty’s beautiful 16^th birthday present gown.

Maggie with her reversible Raggedy Sleeping Beauty

Fergus provided inspection services, although from this picture, it appears he is considering trying on the gown himself.  I had no idea he was interested in cross dressing.  But really, who can resist a beautiful princess costume?

Fergus would have tried it on if only he had opposable thumbs. 

Simplicity has re-printed this Disney Princess pattern as #1581.  Get it while it's hot!  (Or wait til it goes on sale for $1.99 at a large crafts & fabric chain)