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