Pretty as a Princess - Elsa Costume

This will be my first crossover post- a post which I will be posting on both of my blogs.  I do not plan to do this a lot, but there are certain times it seems fitting and Costumes for Disney is the perfect time.

There are plenty of opportunities to buy costumes and princess dresses at Disney, but the feedback on them is not always positive and let's face it they are expensive. We bought DD a dress the first time we did Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and while I am happy we did it, it is certainly not something we can do every trip.  So I have started crafting my own.

I say "crafting" because sometimes these creations are upcycles and sometimes they are made from scratch.  I have taken a new shine to Thrift stores and the treasures within.  I am working on several costumes for the upcoming holiday (Halloween) which all started with DD wanting to be Elsa for our recent trip to Walt Disney World.

Elsa dresses are ridiculous!  If you can find them they are expensive.  The Disney Store version goes for over $100 on eBay.  So I decided to get crafty.

I managed to find this two piece Jessica McClintock wedding dress at the Salvation Army Thrift Store for $12!!  What a steal!

(Not sure why DD had to make that face) 

You can see it is far too big and shows her belly, but I modified it. 

First I painted the polyester with Tulip soft Fabric Paint in Turquoise (from Michael's).  It painted over the polyester nicely.  

I added various snowflakes to the skirt and more sequins to the top of the dress.  The snowflakes were metal charms I found on eBay and the sequins were from Dollarama.  I sewed the snowflakes on and used my Aleene's Jewel It Embellishing Glue for the sequins. 

I needed to make the top a lot smaller in width, but because I did not want DD's belly to show, I did not have to alter the length at all. Since it was a corset style tie back, I just took out the tie and added Velcro to wrap it snugly around DD's body. To make the straps I used scraps from the cape, made strips and sewed them on.

To make the skirt narrow enough to fit DD It just took the existing darts and made them an inch deeper. (If I were to do this again I think I would cut the skirt down one of the seams and just take the entire seam in. I did this on a future project which I will post soon and it worked much better).  I also hemmed the skirt to fit her. 

To hide DD's belly I added Velcro to the top and the skirt so they would stay "close together". If this was more than a costume I would have done something more permanent, but knowing she would not be wearing this often I knew Velcro would work. 

I found some fabulous organza that had silver snowflakes on it at the local craft store - and I lucked out because it was damaged!  It had a red stain on it that ran through the entire bolt.  However since I planned on cutting it anyways, I know I could work around it.  I bought 2 meters for about $10. 

I cut a large half circle out using a pretty intricate tool - a pencil on a string! It worked perfectly. 

After hemming the edge, I sewed snaps to the cape and the back of the dress.  This allowed us to remove the cape for washing. Finally, we used two white Rainbow Loom bands and sewed them to the cape (an arms length down from the center). This allowed DD to hook the cape on her fingers like Elsa.

The final product....

One more touch was the braid. I knew we were going to Disney in May and that it would be hot.  So I did not want DD to be wearing a scratchy wig all day. Instead I bought an inexpensive wig on eBay and modified it.  I cut it apart and hot glued it to a barrette.  I added some blue and white ribbon and some snowflakes I found on eBay to finish it.  When it came time to wear it we tied DD's hair in a side bun and hid the bun with the braid. 

Here she is with Anna and Elsa striking a pose:

And just the girls...

~Happy Crafting~

Amy