Hello friends, I’ve missed you! I hope you had a fabulous week filled with a wonderful Easter weekend and other spring goodness. I’ll go more into my mini blog hiatus tomorrow, but for today, let’s dive into this glamorous number, shall we?
Not your average Easter dress, right? As a matter of fact, she was forbidden to gather eggs while wearing the dress due to its ridiculously long cape that was sure to result in injuries, but when K first came out of the house wearing it, the dress elicited a collective intake of awed gasps from her egg hunt buddies.
I drafted the entire outfit myself, and I’m mighty proud of the fit. This is actually a muslin for several reasons. First, I wasn’t sure how the dress would come together since there was a lot of guesstimating going on. Second, I discovered that the silver spandex-y jersey has a weird tendency of generating runs (like a snagged pantyhose). I told K they look like icicles, but they’re quite unprofessional-looking. Third, I was a bit confused about how to attach the cape, and though it turned out all right by simply zig zag stitching this stretchy poly knit onto the bodice, I’m wondering if there’s a better way.
You can see the runs in this close-up:
I added the sparkly sequined neckline I repurposed from a top that definitely belongs on Dancing with the Stars to detract from that snaggly part of the bodice, and I seem to have succeeded because K LOVES this dress. Guess which song she’s belting out here? She’s in full character, I tell you (she wants a blond braided wig, naturally, but I nixed that idea).
Seriously, way into it.
The dress is mostly made from stash fabrics. The glitter portion of the bodice has a suede-like backing, and I was surprised by how much it stretched and unraveled at the same time. I currently have glitter all over the house because of that bodice. The skirt is made from icy blue velvet, and I barely had enough to construct the skirt and had to actually modify my pattern pieces to make it work. For the cape, I toyed with the idea of painting snowflakes onto a pale blue sheer polyester fabric, but JoAnn’s had this sparkly turquoise knit that seemed passable (and far less work). It was a little tricky attaching it in a way that the invisible zipper in the back would still function and still look neat, but again, I got lucky.
It’s actually a very simple dress to make. I based it loosely on a knit dress I made eons ago for the upper body/sleeve sections, and then just eyeballed everything else. What helped was that K was more than willing to do multiple fittings for me for adjustments and tweaks, and it all came together just in time for Easter. I’d like to say this was part of my KCW sewing, but nope. KCW was a bust for me, sadly.
It’s funny, when I first showed K the fabrics I planned on using, she said it didn’t look enough like Elsa’s dress, so I agreed to just make a muslin from those fabrics, and we actually went to JoAnn’s for her to handpick the perfect Frozen dress materials.
I’ve already started working on Frozen dress #2 with K’s selections, but it’s not going as well as I’d hoped (cheap, faux-silk polyester slips like crazy) and after a quick glance at my work-in-progress, K has decided she likes the muslin better, which she’s been wearing at every opportunity. Hmmmm…..if I get #2 working, I’ll try to do a tutorial here.
Making this dress has made me extremely popular among the girls in the neighborhood, and I have one happy little ice queen.
Also! I thoroughly enjoyed reading all 99 comments about things that you would never find boring. The winners are Marta and Amber, and you both should have received emails from me already. Hooray!
Ooooh, a tutorial would be lovely. My daughter also loves Frozen in a way she has never loved any movie or character before, and I have been thinking about making her the ice queen dress sometime between now and her birthday or Hallowe’en. Your version is tasteful, and has the little touches that match the movie, like the pointy sleeves.
Frozen has really captivated so many, it’s amazing! I’ll see what I can do with the tutorial — you know how I like to overpromise. 😉
This is so great! I made a Frozen dress for my daughter (yet to be blogged) but did it all as a knit – I adapted a t-shirt pattern to have a sweetheart front and back bodice piece, and sandwiched the cape bit in at the back, then sewed an a-line skirt on. The 3 year old has requested snowflakes on the cape, so I’m going to try to stamp them on somehow. She has also begged for a blonde plaited wig. Isn’t it amazing how Elsa has captured the imagination of so many little girls? I haven’t heard of anyone asking for an Anna dress.
Look forward to seeing version #2 and the tutorial.
I saw your stamp on Instagram, Suzy! So cool!! Have you posted the completed dress on IG? Must check out!
Amazing job Sanae! I think you really captured it. In fact, I’m afraid to show my daughter these photos. I can barely sew and I am limiting myself to those non-slinky fabrics for greater chances of success, so a tutorial could be dangerous. I’m just happy to celebrate your Frozen dress!
Ha, shiny and slinky fabrics are the bane of my existence, Max! My zipper was completely skewed on #2 because of that. Thanks for your kind words – it’s Frozen all the time around here!
Oh what a lucky girl. It seems this dress is every girl’s wish this Easter and this one is so beautiful. My granddaughters are asking for braids now (and wouldn’t sit still for hair braiding before Frozen). And your little girl is quickly getting taller, or maybe it is the line of dress. But I am sure you notice it as well, especially looking back on previous posts. I will miss your blog but enjoy your hiatus. Just remember to return!
Oh, I should have been clearer, Karen, sorry! I’m back from the hiatus so you’re not getting rid of me for the foreseeable future 🙂 I just meant I had some thoughts from my break that I’m thinking of sharing. And yes! K is so much taller – she’s going through a major growth spurt right now!
And now I’m humming “Let it go . . . . let it go . . . “:) K makes a beautiful Elsa, and I think the attempt to convince her that the fabric snags look like icicles is just pure genius! You are a good mom, Sanae, to make this for K! Sometimes it’s hard to put aside our own design aesthetic and the things we want to see our kids wear, and to spend precious time sewing what THEY want to wear. In a perfect world, they would be the same thing:) And this dress certainly rocks! I can see why she’s the envy of all the girls in the neighborhood!
I’ve missed your posts this past week, but hoped that you and K were enjoying a lovely week of making memories together. Hope you had a rejuvenating week:)
Haha, I think she barely registered my comments about the icicles, Lucinda — she was so intent on getting the dress on! Never before has she been this excited by something I made. It almost makes me want to make a million Frozen dresses just for that reaction, but I need to be realistic…The week off was great, but I really missed blogging! 🙂
…I want this dress.
🙂
I missed you! So nice to see you back! And with such a beautiful dress! I think I need to go and finally watch that movie so I will know what the hype is all about. Maybe then I TOO want such a dress 😉 Can´t believe you had matching easter eggs!
Aw, thanks Ute! Confession: I haven’t seen the movie yet! M took K for their daddy-daughter time (what a trouper, right?), but I feel like I know it from all the songs and books and youtube video snippets. K found those matching easter eggs to use as props. My clever girl…
K looks gorgeous! I love how the train came out – it looks very true to the movie Elsa’s dress. I’ve seen so many iterations of the Elsa dress lately and I think they all have come out beautifully. My sister-in-law made the train removable with shoulder snaps and her friend did the same thing with the snaps under the arms and on the back along the horizontal seam.
I made an Anna blouse,vest, skirt, cape and hat for my niece of the same name – I had to jazz up the fabric choices so as to compete with her older sister’s Elsa dress! Shiny, poufy and sleek are beautiful but very slippy to sew with! It was all worth it in the end to see how they love wearing them. (Anna even wore her hat to dim sum! – very lol!)
Snaps!! Now, that’s brilliant. I may do that with Frozen dress #2. And I love that you made a gussied up Anna dress! K wants me to also make Elsa’s coronation dress with that magenta cape. I’m still trying to refrain from buying fabric whenever possible, so it might have to be a light pink cape…
I can’t believe I won the book! Thank Sanae!
Your Elsa dress looks great. I can see why you are so popular among the neighbor girls. I know my daughters would love a dress like this!
You’re very welcome, Marta! Heading out your way soon!
love it! this was my more traditional ode to frozen for Easter (skater dress in stretch light blue velvet)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristikopykat/13958568113/#
Happy Easter and we’re glad you’re back from Spring Break! 🙂
Oh, your family looks so sweet, Kristi. I love that photo! Good idea to use the skater dress pattern – another reader mentioned doing that too! I need to go find some stretch light blue velvet…
it’s a fun one. Luckily mine were scraps a friend had given me! 🙂
Ahhhh! We are in this same process. We’ll see how it goes…eep. Love how happy she is with it, major win!
Good luck with your Frozen dress, Monica! I’m almost done with #2…just got the iron on rhinestones to add the requisite sparkles 🙂