The Inevitable Elsa Dress

When you have a little girl firmly in the Disney princess stage, an Elsa dress was always an inevitability.

I'd been promising to make her one for ages and invitation to a Frozen party was just the excuse to finally get around to making it. Of course having a sewing deadline during report writing time wasn't exactly ideal, but I got it done.

I used my faithful Tinny dress by Straightgrain as the starting point. I used the Jaanu bodice as a bit a guideline and cut the Tinny bodice into the two parts.  I also added the long sleeve from the Ishi dress and used the longest circle skirt from the Tinny pattern with the size 5 at the waist. It all went together beautifully which was good as I didn't have time to make a muslin. I found this great Michael Miller fabric range called fairy frost and it was perfect for the Elsa dress.

I found this fabulous sheer fabric from Spotlight ages ago ready for the Elsa dress I would one day make. I had originally planned to sew it into the bodice and yoke seams but I wasn't sure how it was going to wash and last so instead I decided to make a separate cape. I was under strict instructions to make the cape "super long" so I used the full length of fabric and just eye-balled cutting it out without a pattern piece.  I sewed it into a detachable peter pan collar and used velcro to close the collar.  I think it's turned out to be the right decision. When she gets tired of the cape she can take it off and it's easy to put it back on.

She absolutely loves it and hasn't taken it off all weekend, even during a trip to the supermarket (without the cape that is, I'm not that patient). She's already talking about having a Belle, Moana and Rapunzel dress so I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me. At least then this dress will have a chance of being washed...