Elsa
Miss B celebrated her birthday last week and as part of her present I made her an Elsa (from the Disney movie Frozen) inspired dress. I used the word inspired as costumes in our house need to be practical so they can be worn to the park, to the shops, to dress-up days at kinder/school etc…
After tossing around pattern ideas with a few of my sewing peeps, I settled on Figgy’s Seraphic Raglan as a base pattern.
I made a the following sleeve and bodice adjustment to the size 4/5:
- I removed 3 inches from the sleeve length (we are a family of short arms!)
- I reduced the width of the arm (this pattern is very boxy and probably designed for a unisex fit)
- I shortened the bodice so that the side seams on the front and back pattern piece measured 4 inches
The skirt on the dress is a rectangle of fabric (width x 20 inches) that has been seamed at the selvedges and gathered to fit the circumference of the bodice. I used fusible stay tape to stablise the bodice before adding the skirt. I also used fusible stay tape on the hem of the dress, before securing it with a twin needles. I do love my twin needle!
There is a fair bit of sparkle going on isn’t there? Both of the dress fabrics are dance fabrics from GJs Discount Fabric. The white was a remnant (score!) and the blue is aptly named shattered glass. The shawl, which didn’t quite get made into a cape, was a remnant from GJs too.
I’ve not sewn with dance fabric before and the only thing I can say is that they do not like being pressed. I used a press cloth and a low/mid heat setting on my iron, but in the end the seams didn’t look like they had been pressed and I was too scared to up the heat.
Surprisingly, Miss B has been rather non-plussed about her new dress. Maybe with time, and interest from other children visiting out house, it will grow on her!
Pattern: Figgy’s Seraphic Raglan
Size: 4/5
Fabric: Dance fabrics from GJs Discount Fabric
Alterations: I shortened the sleeves by 3 inches and also removed some of the sleeve width. The bodice was shortened and a gathered skirt was added to make a dress.
On the weekend, I made a white and gold version of this dress for the costume box at Miss B’s kinder. I’ll publish a separate post on all my recent costume making exploits…
Lovely dress, I’ve been holding off making my daughter one for as long I could but this week I’ve bitten the bullet
I think it’s just one of those things that as sewing mums of young girls we just have to do!
I have a feeling this will get a lot of mileage when it’s all said and done! You’re a very sweet mama–my boys have been begging for Mom-made costumes but I can’t Brigg myself to do it!
I avoided the whole costume thing until now and …dare I say, I’m enjoying it. Needless to say the selfish sewing is a distant memory. If only we didn’t need to sleep!
I love making costumes. I made one tonight for Pirate day at school tomorrow Just old stained colthes hacked up to look ship worn and a waist coat made out of the smallest scrap of fabric. I’m sure shell come to love it. How many times has she seen the film?
Frozen was the first movie my girls had seen at the cinema and it would be fair to say they were terrified and refuse to see it again. That being said they love the idea of it… particularly the costumes and songs. Oh the songs… I really have heard them enough!
I think we’ve almost all made an Elsa dress now. I can’t get Adele to agree to photograph hers. I like the use of raglan sleeves and agree with the ‘inspired’ tag.
I have to say this was the best photo shoot that we’ve had in ages and not bribes were involved. It took all of one minute and I only took 20 photos to get three ‘good’ ones… it usually takes 150 photos! Looking forward to seeing Adele’s dress when she is in a modelling mood.
She looks very cute! I find it interesting that they all want to be Elsa (M included) – when Ana is clearly the heroine of the movie!! M has been riding her scooter with one leg in the air yelling ‘Let it Go’ alternately with ‘I am Elsa’ and ‘I want white hair’. I asked her why she prefers Elsa, and she just looked at me and yelled/sang ‘Let it Go’!!!!!!!!!! I’ve let the issue go.
I know… but I think Miss M summed it up… Elsa gets to sing ‘Let it go….!!’ My girls are actually more into the music from the movie rather than the story.
Lucky Miss B – I’m being pressured to make an Elsa dress too, but so many other things to do at the moment. Interesting my daughter (also called Anna) isn’t interested in an Ana costume either – it’s all Elsa too!
There is always more items to make than I have time to do (sound familiar?). Unfortunately, it’s usually me – the selfish sewing – that misses out. Costumes for kinder are at the top of the list at the moment!