Do you want to build a snow dress?

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

"Frozen" Fever, amIright? It hit our house earlier this year, perfectly in time with the ad campaign around the DVD release. Well played, Disney. You certainly know your target audience.

It would've made sense to wait until Halloween to sew a costume (or a dress, depending on which one of us you're asking), but my inner four-year-old took over. There would have been nothing better than dressing like my favorite characters around the clock. Plus, I know that in no time she'll be all dark and gothic and tween-y. For now, though, she's my little princess, or Queen Elsa rather.

I'm really happy with how this turned out despite my over zealous trimming of the hem. With the way she's growing I'm probably going to have to add a ruffle to the bottom come fall to give it a more appropriate length, but that's a small price to pay. Plus, it'll probably be easier than hemming this bad boy (bad girl?). The fabric is perfect for Elsa, but the glittery rhinestone bits did NOT want to cooperate when it came time to finish the bottom edge. Meh. It won't fray, so no biggie.

See what I mean? The blue fabric is from Joann, as is the cape fabric. I forgot about the top of the dress on my first Elsa shopping trip, though, so the semi-sheer white dance fabric came from Hancock on a later excursion.

For the pattern, I combined two that I already had in my stash: The Wee Muses Bateau Neck Top and the Kitschy Coo Skater Dress. I've whipped them both up in the past, so I knew they'd work well for my Charlie-Elsa after a bit of blending.

The top of the bodice is the Bateau Neck pattern, which I eased into the Skater Dress from the modified sweetheart joint and down. Same with the sleeves. I traced the Bateau sleeve, but I used the Skater sleeve for length and fit. I know this isn't full-Elsa-off-the-shoulder, but it seems to work for the preschool set. 

I'm sure I could have done a better job on the sweetheart here (there's a bit of pulling happening), but I wasn't about to futz with it once both pieces were together. No seam ripping, for the win!

This is what my pattern pieces looked like after I fiddled with them. I know it appears that this is all Bateau, but if you look closely at the bottom section of the bodice you'll see that I eased the sides in with our tried-and-true Skater as a guide for size.

My fancy DYI seam allowance.

All the pieces, sans cape.

For the cape, Charlie insisted that she wanted it to be attached to the dress. I was a little iffy on that one at first, but it actually ended up being much easier than coming up with a detachable piece--just stitch that sucker on and go. I chose a sparkly mesh(?) that wouldn't fray at the ends, gently rounded the bottom of it, gathered it fit the back between the top and bottom of the bodice, and voila! Of course, if you ask my muse, the cape should have been trailing several yards behind her, but until she can sew her own, Mom gets final say.

There's one last thing that I have to share because it was a lot of work, dammit! I carefully and lovingly hand cut a couple dozen sparkly snowflakes to float on the cape for extra Elsa-ness, and they were awesome. And they lasted about 15 minutes before they all fell off. Sigh.

You live, you learn. Or in this case, you spend precious sewing time cutting out snowflakes only to realize that the fabric you're trying to stick them to wants to have no part in being snowflaked. Next time, fabric... next time.

For the time being I'll... wait for it... Let it Go. (You knew that would be in there somewhere, right?)

Princess of Power

What's that? Take two years in between posting things on my blog? Sure, don't mind if I do.

In my mind, I've been a very good blogger with regular updates for family far away. I've kept photos current and stories fresh. I've documented all of the wonderful things that I've made for my wonderful daughter while my wonderful husband wonderfully tolerates my wonderful hobby. I've documented a first day of school and riding a bike (WITH training wheels--I'm not that far behind), the loss of a beloved kitty, and the addition of a puppy.

But yeah...Let's just dive back in like I've been doing this all along, okay?

So, Happy Halloween from She-ra!

 

This year I decided that I wasn't going to put a bunch of time and effort into making a costume for Charlie. Why go through all of the hassle for a one-day-only outfit? (To lend validity to that reasoning, let's just suspend reality and pretend that I'm NOT the mom who encourages allows her child to wear costumes year-round.) Enter the "what do you want to be?" conversation, followed by a quick web search to find one toddler-size Princess of Power costume.

Guess what? They don't exist. Oh sure, if you're a grown woman who watched She-ra when she was in her prime (we're talking 1985 here), then you can be She-ra. If not, too bad.

After a bit more help from good old Google, we turned up some lovely home-made She-ra costumes, though. Great. Fine. I agreed to make one, but I wasn't going to like it. (Spoiler: I did. I really, really did.) I found some red and white metallic shot cottons from Fabric.com, along with some gold ombre spandex. Amazon led me to a simple white leotard and nude footless tights. I figured that the rest of the details would just kind of come together as we went.

Aside from a belt that I probably should have basted down so that it would quit creeping up her belly, it's not too shabby!

 

I had originally planned on making some sort of leg warmer/boot cover things for her, but Target came to the rescue with these cuties. (Does my three-year-old own more pairs of boots than I do? Maybe.) We also found a sword in the Halloween section at Target, and she was content with it as it was. You better believe that the purist in me started to spiral out of control, though, envisioning ways to She-ra-ize that baby. I painted on the chest emblem with some fantastic gold glitter paint that we found at Joann, completed by a single turquoise sew-on rhinestone. Of course, you can't buy a single rhinestone, so I now have a small bag of those just waiting to find a home.


The white shot cotton turned into a simple, double layer, elastic-waist skirt. No pattern, I just cut a yard in half and double layered it because it's fall and the fabric is pretty thin. The cape came together using a darling pattern from My Childhood Treasures that I already had. I just eliminated the hood, and cut about three or four inches off the front pieces in the center. (Sorry! I was just kind of winging it, so I didn't track the changes very well.) I added button holes at each shoulder of the cape so that she can easily remove it, and the gold buttons that secure the cape are a nice little nod to the additional gold on She-ra's outfit. The belt, necklace, and armbands are all jersey-covered fleece. 

It might be the head-dress that made this the most fun for me, though. Joe is normally content to just let me go, but early on in this project I mentioned that I was putting him in charge of the crown. And did he nail it, or what?

 

You can really see it in all of its glittery goodness in the photo above. (The lovely Egyptian goddess on the left is my pseudo-niece Jordyn. She's delightful, but I had nothing to do with her costume. Sorry, J.)

Anyway, after gathering a few supplies along our travels, the crown ended up coming together with a foam visor and some sparkly gold foam paper, both from Joann. Some cutting, some glue, the addition of a red jewel that we had on hand, and voila!

 

She totally loved it. The day I had her try the whole thing on, she declared, "Mommy, I'm the REAL She-ra!" High praise indeed.

Someone should really teach her not to run with swords, though.