Construction Details:

Hand-ventilated a front piece for the widow's peak, modified the wig cap to better fit my head, then added nearly 2 packs of wefts sewn in (medium and long) for thickness and length. Hair snowflakes were made from crystal teardrops strung together in a circle, then hot glued to bobby pins. The top was drafted from a raglan sleeve Skating outfit and modified because the original pattern had the back cut out. The glitter was applied using stencils I drafted in Photoshop, then printed on label paper and stuck to the flat sleeve pieces. Picking off the sticky paper residue that got soggy from the glitter glue and broke off was NOT fun due to the overly stretchy fabric, so I think next time, I'll just use ironed on freezer paper instead. The bodice was drafted from a modified Simplicity bustier pattern (#5006) that I use for most of my bodices. It's lightly boned with rigilene, which means I have to wear a corset underneath it for structure to prevent warping. I also lined it for some silly reason. I then took apart a sequined halter top and stitched it to the bodice. After that, I airbrushed the bottom half with metallic teal enamel to get the gradient effect. Next, I hand-cut various sizes of rounded rectangle sequins from large circle sequins, then hand painted them with nail polish to get the right sheen and glued them to my "under sequins" with E6000. Rhinestones followed that, along with teal bugle beads strung in rectangles. I think that just about covers the bodice! It was tedious, but probably my favorite project. The skirt I drafted from an extremely modified Renaissance skirt pattern. On my 2nd try, I modified the pattern further to hug my curves better (throughout the film, Elsa's skirt seemingly can't decide if it wanted to be an A-line or a mermaid... It seems to shift at will). The silk chiffon had to be acid-dyed to a teal shade because the color I ordered was far too light and too green in hue. Because chiffon is translucent, I had to flat each pattern piece to white cotton, which ended up being awesome because white cotton is MUCH easier to gradient dye than silk. The skirt was then lined in azure blue casa satin. Then came the shoes... Ughhh, the shoes. I thought I had an AWESOME idea for them, but as it turns out, my idea was not as easy to execute as I hoped, and I'm pretty unhappy with how they look... I got a bee in my bonnet about making Elsa's shoes transparent, so I started with clear Pleaser pumps, first using Testors metallic spray enamel to get a gradient effect. Then I patterned my toe and heel pieces and cut them out of clear vinyl and painted that. Then I realized the vinyl wasn't thick enough to hold its shape and the snowflakes weren't well-laid out. So I cut new pieces and this time, I doubled up the vinyl and made a clear base for my heel so I could glue my snowflake points to that. For all that work to make these guys clear, they look pretty underwhelming. But I'm pretty spent at this point... The train is ultra-wide tulle (used for wedding decor) purchased from Gail K. Unfortunately, this tulle is very fine and delicate, so my train is a tragedy just waiting to happen, but dammit, the high-res artwork proves that her train is CLEARLY net or tulle (despite the fact that every sane person uses organza or chiffon), so I wanted tulle... (Famous last words.) I draped the train to have a center pleat and side pleat (which disappears and reappears throughout the movie) to somewhat echo her coronation cloak. Then I made up large snowflake templates and used Fabric Mod Podge and glitter to create the shapes. And I still have a lot of snowflakes to go. #letmedie

Personal Thoughts:

I admit it- the minute I saw this dress on the big screen, I was like "OH GOD THE SPARKLES I WANT THEM ON MY BODY." I didn't feel much of a connection to Elsa as a character (I'm more of an extrovert, like Anna), but DAMN, did I want to take on the challenge of making that ice dress! Months and months and MONTHS of research went into this costume, followed by months of labor on and off, and I don't even want to think about how many dollars... Nearly everything has been bought twice, save for the bodice. 2 different skirt fabrics (one a crushed polyester/metallic lame, the other an expensive silk lurex chiffon), two different undershirt materials, 3 sets of material for the train (glitter tulle from Joann's that was way too dark, then an aqua tulle that I messed up in draping and cut too short, then finally, a light blue tulle), then long wefts after I realized my package of short wefts didn't give me the braid length I wanted. And now I'm debating buying a new pair of shoes to modify because I'm not a fan of the way mine turned out... I think I might have a problem...

Styling Notes

See costume info. ACP would not let me add here...

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!