Weekly Dress project, Week #11 - Anna and Elsa dresses from the movie Frozen

For week #11 I decided to get a jump on Halloween.  My eight year old daughter (of course) wants to be queen Elsa from Disney's Frozen so I used McCall's Pattern M7000.  I was pretty sure that I was going to have lots of requests for this costume so when I purchased the fabrics, so I bought enough to make 2 children's Elsa dresses, 2 children's Anna dresses (and cape), 2 adult Elsa dresses and 2 adult Anna dresses.

I guessed right.  In the last few weeks, I've had orders!  So many orders that I'm  not sure that I'm going to have time to get the other crafting done that I need to do in preparation for the craft shows I have coming up this fall.  

Lots of orders is a good thing, of course, but I probably shouldn't have jumped the gun on the fabric because half of those orders aren't for the dresses you see in the pattern picture above, but for the coronation day dresses.

(But, those will have to wait until Week 15)

Being the costume perfectionist that I am, I wasn't satisfied with the bodice and skirt detail of Anna's dress from the pattern so I reworked the pattern to have more detail.

It took FOREVER, but I think it was worth it.  I also added the gold trim at the top and bottom of the black part that was missing in the McCall's pattern.

 

If I make these dresses again, I'm going to paint the details with fabric paint instead of applique because they are just too small for applique! 

The cape turned out super fabulous and was pretty simple to sew but the problem was that it used over 5 yards of fabric! and that is for the CHILD's costume!  That works out to being a pretty expensive cape.  It was fully lined so if I ever do it again, I won't bother with the lining. 

I didn't make any changes to the Elsa dress but did get a lot of practice using my new rolled hem foot.

I have sold all but one of the dresses that I've made, so if you are interested... I have one left and it is a child Elsa dress that would fit size 7-10
on Square Market

Weekly Dress project - Week #10 - tribute to Jack Skellington

(I'm actually on week 12... little behind on the blogging! oops. We'll just pretend that I typed this two weeks ago and catch up from there)

Dress #10 was a custom request from a friend. She wanted to have a fun dress to wear to Disney that was a Jack Skellington theme.

We went with Simplicity 2062 but didn't do the bubble skirt thing and changed it to a simpler, more modest knee-length gathered skirt instead. I wasn't sure about fit, so instead of making a muslin, I dug into my fabric stash and just made the dress exactly as the pattern said (except for the skirt modification)and had her try on the dress to see what needed to be changed. (that dress is for sale here)

Turns out it was perfect except that we added a teeny-tiny small dart at the top of the bust so that it didn't gape open at her cleavage. I think this pattern was meant to be worn super tight, low and with a push up bra. My friend wasn't going for the sexy hooker Halloween costume look, just something fun. The main issue that we had was with the freakin' fabric! After scouring the internet and local stores to find a black with white pinstripes (why is this not available? pin stripes are awesome!), we ordered some shirting fabric that arrived only 1 day before she was to leave town and it wasn't black like it was supposed to be, but gray! What do we do? I run out and buy some awesome suiting fabric in solid black, quickly make the dress and then she pin striped it herself with paint! Luckily she is a henna artist and has mad skills, so she put the paint into her henna cone and striped her own dress. All the night before she left for Disney.

As you can see.... we got it done and it was a huge success! Fit was perfect and I didn't have any trouble with the pattern whatsoever.  In fact, the pattern was so fun and quick, that I decided to make a third!  I've been hoarding this Halloween print since last year and thought it would be fun.

(This dress is for sale here)