Thursday 28 August 2014

DIY Princess Anna (Frozen) Costume

Invitation to Frozen themed birthday party = me getting very excited about making an outfit for my little person!  But life is also pretty busy at the moment (settling into new home, finishing work for maternity leave, a million other projects on the go) so I needed an idea based on simplicity and speed, yet super effective!  I found 3 that I combined for the perfect Anna costume:


I started with this Anna dress idea - purchasing a plain black t-shirt as the starting point rather than trying to make the top part.

I had also previously come across this tutu dress tutorial which is so simple yet makes such a great outfit.  I have many plans for this design for the future!  And it also worked here.

And then for the finishing touch I used this Anna & Elsa cape tutorial.

Just from the pile of coloured fabric I knew I was going to enjoy this project!


I bought a very cheap vest as my base.  My daughter is almost 3 and the smallest size I could find was age 7-8 so I had to do a bit of nipping and tucking to start with!  I then stitched gold bias binding round the arms and neck.

For ease I used appropriately coloured felt and bondaweb to create the embroidered effect rather than dealing with complicated stitching.  I found the image on the computer and traced it straight on to the paper before ironing it to the back of my felt.  I also decided to stick to 2 main colours, green and pink, with just a couple of yellow dots, rather than adhering 100% to the original design and colours.  It was then really easy to cut out, iron on to the vest and stitch.




I then got really excited and forgot to take photos, but I pretty much followed the tutu dress tutorial that I linked above as I moved on to the skirt.  A couple of adaptations...I stitched the layers of tulle as described and sewed it to the elastic but before attaching it to the top of the dress I made a lining for the skirt.  I used 1 metre of blue dress lining, closed the seam, and basted and gathered round the top in the same way as I did with the tulle and then stitched it to the same piece of elastic that the rest of the skirt was fixed to.  And another piece of gold binding stitched over all the layers (and elastic).



Once the skirt was done I could fix and stitch it to the top.


Almost done...


The final step involved more felt and bondaweb!  I made 5 tulip-shaped flowers and ironed them (evenly spaced) on to the outside layer only of the tulle skirt.  To ensure the flowers didn't mess up the other layers I placed a piece of tracing paper underneath when I ironed, as well as a square of cotton over the top.  This meant that the tulle didn't melt, and the sticky underside of the bondaweb didn't get stuck to other bits of the skirt before it cooled.


And the dress was done!


For the cape I pretty much stuck to the tutorial mentioned above, although I used a velvety fabric which required a bit of sorting before constructing the cape.  For my cape I only used half a metre of this fabric and folded it in half right sides together, so it was pretty much a square.  I stitched around the outside of the square, rounding off each corner as I went.  I left a 6 inch gap so I could turn the cape inside out so that the princessy velvetiness was then on the outside.  To finish my prep I top stitched around the whole piece.  I was then ready to follow the instructions as in the tutorial.


This involved a long basting stitch about 6 inches from the top.  Then gathered until the width is about 12 inches.


Over the top of the gather I stitched a piece of ribbon (that had enough overhang at each end to tie once worn).


To achieve the desired effect the top 6 inches folds over the ribbon so it sits just over the shoulders (and hides the ribbon stitching).  Cape done!




I was so worried that she'd refuse to wear it as I was putting so much pressure on her to try it on but she was so happy with it!