Sew your own Frozen costumes for $10 each
We are certainly a Frozen-obsessed household. If you have yet to see Frozen, I can bet that you either do not have small children, OR you do have small children but they are too young/fidgety/easily-frightened-by-movie-deaths and that’s why you haven’t seen it.
(FYI the deaths in Frozen aren’t scary at all — a wave quietly crashes over a ship that, erhm, has a Mom and Dad aboard — and the kids don’t really notice. I just say their parents are going on a trip.)
D and C also love to dress up, so D asked if I could make Frozen costumes — specifically, he wanted to be Elsa and wanted C to be Anna. He said Darling Husband could be Kristoff, and I could be Sven (the reindeer) and Olaf (the snowman). Ouch, kid.
I decided to make a Kristoff costume, as well as dresses for Anna and Elsa, since D has (only very recently) become sensitive to the notion that “boys don’t wear dresses” (I blame some of the preschool boys) and I figured he wouldn’t actually want to dress up as Elsa.
So I grabbed $30 in fabric — totally guessing on how much of each, but basically a meter for each — and spend Friday night scribbling “patterns” and doing some cutting, and spent Saturday and Sunday sewing. D was really excited and helped me a bit.
And then?
My sweet, gracious children DID NOT WEAR THE DAMN COSTUMES.
Seriously! D flat-out refused to put the Kristoff costume on. I managed to coerce C into the Elsa and Anna dresses — using marshmallows and the iPod as a bribe — so I could take a few pictures of her. Gratitude, thy name is … not C and D.
I think they turned out really cute, but OH LORD, they were not an easy project. Well, I take that back. Kristoff’s costume was easy. Elsa’s dress was easy. Anna’s dress and cloak were a nightmare.
(I blame Little Sis — who was visiting with the kiddies — for the troubles with Anna’s dress, because I asked her to string the elastic through the neckline, and she got the safety pin so tangled and caught that I had to cut it apart. CUT IT APART. Sewing does not run in genes, it appears. Love you anyway, Sissy! xo)
The cloak was the real dramz, though. I bought slippery fabric that wasn’t cooperating, and I think I really screwed up my “pattern” to begin with, and it just ended up a hot mess. Oh well, it’s only for dress-up (she told herself dejectedly).
Patterns, you say? Tutorials, you say? Sorry, I was winging it majorly, but I’ll try to impact a bit of wisdom.
I think I’m probably high-level beginner sewer, if that helps you determine if you can tackle this. The only really trick part is the cape, and I think that’s because I (A) struggle with slippery fabric, and (B) didn’t think it through (uh, like I never do) …
(tldr: If you can make a simply baby dress, you can make these!)
Approximiate fabric shopping list:
- 2 metres light stretchy turquoise fabric (for Elsa’s skirt, Anna’s sleeves and faux V-neck)
- 2 metres of dark grey/black corduroy (for Kristoff’s tunic and Anna’s bodice)
- 1 metre of blue fleece (for Kristoff’s sleeves, pants, faux V-neck, mittens, and hat)
- 1 metre of super shiny/sequinny ice blue fabric (for Elsa’s sleeves and bodice)
- 1 metre of ice blue tulle (for Elsa’s train)
- 1 metre of deep maroon silky fabric (for Anna’s cloak)
- 1 metre of deep blue silky fabric (for Anna’s skirt)
Rough idea of my pattern pieces (Note: I never measure anything, it’s all based on sight — and therefore wonky and maybe charmingly homemade-ish?)
I apologize for the lack of a real tutorial, but this is the only photo I took while making the costumes …
As you can see, I really do just kind of “wing things” when I’m sewing — which would drive a lot of serious sewers crazy, I know. I don’t measure things. I’ve just made enough little baby-girl dresses to be able to eyeball sleeves, bodice shapes, etc. so that’s why everything is very basic.
I hope I’ve inspired someone (anyone! Bueller …? Bueller? …) to make Frozen costumes for your little ones. Other than the pain-in-the-butt cloak (*$#* cloak!) I would highly recommend playing around with it.
And now, of course, the goal is to get my kids to WEAR these costumes!
xoxo
10 Comments on “Sew your own Frozen costumes for $10 each”
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Heather's Handmade Life 
Sorry sissy! But really you should have known better than to involve me in anything creative! I don't have your mad skills! Glad you were able to fix my booboo – the dress looks great!
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Any chance you would make these to sell? My son is also obsessed and can't find them reasonable priced anywhere!!!!
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Thanks, Melissa, but I don't plan on making them to sell them at this point. The fabric isn't super expensive, but they're a bit time-intensive, so it wouldn't be a good use of my (very limited) time! 🙂
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your a god send been trying to find a template for the Elsa Dress and we now can use this as a guideline thank you so much
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Thanks I have to make costumes for 7 different characters since Halloween is my daughter's birthday and she wants every one and their brother to dress up and of course she wants to be Elsa so thank you for the tips
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You're so welcome, Nikcole! I hope it works out for you — I'm not much of a pattern-maker!
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Thank you! These are perfect! And you are my kind of girl! I totally eye ball everything and patterns? Who has time for that?! Lol! These are just what I need! Thank you!
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You're welcome, ShelliB! Three cheers for eyeballing everything and ignoring patterns, haha!
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This post just makes me happy because this is how I think when I'm putting together things for the kids…just what shape is what and forget the lining because mama's lucky if you wear it once!! But honestly I have been working on an ELSA from a McCall's pattern and see no point in buying a Kristoff pattern…thank you! THey are adorable!
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Thank you, TwynMawrMom! I saw those Elsa patterns by McCalls, and they look cute — but I'm WAAAAAAY too bad with patterns to use something that complicated! Kudos to you! 🙂
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