Thursday, February 19, 2015

DIY Queen Elsa Birthday!!

DIY Queen Elsa Birthday Outfit
 
 
Well in usual fashion someone in my family has something special coming up and wants a special outfit... guess who's phone rings?!? :-)
 
 
My dearest loving Other Mother called me a few weeks ago because my niece was turning 6! (OMG where has the time gone!?!?) Any who, she just HAD to have another outfit creation from Auntie Chris! Previously, we created a tutu with her name embroidered on the shirt. Well this bday had a theme and one can only guess what it was... FROZEN!!
 
Now I can admit I absolutely adore Frozen... I mean is this not total diva?!?!
 
 
 
 
With my twisted DIY mind I wanted to make her a diva and still look 6! So here's where my research began. I as usual went to Pinterest to find ideas and see what was out there. I could find Elsa costume patterns, and tutus that were "inspired" by Frozen, but nothing that gave me the look I was seeing my head. So, here's my take on the Frozen Birthday Queen! LOL (gotta find a better name)
 
 
Ice Queen Tutu Dress
 
Supplies
 
Supplies
 
Start with measuring the waist of your Ice Queen to determine the size of the elastic to cut. For Taylor Grace I used a 22 inch piece of elastic.


I wanted the skirt to be very full and this is a sewn skirt so I kept the entire 3 yrds of tulle. To determine the length of the skirt I also defaulted to a size chart from Pinterest. For her length, since this would be three layers total I cut the teal tulle to 12 inches and the purple tulle to 9 inches.

Then using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, I stitched a gathering stitch along the top of each layer.


Gathered Tulle
 
I gathered each layer to the 22 inch elastic length and then cut the satin to about 10 inches.

NOW, this is where I am COMPLETELY honest and admit that I screwed up... blame it on my catching up on Scandal while I was sewing!!!

For the satin top layer I didn't cut it correctly originally and had to had gusset inserts to make it a correct circle skirt. (the mess up was I totally just put the two sides of the satin together and sewed a seam and it was just a boxy skirt, DUH ME! LOL it needed to be a circle to go with the tulle)

So to give you the correct step, measure for a circle skirt and cut it out in the satin fabric. Don't sew up the side seams of your skirt, we need to create a casing for the elastic. I used a large 2 inch fold over to encase the elastic and the extra seam allowance will allow you to attach the tulle layers neatly all together.

One inch below the top fold sew a single seam from one side to the other to create a casing to insert the elastic.

Take a safety pin, pin the end of the elastic and run it through the casing you created at the waist. Once it's all the way through, gather the satin so the elastic is showing on both ends so you don't lose it in the casing. Lay that flat on your working surface.


Fold over to create elastic casing and attach tulle
 

 
 

 
 
You should now have the two colors of tulle gathered and the satin. Here's where it gets fun! LOL

Lay the tulle layers down and flip your remaining seam allowance over from the satin fabric. I then pinned the tulle layers to the sating seam allowance below the elastic casing, end to end.  Leaving the waistband out of the way, I serged the three together creating a clean seam on the underside of the skirt.


Next, I put both sides together to create one back seam for the skirt. I did leave the tulle out and stitched (on my serger) together the waistband, elastic, and satin fabric together.
 
 
 
Flip it all over and there you have your skirt! :-)
 
 
For the bodice, I used the Ice Queen pattern from the supply list. Although it is only made for up to a 4T and Taylor is in a 7/8. I only wanted the bodice portion to add to the t-shirt.
 
So cutting the bodice piece from the satin I added inches to each side to get the piece to match the size of the t-shirt.
 
After cutting, I embroidered Taylor's name on the front bodice piece.
 
Then using the sliver/platinum tulle, cut it in half and ran a gathering stitch to create the cape portion.



 
I ironed down the top of the front and back pieces of the bodice, before sewing them together on one side.
 
Pin the gathered silver/platinum tulle to the top of the back bodice piece. Then sew up the other side seam and topstitch the whole piece to the t-shirt.
 
The added stones were just glued on using E-6000. (cause I love that glue and I had it!!)   
 

 
 
 
All in all it was a cool project and I think I earned some more Coolest Auntie in the WORLD points!!
 

Happy Birthday Taylor Grace!!!!