Sewing A Queen Elsa Dress-Up Dress {From Frozen}

This Elsa dress was one of Eliana’s favorites while at Disney. I liked it too because while it was a Queen Elsa dress, it was still comfortable enough to be worn in the Florida heat (90’s and humid).

This dress was one of the most difficult for me to envision. I wanted a dress that was made of lightweight cotton fabric with very little adornments but I needed it to also look like an Elsa dress (which is pretty elaborate). Most Elsa dress-up dresses have long sleeves and/or very long capes – check out the Elsa dress in the background of the photo below:

That is a beautiful and elaborate dress-up Elsa dress, but a little too much for what I was trying to create. Eliana was going to wear the dress for an afternoon at the parks in 90 degree heat. We needed something more lightweight and moveable.

After deliberating for a couple months on how to make a comfortable Elsa dress, I ended up with the one in these photos. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked and everyone knew which princess Eliana was dressed up as. Best of all, Eliana was able to run, twist and eat ice cream while still comfortable and smiling. And I didn’t have to worry about her overheating by a cumbersome cape, long sleeves or non-breathable fabrics.

I think that the bodice is what makes this dress look like a Queen Elsa dress. When you look at photos of Queen Elsa, she has a sweetheart neckline bodice with sheer fabric covering her upper chest:

Eliana meeting Anna and Elsa (wearing her Princess Anna dress at the time).
I found a children’s peplum top pattern on Etsy from a store called My Little Plumcake. I used the pattern to create the bodice of this Queen Elsa dress. I have purchased pattens from My Little Plumcake in the past and I have always been happy with the quality and detail in the directions she provides with the pattern pieces. For this pattern I struggled to envision how to attach the binding to the armholes so while I made the dress I took lots of photos of this part:

I think it was also helpful to use lots of pins so that the layers don’t stretch while sewing the top of the bodice to the bottom of the bodice:

For the bottom of the dress I just sewed an a-line skirt and attached it instead of the peplum bottom:

I love the turquoise fabric that I found at Jo-Ann fabrics. It almost looks like ice with the many shades of blue all swirled together. I used the same blue fabric for both the skirt and bodice of the dress. I then layered very lightweight/sheer materials on top of the skirt and bodice to add a little shimmer.