DIY "Elsa Inspired" Outfit

Nathan and I about six years ago at Universal Studios

TWENTY THREE DAYS! That's how long we have until we're off to sunny Florida for vacation. Saying that I am ready for a beach day would be a gross understatement ...its been over two years since we were in New Zealand and that's two years too long. And of course, no trip to Florida would be complete without visiting some theme parks. The last time Nathan and I were in Florida was 2008 which was before Adelle was born, so this trip will be a bit different. And because I enjoy embarrassing myself, to the right is a photo of us from our last trip!

Elsa's dress - making this into a shirt
and shorts outfit required some thought
but it was a really fun project overall!

For this trip we are flying into Orlando on a Thursday and staying at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. On Friday we are going to Magic Kingdom, Saturday we meet up with my parents and go to Universal Studios and then that evening we head to St. Augustine to stay with Grandma Polly and Papa Allen for a few days. The best part is that Adelle has NO clue any of this is happening. Sneaky sneaky! And while I am beyond excited to experience Harry Potter World at Universal (um, can you say dream come true?) and go to the beach, I think I am most excited to take Adelle to the Magic Kingdom. We have a lot of fun things planned and one that I am super excited about is that we have Fast Passes to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Adelle is in love with the movie and knows that they "live" at Disney World, so I think she will be thrilled to find out she gets to meet them. I decided to get crafty and make an "Elsa inspired" outfit for her to wear. I love the Elsa dresses Disney sells but 1) they are ridiculously hard to find and 2) I just don't think the princess dresses are at all practical for wearing at a theme park. Adelle meets the height requirement for all but one of the rides so we definitely plan to ride some rides. For that reason I decided to go with a shirt and shorts, but to try and use some of the same elements in Elsa's dress.

the two shirt I started with - it
cost about $12 for both shirts

My first task was to find a shirt. Elsa's dress is a very light blue on top and darker blue on the bottom. If this were something for her to wear at home I would make it long sleeved like Elsa's, but since we are going to be dealing with Florida heat choosing short sleeves was a no brainer. I went to Target and found a white top and a blue top - Nathan probably thought my excitement over the blue top I found was ridiculous but it is perfect! I love that it fades to a different color of blue. Next I cut and sewed the two shirts together, which included adding piping in between the two. I also added a few small pleats because my blue shirt was bigger than my white shirt. I took photos of the sewing process so if anyone is interested I can do a tutorial on how I put everything together! For this post I will keep it simple though.

before sewing, after sewing, & finished product!

I am so excited with how the shirt turned out! I bought some large sequins at Hobby Lobby and cut them into rectangle shapes to mirror the sequins on Elsa's dress. I didn't feel like spending hours attaching them so I just glued them on with fabric glue and faded them down to the bottom of the shirt.

Next I wanted to make a cape similar to Elsa's. Since I was going for theme-park-friendly I made it just under floor length so it won't drag on the ground, and I also made it detachable so we can take it off after the meet and greet. I did want to do a cape though because I am hoping she can use this to play dress up after our trip is over as well. As of now the cape is pretty simple, I just used light blue tulle and zigzag stitched glitter ribbon along the edge. I also attached velcro on the sides of the cape and the shirt to make it detachable. I would like to add some embellishments to the back of the cape (I remember seeing some large snowflake sequins at Hobby Lobby) but here's what it looks like right now:

Elsa shirt with detachable cape

the tulle, ribbon and sequins I used for her outfit

And last but not least, every Elsa needs a crown. In the felt section I found some glitter "felt"...except it wasn't felt. But it had a similar backing. I totally forgot to take a picture of it. Whoops! I found an Elsa crown template online and traced it to the size I was looking for and cut it out of the glitter "felt" (can you tell I have no clue what to call it?). I trimmed one a bit shorter so I could wrap it around a headband - it makes sense in the picture. I glued them together, trimmed them up a little and added a square blue gem to the top. I then glued the crown piece to a black headband so it will sit on her head. I love it!

the crown in all it's adorable glory

I'd still like to embellish the cape and I need to pick up some really cute sandals I saw online at Old navy...and then I will be done! She will wear jean shorts with it and I will french braid her hair, I can't wait to see it all put together. It's driving me nuts not to be able to let her try it on! It will be a fun surprise though, and I think it will make our day at Disney World all the more fun. And because I am picture obsessed, here's one more:

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions! I'm off to make some popcorn and watch Frozen...again :)

-Kelly