So 8,9 months ago, after walking out of the theater having just seen Frozen, Vanessa looks at me and says “Mom I want to be Elsa for Halloween”. So I knew for that long I had to make her a dress. But in good ole Laura fashion, I waited two weeks before Halloween to start making something. BAD idea since most of the fabric that would resemble an Elsa ensemble was gone. Sooooo, I had to get creative. I looked at what was left and knew the dress would have lots of layers to give the same effect as Elsa’s dress. It turned out pretty good.
I got the pattern from McCalls since I liked the look a little better than Simplicity’s version of Elsa. I did make some big changes to the dress though. For one, I put in a lace-up back which I always wanted to try. The pattern was pretty straightforward and I really wasn’t confused by anything until I got tired. But I seem to have really good luck with McCalls patterns – they do me well.
And two, instead of cutting out fabric snowflake appliques, I stenciled out snowflakes 
first on the Cricut (then the design didn’t turn out right so I exact knifed each snowflake by hand (yes, it did take hours)). I used freezer paper for the first time for the stencils. 
You iron it, waxy side down, and then use your glue and sprinkle glitter over it.
I used Martha Stewart glitter glue and her silver glitter. The only problem was peeling each and every snowflake off and that was tough. It just didn’t want to peel off.
Time to sew all these tons and tons of layers together. That was the hardest part. Because I layered all the materials for an effect, it was hard to keep it together as it ran through the machine. 
I had glitter on my face and my clothes for days. Looks like I took up a night job.
Then I added the lace up back which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be but I did hit my finger a couple times with the hammer when I was closing up the grommets. I still would like to try it out the grommets on a cotton material because it really was a fun way to close something up.
Then once the dress was together I got to do some of the fun parts. I decided to add a silver/glitter rope to the bottom of the bodice. Then on the neck and the back of the cape I wanted to add crystals everywhere for extra sparkle. I used my hotfix crystal tool, but you could use a hot iron to put the crystals on as well. 
Then the dress was done, but I still had to figure out how to make her hair. So I crocheted a basic cap and then on every loop at the bottom I used either 1,2, or 3 strands of 3 feet yarn and made a side braid. It looked a little plain so I put ribbon through the top and then added crocheted snowflakes. 
This is what I did to make snowflakes: Make a magic loop. Rnd 1: Ch 1, 12 sc in ring, join with slip stich Rnd 2: Ch 1 (sc, ch5, sc, ch1) in same stitch, skip 1 sc, and repeat till end. Fasten off.
Last, I just got some silver shoes from Old Navy and called it good. 
So its done. I think I might want to make a trick or treat bag but I’ll save that for another post. Here is the finished product. And thanks to my husband for looking at fabric and putting up with me while I made it.
So I might do a longer sleeve the next time. 