Elsa American Girl Doll Dresses

In addition to making Elsa costumes for Halloween 2014, I also made three Elsa American Girl doll costumes as a commission.  I purchased the Snow Queen pattern from Dollhouse Designs on Etsy, and I absolutely loved it.  This was my first experience with making an outfit for an American Girl doll, and I was initially intimidated by the entire process. 

However, putting the outfit together was MUCH easier than it seemed at first glance.  I think the pattern printed out as almost 20 pages with even more for instructions, and so I felt a bit overwhelmed.  There are two patterns for some of the pieces, depending on whether the fabric that you're using is woven or knit, so as long as you know what kind of material you're working with, you can ignore about five pieces. 

There are also extensions for some of the pattern pieces, because the dolls that are currently being produced actually have smaller waists than the originals.  (I'll spare you the rant, but let's just say that I wasn't pleased to learn that they had become more hourglass-shaped!) 

In addition, because you're printing out a PDF file, several of the pieces actually get assembled together prior to cutting out the fabric, so that explains why there are SO many pages to the pattern.  I found that once I had all of my patterns put together, the actual construction was super simple.

The best part is that this pattern is so well-constructed that there was no need for any modifications!

The dress is actually two pieces - the skirt and top (the organza part), and then the bodice and cape.  The skirt/top has velcro in the back, and the bodice has velcro on the side, so the cape remains in one piece.  I think these turned out beautifully, so if you want to make an Elsa Dollhouse Designs on Etsy (or Anna - there is also a pattern for Anna's cape, and the Snow Queen pattern would work for Anna's dress as well), please go check out Dollhouse Designs.

Anna's Dress - Frozen

In addition to the Elsa dresses that I made for Halloween this year (well, last year), I also made two Anna dresses.  Like the Elsa dresses, I used Simplicity 1233 as a basis.

For the bodice, I used a black suede for the main body and a brown suede for the trim.  I used a turquoise satin for the sleeves and neck.  I also added a zig zig stitch to the collar and down the front of the neck to add some embellishment.  (Please note that I did not follow the pattern for the bodice, but modified it myself.)

The bodice attaches to the skirt, which was made with a royal blue broadcloth.  Overlaid on the broadcloth is a turquoise felt (purchased off the bolt).  All fabrics came from JoAnn's.

 
The bodice and skirt have embroidery, but since I wasn't going to embroider a bazillion flowers, my husband printed out some patterns based on the actual costume.  I then cut each piece out of various felts, which were all purchased at Michael's. 

These individual pieces were meticulously glued on with fabric glue.  I would have preferred to have sewed each one on, but that wasn't realistic based on my time frame.

The cape is my favorite piece of the entire costume.  It's a fuchsia felt from JoAnn's.  The pom pom trim on the top of the cape are 1 1/4" ball fringe with 1/2" pom poms from trimplace.com.   The zig zag trim is 1/4" ric rac from NorthernThreads.net.  I also did a zig zag stitch around the top part of the cape, since that trim is much smaller than the 1/4" ric rac.  The clasp was from a filigree clasp from JoAnn's.  Of course, now that I don't need the heart-shaped clasp anymore, they have ones that look JUST like Anna's!

And here are the finished pieces!