Making Elsa Inspired Dresses Using Mostly Thrift Store Finds

Nothing in this post was sponsored and I am not in any way affiliated with any of the stores or brands or characters that I may mention.  If I mention them, it's just because I went there, or saw the movie. I'm not endorsing anything, either.  This is just what I did. 

If you like this so much you want to pin it, awesome, but I would ask that you not pin the photos with the girls' faces in them.  Thank you!

Before I get started explaining what I did, I want to note that if you have a very detail-oriented child, this method might not work well, because materials found at the thrift store vary wildly.  Or you may find that this is too time consuming or just not what you're looking for.  There are plenty of alternatives to paying someone on an online auction site thousands of dollars (Please don't do that!  They're the reason those dresses are all sold out in the first place). First, you might want to check to see if anyone locally can make one.  Or, you could also check Etsy.  I recently saw a seller with a lovely handmade Elsa dress selling for only $40, which is just a few dollars more than the Disney store dress they sell at JCPenney.  I think that one is $36, but I'm not positive.  And it's true that sometimes JCPenney does have that dress in stock (I actually saw it once, with my own eyes!).


Now that business is out of the way, let's get to the fun part.  Since the word "Elsa" is in the title of my post, some of you might be new here, so welcome!  This is a small, personal blog, and I don't do any reviews or giveaways, but hopefully you'll enjoy reading about how I made Elsa dresses for my two girls. 

When both of my girls (ages 5 and 2) were invited to a "Frozen" themed, dress-up birthday party, I knew that Karina's flimsy store-bought dress would not hold up (it's literally coming apart at the seams, she's worn it so much), and Elena didn't have anything at all. 

I had actually been thinking about sewing some Elsa dresses for them for a while, and came up with an idea  to use a T-shirt as the base of the dress.  I'm certainly not the first or only person in the world who thought of this, as you may find if you do a little online searching.  Once I had the idea, it was time to shop for materials.

I didn't plan well.  I bought way more than I needed.  Don't do that.  Figure out what color you want for each piece, how sparkly, etc, and go out with a plan.  You'll spend a lot less!  

I decided to look at the thrift store for clothing and other items I could repurpose into their dresses.  I knew I definitely needed a T-shirt base, and I thought I might find some other suitable materials there as well.  I took both girls with me to our local Goodwill, which is fairly new, and huge.  In the kids' clothing area, I managed to find two perfect white T-shirts.  Karina's shirt has silver plastic rhinestones on the top and the one I found for Elena has a heart surrounded by a snowflake, also in rhinestones.  Here is Elena's shirt before I started sewing.  (Please disregard messy craft space!)

Both shirts are long sleeves, so I could trim the ends into a point, similar to the cuff of Elsa's dress.  After we found the T-shirts but no suitable skirts in the children's area, I thought I'd look in the curtain area for some sheers and see what I could find there.  Along the way I ran into the ladies' nightgown/pajama/robe area.  Score!  Material used in nightgowns is thin, kind of wispy, and reminded me exactly of Elsa's cape.  I got several different pieces, including a long white slip that I thought I'd use for the cape, but ended up not using at all.  Then in the ladies' shirt area, Karina and I spied this awesome sequined turquoise top.  We just knew it would be perfect.  I did end up buying fabric for the skirt at Joann's, because I hadn't found what I was looking for to match Karina's Elsa top.  Over the next few days, I found more sparkly tops, two of which became Elena's dress, as well as a light turquoise slip that became both girls' capes.  I bought more items than I needed, because I wasn't sure what was going to work, how much I could find, and I also had some of the colors a bit off in my mind.  

What I ended up using for Karina's dress:  white T-shirt, sequined turquoise woman's top, sparkly fabric (one yard), half of a light turquoise slip.
What I ended up using for Elena's dress:  white T-shirt, sequined teen's top, sparkly woman's tanktop, half of a light turquoise slip.

Now for the sewing part.  If you have never sewn anything before, I probably wouldn't recommend this as your first project.  It took a lot of figuring out where and how to attach things, and sewing with knits can sometimes be tricky as they move and stretch.  If you have basic sewing skills and a little experience, definitely go for it.  If you don't have sewing experience, but still want to try this out, just make sure you have some backup material and take your time.

When I sewed the sparkly shirt to Karina's white T-shirt, I needed to turn the blue shirt upside down first, so the bottom hem became the top hem of the bodice.  The neckline of the shirt was off-shoulder and had a buckle, so it could not be used.  Then I pinned it like crazy to the white shirt, checking it multiple times to be sure it fit.  Then I cut slightly along the new top to make the curved parts of the top of the bodice.  You can also see the silver rhinestone's on the shirt.  See below.

  I left the back straight across, although you can tell from the photo that it's a little crooked.  Don't worry.  It's not really as bad as it looks; Karina's holding it up for me and she's holding it kind of crooked.  (This photo is from after I had sewn the bodice to the shirt and the skirt to the shirt)

I sewed the blue shirt to the white shirt (careful of the rhinestones; I had to go very slowly so I didn't break a needle) using a zig-zag stitch.  Then I tried it on Karina, marked where I wanted to make the V at the bottom of the bodice, and cut.  I intentionally made it big so she wouldn't grow out of it immediately.  You can see the V in this photo of the girls.  You can also see the pointy sleeve ends on Karina's dress too.  What face is Elena making here?  She is so silly.

Karina's skirt was hard, because for a while I couldn't figure out how to make it longer in the back than the front.  My advice: use stretchy material or a long skirt.  When I made Elena's, I didn't worry about it being longer in back, and the shirt I used for the skirt portion of hers was stretchy.  Elena's was soooo much easier than Karina's.  I finally ended up cutting three pieces and you can see that the middle piece was too short.  I added some extra to the top of it, and the cape hides this part now.  When I sewed the V of the bodice to the skirt, it did make it a little tighter on her, so I may have to add a zipper in the future (dreading that) but for now she is able to put it on and take it off just fine.

Here is another view of the back, with the train part.  I later hemmed this all around, so it's a little shorter than in this photo.

When I was ready to do the cape, I cut the turquoise slip in half and used the longer back piece on Karina's and the shorter front piece on Elena's.  I did have to do a bit of hemming on the sides to prevent fraying, but it was amazingly easy, as the fabric had a tendency to roll up anyway. 

The following photos show some of the processes and materials I used.  I don't normally post tutorials, so if any of this is confusing, I apologize.  Hopefully you can still find some inspiration here!  I also didn't take a lot of photos of Karina's dress at first, so most of these show progress on Elena's dress.

Here is the sequined shirt I used for the bodice of Elena's dress. Below is the sparkly tanktop I used for the skirt.  I cut the sides down a bit and sewed them back up, right sides together, to make a skirt.  I also cut off the neckline, as close as I could, to make it more straight across.

Here is where I had cut the V for the bottom of the bodice out of the sequined shirt.  See how many pins I used?  

 Here you can see it in my messy craft room with draped over a chair. 

Here are some more photos of the dresses when they were finished.  You can see the cape in these.  I did go back and hem both dresses a little more, so they don't trip, and the girls played for hours in them last night.

 Here is Elena's dress finished and hanging. 

 Can you see the tiny white lace trim at the bottom of the cape?  That was part of the slip!  This is why I liked shopping the thrift store.  So many cool little goodies already part of the material!

If you can, try the dress on your child several times during the process so you can check for length and fit.  Make sure it's not so long that she trips.  You may or may not want to include the slit in the skirt; Karina's has a slit but Elena's does not.  Elena's is also stretchy material for the skirt whereas Karina's is not.

Most of all, have fun!  Don't expect perfection or an exact replica.  All that matters is that you have fun and the little girl for whom you're sewing is happy in the end!  Mine are, and I'm a happy mom, too.