GoblinCityCosplay
Active Member
Five years later, I hop on the bandwagon. I decided going into this project that I wanted to do a one piece dress with a built in corset and a detachable cape. My base patterns were the official Frozen Simplicity Pattern for the over dress and Yaya Han's cupped corset pattern for the actual base corset.
I mocked up the dress and the corset to tweak everything and make sure it worked. I wanted the under corset to be a longer line than the ice corset of the dress, and I had to fix the bust line on the Yaya pattern so it would fit with the ice dress pattern. In the Simplicity pattern, the ice corset and the skirt are separate garments, I put them together as one piece for the over dress. The second picture shows the under corset (though it's over the dress for purposes of matching the bust line) and is proof why you should always mock things up because I put the cups in wrong. Oops.
I made the under corset first (lined with Elsa fabric!) out of Yaya's corset coutil. It's comparable, IMO, to the American coutil from corsetmaking.com, not as heavy as the European coutil. The boning is spiral steel. I then attached the skirt lining to the base corset. This was a mistake. Dead dove: do not eat. I might pick out the skirt and reattach it. You'll see why later.
The over dress is a light blue silk with silver lurex shot through it. I flat lined it with a baby blue cotton that was subtly gradient dyed. If I end up redoing the skirt, I might gradient dye the silk and flat line it in that iridescent blue crinkle stuff from Joann for extra ice glitter.
This is why I should not have put the skirt lining on the inner corset. I hemmed the skirt, pressed the hem, then turned it out and bias taped the top of the dress to close it and my hems got pulled somehow and puffed out like mad. So this is where I left the dress. I'm going to pick the hems out and redo them, if they're still weird, I'll just redo the skirt entirely and with purple lining since that's closer to ref images.
The undershirt might end up being a separate piece, too, I haven't decided. But I started with a white sports mesh and dyed it light blue. After I cut the pattern out, I gradient dyed just the bottoms of sleeve cuff. I may go back and go up the arm a little more. I was so paranoid about ruining it that I didn't go up very far. Then I made an upper arm dummy out of cardboard and taped the rhinestone pattern to it, then put wax paper over it. I glued the rhinestones on like this so the mesh was stretched when the rhinestones were applied. Both of the upper arms/elbows are done. I need to do something for the forearm and once the elastic is in the collar and cuff, add rhinestones to the wrist and neck.
I did not use the Simplicity cape pattern, I made my own and it is massive. I'm almost afraid to take it to a convention. It's one solid piece of bridal tulle so it was extra wide and able to accomodate the width and the length without seams. I'm using glitter iron on stuff for the lower and small snowflakes. The large snowflake is going to be glitter tulle that is heat 'n' bonded to the cape mesh. I plan on using silver metallic thread for the hem. Not much is done on the cape yet, I'm using the Frozen cartridge for the Cricut, but I'm waiting on my new one since my old one met with an unfortunate fate (I dropped it down the stairs).
The wig is still in progress, too. The base is a Tauriel from Arda. I'm adding in a pack of wefts. That is not the final braid, it's just to keep the wig from tangling.
The base shoes have a very low heel because I do plan on wearing this to conventions and walking around. I cut out the blue elastic and am going to add in a flesh toned ballet shoe elastic. I have a sheet of clear worbla and plan on frosting it lightly and making the shoe snowflakes.
Last, but most frustrating is the material for the ice corset. I'm using Josey Rose and Elizabeth Craft sequin film and two sequin punches. I punched one roll of the Josey Rose film in cornflower blue with a small punch, less than an inch, by hand. The second roll is going to get cut on the Cricut once it arrives. You can see the difference in the sequins here, I took the photo in my light box. The far left is the Josey Rose film, the middle is the Elizabeth Craft in Blue Iridescent and the right is the Elizabeth Craft film in light blue metallic. As you can see, it's pretty dark. I'm not going to use that. I plan on using the one inch tiles in the Josey and Elizabeth craft for the base layer of sequins, then a second layer of the small Josey Rose sequins, then a few of both colors in the small size at random on top. Using the hand punches isn't bad, but if you have a Cricut, I seriously rec using it.
It seems like I've done a lot but I have so, so much left to do. Especially fixing the skirt.
I mocked up the dress and the corset to tweak everything and make sure it worked. I wanted the under corset to be a longer line than the ice corset of the dress, and I had to fix the bust line on the Yaya pattern so it would fit with the ice dress pattern. In the Simplicity pattern, the ice corset and the skirt are separate garments, I put them together as one piece for the over dress. The second picture shows the under corset (though it's over the dress for purposes of matching the bust line) and is proof why you should always mock things up because I put the cups in wrong. Oops.
I made the under corset first (lined with Elsa fabric!) out of Yaya's corset coutil. It's comparable, IMO, to the American coutil from corsetmaking.com, not as heavy as the European coutil. The boning is spiral steel. I then attached the skirt lining to the base corset. This was a mistake. Dead dove: do not eat. I might pick out the skirt and reattach it. You'll see why later.
The over dress is a light blue silk with silver lurex shot through it. I flat lined it with a baby blue cotton that was subtly gradient dyed. If I end up redoing the skirt, I might gradient dye the silk and flat line it in that iridescent blue crinkle stuff from Joann for extra ice glitter.
This is why I should not have put the skirt lining on the inner corset. I hemmed the skirt, pressed the hem, then turned it out and bias taped the top of the dress to close it and my hems got pulled somehow and puffed out like mad. So this is where I left the dress. I'm going to pick the hems out and redo them, if they're still weird, I'll just redo the skirt entirely and with purple lining since that's closer to ref images.
The undershirt might end up being a separate piece, too, I haven't decided. But I started with a white sports mesh and dyed it light blue. After I cut the pattern out, I gradient dyed just the bottoms of sleeve cuff. I may go back and go up the arm a little more. I was so paranoid about ruining it that I didn't go up very far. Then I made an upper arm dummy out of cardboard and taped the rhinestone pattern to it, then put wax paper over it. I glued the rhinestones on like this so the mesh was stretched when the rhinestones were applied. Both of the upper arms/elbows are done. I need to do something for the forearm and once the elastic is in the collar and cuff, add rhinestones to the wrist and neck.
I did not use the Simplicity cape pattern, I made my own and it is massive. I'm almost afraid to take it to a convention. It's one solid piece of bridal tulle so it was extra wide and able to accomodate the width and the length without seams. I'm using glitter iron on stuff for the lower and small snowflakes. The large snowflake is going to be glitter tulle that is heat 'n' bonded to the cape mesh. I plan on using silver metallic thread for the hem. Not much is done on the cape yet, I'm using the Frozen cartridge for the Cricut, but I'm waiting on my new one since my old one met with an unfortunate fate (I dropped it down the stairs).
The wig is still in progress, too. The base is a Tauriel from Arda. I'm adding in a pack of wefts. That is not the final braid, it's just to keep the wig from tangling.
The base shoes have a very low heel because I do plan on wearing this to conventions and walking around. I cut out the blue elastic and am going to add in a flesh toned ballet shoe elastic. I have a sheet of clear worbla and plan on frosting it lightly and making the shoe snowflakes.
Last, but most frustrating is the material for the ice corset. I'm using Josey Rose and Elizabeth Craft sequin film and two sequin punches. I punched one roll of the Josey Rose film in cornflower blue with a small punch, less than an inch, by hand. The second roll is going to get cut on the Cricut once it arrives. You can see the difference in the sequins here, I took the photo in my light box. The far left is the Josey Rose film, the middle is the Elizabeth Craft in Blue Iridescent and the right is the Elizabeth Craft film in light blue metallic. As you can see, it's pretty dark. I'm not going to use that. I plan on using the one inch tiles in the Josey and Elizabeth craft for the base layer of sequins, then a second layer of the small Josey Rose sequins, then a few of both colors in the small size at random on top. Using the hand punches isn't bad, but if you have a Cricut, I seriously rec using it.
It seems like I've done a lot but I have so, so much left to do. Especially fixing the skirt.
