Turning a Mother of the Bride Dress into a Child's "Frozen" Costume

My granddaughter, along with most other children her age, is obsessed with the movie "Frozen".  It's the first movie she and her 4 1/2 year old brother ever saw in a movie theater.  When they came to visit a few months ago, my husband and I treated them to this movie, along with popcorn and a drink -- we wanted to let them have the full movie-going experience. Some of you may think it's odd that they had never seen a movie in a theater before, but their family lives in a foreign country and their parents rarely watch television -- unless of course its sports, which my son is obsessed with. So, when "Frozen" came out, we knew we had to take them.

After watching the movie my grandchildren started acting out scenes from the show.  One day, my granddaughter spotted some sheer luminescent fabric in my stash of fabrics, and draped it on her shoulders, declaring, "Grandma this would make a "Frozen" princess dress for me."  You know, grandmas and their grandkids are so in sync, so of course I'd been thinking the same thing. So I told her I'd make her a princess dress for her birthday.  Well, that birthday is next month and my package will take a while to arrive at her home so far away. So, the dress has been completed and I'm pretty pleased to send it her way so she can show off her "Frozen" Princess Dress.

The fabric I used in addition to the sheer stuff was an old Mother of the Bride dress I wore when my first daughter got married several years ago. This is what it looked like then: 

Here's how the back of the "Frozen" dress turned out:

I used this Simplicity pattern #4927, lengthening the sleeves and the dress bodice:

I didn't hem the sleeves because I made sure the edge was lined-up on the salvage:

Once I sewed together the basic dress, I gathered the sheer fabric and stitched it onto the back, swooping it to a gentle flowing length. Wherever possible, I used the salvage edge of this fabric since it frayed a lot.

And what's a "Frozen" dress without snowflakes?  Along the bottom of the knit fabric, with a washable fabric marker, I drew snowflakes - no two exactly alike. Then I stitched and embroidered these snowflakes using white embroidery thread, mingled with a few white and blue sequins. A little princess needs sparkle and bling, of course. Here's a close-up of those finished snowflakes:

I've been wondering if this new princess dress will move into my granddaughter's favorite dress category or if the fish dress will still be her favorite thing to wear?  

xoxo Grandma

Linked:  Crafty Allie, Project Run and Play, The Dedicated House, Threading My Way, 2 Crochet Hooks, Nap-time Creations, Brooklyn Berry Designs