Renaissance Elsa

I had an idea. Well, I always have ideas, but seldom do I actually complete them because I have so many. But this one was too much fun to pass up: a Renaissance-inspired Elsa. I based the design on Elsa’s travel outfit from Frozen II, with the “jacket” as an open front overdress. Instead of long sleeves for the overdress, I made detachable ones that connect to the shoulder straps in 3 places. I Houdini’d these sleeves as far as construction is concerned. If you asked, I wouldn’t be able to tell you how I put them together to close every seam. The buttons on the sleeves are functional for the scalloped openings.

On to the trims! The diamonds on the hem are all hand embroidered with the 4 spirits of the forest, there are 32 total, four on each of the 8 panels of the skirt. I did some machine satin stitching to give some depth and then added a ton of rhinestones. The drops on the hem is a lamp/upholstery trim that I was just lucky to find. The bodice is adorned with more fabric diamonds and ribbon. The belt and the front of the dress also feature handsewn pearls. The applique on the belt is just that, and thank goodness – making that by hand would be a lot of work.

Finally, the accessories. I hand painted the shoes with Angelus Leather paint, mixing a blue and white together for the base color. I then painstakingly did two coats of white paint on all that filigree. And the topper: the wig is just a lace front from Amazon that I styled. This is now the third Elsa wig I have done, and I’m quite chuffed with her.