My 4 year old daughter is currently obsessed with Elsa, one of the sisters in Disney’s latest movie, Frozen.  Unfortunately, the dresses are sold out until March. That’s a long time in a little girl’s world so I thought I’d make her cape to play with until the dresses are back in stock. I found this gorgeous sheer material (I think it’s organza) with sparkly silver detailing at Joann’s.

I took the fabric to my Mom’s house and we set out to make this cape. And by making it together, I mean, I told her what I wanted and she made it. The end result looked great but was far from ideal.  It turned out looking more like a super hero cape than an Elsa cape. I also had big concerns about the safety of the cape. I didn’t want the fastener to hang at her neck because I was using a ribbon tie instead of velcro closures. The cape was designed to lay over her shoulder with the tie around her chest, which would have worked great if she just, you know, stood still.  But it turns out little girls like to run around so they can see it flowing behind them and sure enough the tie would eventually end up around her neck. Not good. So it was back to the drawing board.

Maybe attaching elastic rings at both ends so she could slip her arms through it and sort of “wear it” would solve the problem? No need for ties and the cape would drape much more like Elsa’s, starting near the top of her back.  Then crazy thoughts started flooding in. Wouldn’t it be great to add sheer sleeves to this? What top would she wear with this? A tank top? And what about the skirt? Make I can make a skirt too.  And before I knew it, this “make a cape” project turned into a full blow “make the entire ensemble” project. I’ve never sewn a garment in my life but I wasn’t going to let that deter me. That’s not true. I made a dress once in my high school home economics class. (Do they even offer that in high school nowadays?  Man, I’m dating myself here.)

I made a sloppy mockup out of muslin, pinned all the pieces on Madeline to make sure it fit and sent a photo of it to my mom. She called me and said (in Chinese), “The back looks great. The front….needs work.” I asked her if she could teach me how to fix it, or rather, make it properly and she replied as she always does with my sewing requests, “Yes.” I thought back on past projects we’ve undertaken. They all started with the best of intentions – me wanting to learn from my mom – but somewhere along the way I would get impatient or scared I would mess up and she always ended up taking over and finishing the project for me.

I don’t want this project to end up like the others. I want to see this through to the end. I want to do everything from beginning to end. I want to learn this trade from my mom. I want to learn as much as I can from her.

Armed with the muslin pieces and drove to Downtown LA to shop for fabric. It took me two hours to make all fabric selections, 5 in all just for the Elsa dress. (I also got material to make an Anna dress for Audrey. )

The following day I got a crash course in sewing. My mom taught me how to turn the muslin mockup into a proper pattern, she taught me how to cut fabric properly (I was handling it the way I would cut paper and my cuts were jaggy) and she taught me how to sew gathers. Cutting fabric is hard. I have to unlearn my paper cutting habits. Sewing straight lines? Even harder. I lost count how many times I had to rip out my work and start over.

The dress is almost done. This weekend’s project? Add sheer sleeves, cape and I need to figure out the best way to bustle the train.

#elsadressinthemaking