Elsa from Frozen- Bodice

Like most people, I love the Disney movie Frozen. It has all the components to a great animated movie: intriguing storyline, significant themes, relatable characters, and beautiful costumes. The outfits Anna and Elsa wear are so adorable, I knew I would have to try to recreate them. Since my sister says I'm like Elsa, that's the costume I decided to sew first.
 
I searched a bit for the perfect fabric for Elsa's bodice. Nothing was really fitting the idea I had in my head, so I decided to make the fabric I wanted myself. I just wanted something to emulate the scale design of her bodice, have sparkle, and be around the same color. How hard could it be?

 I found the McCall's pattern M7000 so I didn't have to draft the whole costume from scratch. Knowing that I wanted to make a detachable bodice, I redrafted the pattern, making it a bit longer so as to cover the waistband of the skirt. I used a heavier cotton fabric with a little stretch that I had on hand to make the bodice. It was a good material, as it was heavy enough to hold the paint, yet flexible enough to bend a bit. After constructing the basic bodice, I put in some plastic boning, which allows the bodice to hold its shape on the body, acting more like a mock corset.  

Just painting, touching up, glittering, cutting, and gluing took forever and a day.
As you can probably tell, I'm not a professional photographer. Most of the time I barely remember to take pictures of my work, so I'd say this is a lot of photographs by my standards. 
 
 
 
 

 Well after many hours toiling, I finally finished it. I put scales on all of the panels and then added an extra layer of glitter. Personally, I'm pretty proud of it, as it took two full days to just paint and glue down the scales. Overall, I hope the rest of the costume will be easier, but I fear for the cape and its rhinestones....