Frozen: How to Make an Elsa Cape

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Posted 2014-05-01 by Shannon Meyerkort ⇒ follow

It's practically impossible to get your hands on official Disney Frozen dress-ups right now. The most successful Disney movie ever created has spawned a world-wide shortage of Elsa costumes as everyone (grown-ups included) scramble to become the feisty Ice Queen.

With three ice princesses in my household, all claiming to be Elsa, I needed to find a cheap and easy solution. I own a sewing machine but my talents are pretty much limited to sewing straight lines, so this is a very basic cape that doesn't require anything fancy. It cost me around $15 a cape and took about 15 minutes to sew each one.

What you need:
The most important thing is some suitably icy fabric. I went to Spotlight and bought four metres of a very soft and flowy micro-sequined fabric which was on sale for $8 a metre. You can use any fabric as long as it isn't too heavy or stiff, and it drapes nicely.

A wide ribbon in a matching colour. I bought four metres of a one inch ribbon at $2.50 per metre

A sewing machine, pins and a large safety pin.

What size should you make:
Measure your ice princess from shoulder to the floor. Elsa has a long flowing cape so it's better if it touches the ground. The longer the cape, the wider you should make it too: it's better for swooshing.

These are the dimensions I used:
2 year old: 70 cm length, 100cm wide, plus 110cm ribbon
4 year old: 80cm length, 130cm wide, plus 140cm ribbon
7 year old: 100cm length, 160cm wide, plus 150cm ribbon

Step 1:
If your fabric is likely to fray, you will need to hem the sides and the bottom of the cape. I skipped this step because my highly artificial fabric looked pretty robust. I am also a very lazy sewer.

Step 2:
Fold down about one inch of fabric along the length of the top of the cape to create a pocket. If your fabric clearly has a 'right' and a 'wrong' side, make sure you pin and sew on the rough side, making it the inside of the cape. This is the pocket which will hold the ribbon drawstring.

Step 3:
Hem the edge of your ribbons to stop them from fraying, and then fold one end in half and secure a large, strong safety pin through one end. Push the safety pin inside the pocket and work it through until it comes out the other side. Remove safety pin.

Gather your cape in the middle third of the ribbon (preferably measuring on your Princess to get it right) and then secure the cape on the ribbons using a few stitches. This will prevent you having to rethread the ribbon every few minutes when Elsa and Anna have a fight and pull the ribbon out of the cape.

Step 4:
Stand back and watch the magic.