The Easiest DIY Elsa Dress {Ever!!}

This is the easiest do-it-yourself Elsa dress, ever! I’ll share how to create an Elsa costume that is great for Halloween or older girls that have a hard time finding princess costumes in their size. This dress can be modified using different colors. Create the look of any Disney princess dress using this same pattern.

Easy Elsa Costume

If you have a daughter any older than 8, finding a good-quality princess dress that costs less than $50 can be tricky. Seriously, if you’ve got tips, please share! Most princess dresses are marketed to younger girls, under the age of 10. It’s challenging to find a princess dress for less than $50, that will last through one night of trick-or-treating.

My friend Kristen came to me the other day and explained how hard it is to find a nice princess dress for her daughter who is 9. Most of the dresses out there are marketed at babies or toddlers and because she isn’t old enough to fit an adult size, she was running into trouble. Well, together we came up with a great solution that costs less than $20 and took only an hour to make.

You Can Do This

You have to believe me when I say, you can make this! This is definitely the easiest dress you will ever make. You will be so proud of your craftiness and you will save a ton of money.

Read: Make a No-Sew Star Wars BB-8 Tutu Costume for Girls!

What You Need

Kristen picked up a great thermal top and bottom set from Walmart. If you’re trick-or-treating anywhere in the Mid-West, you will definitely want this! Here is everything we used:

• One bolt of blue tulle – I bought the entire bolt thinking it would be enough for several dresses. We ended up using the entire thing on this dress.
• 1 yd. of stretchy sequin embellishment – I got mine at Hobby Lobby. Or  use this from Amazon!
• 1 yd. of white, stretchy woven material – I got mine at Hobby Lobby. Or use this from Amazon!
• Thermal top and bottoms to go underneath

 

For the Top

Here is how to create the top portion of this dress:

1. First, measure how much stretchy woven fabric you need to gently stretch around the torso of your model. We stretched it just tight enough to sty up and fit comfortably and allowed some extra for seam allowance. Cut to size.
2. If you buy the stretchy sequins like I did, you’ll want to sew them onto the top of your white material first. Gently stretch as you sew so both materials remain stretchable. For a new-sew option, you could weave this through the holes in the fabric or pin it.
3. Now, turn right sides together and sew the two ends together to form a tube top. Use a machine or hand stitch. For a new-sew option you could also tie the pieces together using tulle.

Read: No-Sew How to Train Your Dragon Toothless Costume

For the Skirt

Here is how to create the bottom portion of the dress:

1. Cut strips of tulle about 6″ wide and long enough so when folded in half, they make the full length of the skirt.
2. Push the “loop” end of your tulle through the first hole in the bottom of your tube top, from the front to the inside. Now, pull the loop down and thread the ends of the tulle through the loop and pull tight.
3. Do this all the way around, threading tulle through every hole all the way around the bottom of the tube top.

For the Straps

1. Once the bottom is done, have your model try the dress on.
2. Take a strip of tulle and thread it through a hole at the top and center of your tube top. Thread another end through and pull so you have equal lengths coming out the back.
3. Bring a piece up over the shoulder and knot on the other side of the tube top. I knotted mine under the sequin boarder to hide the knot. Let the access tulle hang for the cape.