Let’s turn this magical Elsa cape into a wearable, detachable costume piece!
This is where we left off after Part 1! Now we’re going to gather the top edge of this cape into a bias tape and ribbon strip.
Luckily for me, I already had some vintage bias tape in the perfect, pale aqua color and the perfect width in my stash! I bought this lovely ribbon at JOANN Fabric and Craft to go on top.
Next, I measured across the back of each of the three Elsa dresses. (Yes, I made this cape to go with Elsa-esque dresses that I found for each of our girls!) In the movie, Frozen, the Elsa cape looks like it starts just in front of each armpit and goes across the back.
So, I took these measurements on each of the three dresses. Annika’s was the smallest measurement, at twelve inches. Emma’s was the largest, at fourteen inches. I cut fifteen inches of bias tape, to include seam allowance, and cut a strip of elastic at twelve inches.
Next, I matched the edge of the bias tape (right sides together) and stitched them to form a large circle. Then, I cut a piece of the ribbon that was long enough to cover the length of the top side. (Plus extra to fold under and enclose the raw edges, of course!)
There are probably several different ways to do these next steps. I did them by hand because I was costuming on the go! We were heading up to our family’s Lake Wenatchee cabin.
I marked the cape and the bias tape into quarters. Then, I gathered each quarter section of the cape to fit within the quarter sections of the bias tape.
Sorry about the lighting! I did the hand-gathering in the car. We were taking a potty stop in Leavenworth when I took these pictures. Life with kids. What can I say?
Once we got the kids to bed, at the cabin, I hand-tacked the cape gathers to the bias tape.
Now, I needed to add the elastic to give the cape its stretch to fit a variety of sizes.
Then, I marked quarter sections on the elastic and the second half of the bias tape. I pinned them together at these points.
I stretched the elastic as I hand-stitched it down the center of the bias tape.
Next, I matched the front and back sides of the bias tape at the quarter marks and pinned them at those points.
Then, I whip-stitched the top and bottom edges of the bias tape together.
Lastly, I sewed three snaps onto the capes and onto the dresses. I sewed the female sides of the snaps to the dresses and the male sides to the cape.
Here is the finished cape!
Here you can see a detail of the elasticized bias tape at the top…
…and the reverse view, with the snaps.
Now you can see the cape on Emma! See how it snaps on and off?
Here she is! Elsa is about to take off across the fjord. (Or, Lake Wenatchee!)
I can’t wait to show you more pictures from this magical photo shoot in my next post!
