Elsa - Progress

Good News:  YES!  Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga is working on "Elsa" styled Frozen Princess dresses for adult sized rental.  These will be deluxe costumes that rent for $45 each.

Good News:  YES!  We will have an extra full run of 14 dresses, in our normal rental sizes, 4 each of Junior (XS-Sm), Standard (Md-Lg), Plus (XL-2XL) and 2 in size Texas Small (3XL-4XL) 

Bad News:  NO!  I don't know when they will be finished.  Currently, we have 14 dress and jacket sets cut out and are sewing 8 sets at the moment to try to cover all the parades, conventions, charity events and birthday parties as quickly as possible.  However, since I let the cat out of the bag that I was working on them, I've been getting hammered with inquiries wanting to know when they will be ready, what will they look like, and "What do you mean it's not going to look just like Elsa?"  These are things that are very difficult to explain over the phone, so let's try to answer those questions here.

Ok, the main question I'm getting is "When?" but the more difficult question is "What's it going to look like?  Will it look like the doll? the dress that was available for Halloween? the one on Once Upon a Time?"  The answer is NO, it will be unique to Beauty and the Beast as it would be copyright  infringement for us to make an exact copy PLUS those designs are totally unsuitable for rental.

My first problem was to re-design the costume to be sturdy enough to simply hang on a hanger.  The sheer fabric across the shoulders would never hold up a heavy dress on our rental racks.  The second problem was to make it a wearable costume that will look good on multiple sizes as each person cannot have a perfectly fitted bodice.  The only solution was to make a sleeveless 'under dress' with a bolero jacket to create the baby blue sleeve effect and hold the flowing cape.

Finally, I had to find machine washable fabrics in quantities large enough to make 14 identical costumes, at less than retail cost.  If the dresses had to be dry cleaned, it would ad an additional $10 to $20 to each rental price.  Expensive fabrics and trims drive the cost up even higher.  That would make Elsa rentals as much as $75 which would be out of the price range of most of our clientele. 

Here is what we figured out.  The under dress is a sleeveless version of McCall's 5206 Snow Queen.  The pattern was altered to have a full lining in the bodice for extra strength and comfort.  The dress is made of heavy bridal satin in a beautiful aqua color.  A matching sequin dot fabric adorns the chest area with a touch of extra sequin trim.

The bolero jacket is from Simplicity 2072 but will not close in the front.  It will be baby blue stretch velvet to lend strength to the garment and accommodate women with larger upper arms.  The attached flowing 'cape' will be from the McCall's 7000 pattern and be very light blue cotton chiffon with sequin trim.