Elena of Avalor Costume

Hi all!!

I know I showed you my family's Halloween costumes last week, so you're probably wondering why I have another costume post for you. 

Well, it turns out Ellie, my not-so-little-anymore Halloween baby had just one main birthday present request.  She wanted me to make her an Elena of Avalor costume, for her Elena of Avalor themed birthday party.  (And you know how parties go in my family...so you know that I'll have more to share about that soon!)

Her party isn't for a few more weeks, but I wanted to knock out the costume early on so that I'd have more time to focus on other party details.  

I really love how this dress turned out.  It's a simple dress, with an elastic neckline that makes it easy for Ellie to dress herself. It ties with a bow in the back. 

 Ellie's favorite part though is the dress skirt.  Boy, o'boy does this dress TWIRL!!!  So, so FUN!   

 I think she likes it! I don't have a full tutorial here for you today, but I will share some more details of the dress, including pattern information, which will hopefully be enough for you to make your own Elena costume if you'd like.

First, let's talk about the hair piece though.  So simple.  I took a few fake flowers and hot glued them onto a hair comb. 

Now for the dress. I've talked before about how I've modified Simplicity 2377 pattern for many of the costumes I've made for my kids.  It’s a very simple, very basic elastic neckline dress pattern.  I used the Simplicity 2377 pattern for the top of this dress.  I just made the bodice pieces a little bit longer to make it so that the bodice hits at the waist.

If you look closely at Ellie's dress, you can see the small sleeves under the ruffle.  The ruffle piece is just sewn together with the rest of the neckline.  The actual ruffle piece is cut using the pattern piece for McCall's M7454 "D."

 I included a piece of gold ribbon to make a belt around the front of the dress, and incorporated ties into the side seams.

Combining these two patterns made the dress come together much for quickly.  No finicky zippers.  Just a simple back with ties to make a bow in the back.
Now for the skirt.  Oh that skirt!  So much fabric!  The skirt was put together the same way as the skirt for McCall's M7454 "D." It was really nice having the pattern pieces for the ruffles...because it was super nice to not have to work out how much fabric, etc. I needed.

 I know it's not a full tutorial, but I hope my breaking the dress apart helps a bit if you'd like to make your own Elena of Avalor dress! 

I hope you are all having a GREAT week and I'll be back here soon with more Elena of Avalor party details!

XOXO,

Jill