I love Elsa's ice blue signature dress, but for me, the real style magic for the ice queen is in her coronation gown. The jewel tones and simplified rosemaling motifs are just delicious. So I decided to make a little sweatjacket for myself based on the design of Elsa's beautiful dress.
I started this jacket with a tried-and-true pattern. I am not even sure how long I've had this one, but it's been the basis of many projects. It's out of print, but any jacket pattern you like can be adapted.
I first laid out my two front pieces together, and drew a design line to mark out where the color break between the black and teal would go.
Using that line as a guide, I traced my pattern to create the separate upper and lower elements of each piece. I added a 1/4-inch seam allowance ONLY to the upper sections that would be cut in black.
Once my pieces were cut, I fused small teal, berry, and light blue satin pieces to Heat'N Bond. Then I cut out a basic version of queen Elsa's design elements. I just freehanded mine, using movie images as a guide, cutting a mirror for each piece after I had the initial shapes where I liked them. Here are my shapes laid out on my fabrics prior to fusing:
One note: If your jacket pattern has pockets like mine does (and you want to keep that design detail), test the layout of your pieces to make sure the designs sit above any stitching lines your pocket may require. You can stitch through the designs after they're applied, but I prefer to preserve the design lines of my hard work!
Once I had fused my design pieces on, I stitched around each of them with a zig-zag stitch. I also placed the teal pieces over the black upper pieces with a 1/4-inch overlap and stitched them into place.
Then I joined my center front pieces to my side front pieces. As you can see below, my teal sections don't match up perfectly at the seam. But as trim goes over this line, it wasn't a concern.
I used a scrap of gold taffeta to cut a bias strip about 1.5 inches wide and long enough to go all the way around my jacket. (The back is pieced with the teal and black just like the front.) I pressed the raw edges of the trim under to create a strip about half an inch wide, and I stitched that over the line where the teal was joined to the black. I had stitched my back and front pieces together before attaching the gold trim, so I was able to apply it in one continuous line.
After that, it was just a matter of setting in the sleeves and zipper. For the top stitching along the zipper on each side, I switched out my top thread colors as I went, so I used mostly teal, but then a little gold and a bit of black as I came to those sections, just to keep the look a little more elegant.
I also cut a basic mandarin collar to finish the neckline. I had debated about including a pale yellow hood to mimic Elsa's hair, or a magenta capelet like the one she wears in the film, but I was so delighted with the clean lines of the jacket that I opted to keep things unfussy.
And now I have a fun jacket that "Frozen" fans will immediately be able to identify. For anyone not in the know about the kingdom of Arendelle (do those people exist?), it will probably just look like an embellished jacket.
I love that it's sporty, but that I'll also feel like royalty when I wear it! ;)
