Elsa Dress and Frozen Party

Frozen Birthday Party

My daughter turned 8 and of course wanted nothing more than a Frozen birthday party! Yes- I admit that's what I wanted too! Frozen is so fun and there are sooo many cute things to do with it!

I started off with making her a Frozen Elsa dress. 

I thought about just turning one of her Cinderella dresses into Elsa, but a little girl can never have too many dress up dresses so I made a new one.
After hunting all through Pinterest for the perfect idea to pattern after I changed my initial direction. I first planned to make a gorgeously fancy dress, but after remembering how often my daughter wears her costumes, both inside and outdoors, I thought it would be best to make a more sturdy and durable dress instead.

Here's the simple solution I came up with. It took about 20 minutes to complete.

I took one of my daughter's old long sleeved t-shirts. I didn't mind that it was slightly too short on her waist since that part would be covered anyway.

Then I used an old teal-colored jersey maxi skirt that I had but never wore. I pinned the maxi skirt to the outside of her white shirt creating a slightly sweet-heart shaped bust line.

I then cut a long rectangle with a slightly angled bottom out of some sheer light blue fabric that was $0.97/yard from Walmart. Measure the rectangle cape shape from your daughter's shoulder blade line to the floor (don't forget the seem allowance). The rectangle needs to be wide enough to have a little bit of gathering in the center of the back and still go under the arm pits till it slightly shows on the front view. I hemmed the edges but fray check would work great too.

I tucked the cape into the maxi skirt, pinned, then sewed the cape and maxi skirt to the shirt at the same time.

You can now embellish the Elsa dress with snowflakes, sparkles, rhinestones, or fabric paint.

I know most people won't just happen to have a teal maxi skirt hanging around their house. But making one would be super simple and quick. Buy the color fabric you wish to use (perferably in a play and wash friendly fabric).
Use a tutorial like this using your daughter's bust line as the measurements for the waist.

Another option would be to use a teal t-shirt as a skirt using this idea:

Now onto the party!

The decorations really made a big differnce! 

There's no need to spend a lot of money on decorations though. 3 Dollar Tree table cloths transformed into curtains make a huge impact for cheap. Just tape them up, cut them up the center then tie them together. Cut some construction paper into large circles, then spiral cut them round and around to the center, and hang for some super cheap and easy ceiling decorations.

Food

We served my daughter's favorites- chicken salad sandwiches on crossaint rolls. Put a little sign next to them and you've got Anna and Prince Hans' shared sandwiches.

Push a baby carrot into the center of powdered donuts for mini Olaf snacks.

Serve blue Hawaiian Punch mixed with sprite in a pretty punch bowl or drink dispenser.

The cake

I ran out of time as I was rushing around getting ready for the party and literally had 10 minutes to decorate the cake. Luckily I had already baked and let cool 2 8 inch round cakes.

I quickly leveled the tops of each cake, slapped a little frosting in the middle and positioned the 2 stacked cakes on a pretty cake stand.

Here's one of my favorite frosting tips:
buy the tubs of already made frosting in the baking isle, you know the cheap little tubs of Betty Crocker kinds. I bought a blue rasberry flavored one, but white with blue food coloring would work just as well. I know you're thinking there's no way you can frost with those cheap tubs of too soft frosting. Well here's the trick- add a few cups of powdered sugar to the store bought frosting a little at a time until you get the stiff consistency that you want. This works great because you still keep the flavor of the tub frosting!

For this cake since I knew I was really tight on time I did the quickest fault-forgiving decorating style I know- rose buds.

First give your cake a super quick crumb coating layer. This thin flat layer of frosting will ensure that crumbs won't be getting in your way as much and will disguise any gaps you might have in your flower decorations.

Use your largest star frosting tip and start at the bottom of the cake where you'll make small circular patterns all around. For a rose bud look start in the center of each rose, squeeze the frosting out slowly and evenly wrapping around the starting point of your circle about 2 times.
Move your tip over to where the center of the next rose bud would be and make another circular rose pattern.
Once you finish the bottom row of flowers start your next rose bud slightly off center from the bottom level. By shifting the flowers over slightly you'll fill in the gaps more completely.
Continue spacing your flowers all over working your way up the cake.
Once you reach the top edge of your cake keep working your way in towards the top center of the cake so that the final rose bud is in the very center.
I placed edible pearls in the center of each rose bud.
Stick your candles in and you're done!
I did all this in 10 minutes, but was feeling crazy rushed. I would suggest giving yourself a little more time than that! :)

Activities

We started the party off with a sing-a-long time to the movie as we waited for all the guests to arrive. It was fun to hear all the girls singing "Let it Go" at the top of their lungs!

While they were singing and playing I painted Queen Elsa crowns on their faces. They LOVED this!

Next we ate and as they finished I pulled one girl over at a time to paint their nails a pretty sparkly blue.

We took some pictures then moved on to the cutest game ever- toilet paper snowmen!
My husband rolled each of the girls up in toilet paper. (Don't make our same mistake of using the cheapest 1-ply stuff. I bought it special for the party and it broke every other second!) Add some winter hats, gloves and scarves and you have the cutest little snowmen ever!

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

We finished the party with gifts then cake and ice cream.

It was one of the greatest Frozen parties ever! We loved every minute of it!