The Shoes

I held off on the shoes for a long time.

I couldn't decided exactly what I wanted to do about them. The actual shoes in the film are transparent kitten heels with a pointed toe box, open sides, and icy details to match the train. Research unearthed several options and I wasn't totally happy with any of them. Most makers I found seemed to use either a shoe with pre-existing clear straps or just a plain heel that they sliced the shoe's upper off of and used acetate sheets for the ice details.

I have never had good luck getting soles to stick to uppers. I know that it is perfectly possible and other makers have had some absolutely lovely results with this method. I, however, have always been very hard on shoes at the best of times and as terribly as I was tempted to get the perfect transparent look, I could just see my shoes literally coming apart at the seams in the middle of the first event I wore them to if I tried this.

Instead, I took another popular route and trimmed and painted existing shoes. They wouldn't be transparent, but they wouldn't fall apart while I was wearing them. I found a pair of Christian Sirano heels at Payless for about ten dollars that, while taller than I’d hoped, had the toe box shape I was looking for. I carefully sliced off the sides, taped off the sole and insole and based them in gesso. The base coat ended up being about four layers, just to keep the very royal blue from peeking through. Then, using acrylic paint (in this case, Folk Art acrylic, which can be found fairly cheaply at most craft stores), I blended out a teal to match the skirt and bodice. I finished them with the Golden Gel Medium and glitter mix I used on the bodice to give them a little more of an icy look.

They served their purpose and didn’t look out of place for Halloween, but I’m still not super happy with them. I liked the paint job, but the gel medium didn’t read as well as I’d hoped and because after the Halloween festivities I was sick and tired of glitter and teal, I just sort of left them as-is and didn’t detail the way I’d planned. I plan to redo them properly with clear worbla and resin in the near future.

Styling

I cannot do my own makeup.

I probably couldn’t be trusted to do anyone else’s either, but my eyesight is so poor without glasses, I quite literally cannot see my face clearly in a mirror. My eyesight is also so poor that contacts have never been an option and thus I never even properly learned how to apply makeup beyond lipgloss. I don’t even try anymore. I phone a friend.

In this case, the friend actually volunteered. I’d been talking non-stop about my misadventures with glitter and chiffon and she was horrified to learn I didn’t plan on wearing any makeup at all with my dress. She’s the sort who loves fake eyelashes and contour pallets and I only vaguely know that those are things, so she took care of me and did some spectacular things with purple eyeshadow for me.

Now the wig, I could handle.

I picked one up at on of our local shops for about $60. It was a little more than I wanted to pay and more than I know is available online, but, as with fabrics, I like to see this sort of thing in person. I did also get a fitting with it, so I could see exactly where the length would hit me and what the color looked like against my skin in true daylight.

I used a bump-it to keep the shape of the front and braided a side braid the rest of the way down. I hot glued some snowflake sequins to bobby pins to accent the braid. I avoided cutting or setting it in any permanent sort of way, since the wig I selected is also the right length and color for a Season One Danearys Targaryen and I like keeping my options open, but I was pretty pleased with the overall look.

Olaf

I cheated on this one and bought an Olaf bag from Amazon. It was a week before Halloween and I still hadn’t put sleeves on my bodice and I didn’t have time to bust out a thematically appropriate bag without the help of the internet. Fifteen dollars and two day shipping later, I had an Olaf.

Ostensively, Olaf was a plushy backpack. He had straps and a zipper, but the pocket which would make him an actual pack was barely large enough to fit a credit card, much less a phone or a whole wallet.

It was ridiculously easy to rip out the tragically small zipper and pocket. I stitched up a quick pocket of my own out of muslin and removed some of Olaf’s stuffing to make enough room for a phone, wallet, and house keys. Because of the awkward shape of Olaf’s plushy body, I hand stitched the pocket in and because it was the day before the California Academy of Sciences’ NiteLife Halloween costume party and I still had a top to complete, I added velcro for the closure and I was set.

And that was it for the Snow Queen Dress!

Overall, I was very pleased with how things turned out. Some of the styling elements, mainly the shoes and my hairstyling skills need a little adjustment for future events and a new set of photos need to be taken (the one above features me attempting to pose with a 102°F fever and trying not to be ill), but generally speaking, I was very, very happy with how things turned out. :)

The Elsa Dress - Part Four

Jakku Rey - Part One

The Elsa Dress - Part Three