Italian Renaissance Elsa

If there’s something that you can count on from me it’s that I will dig through pages and pages of crystals to find the best sparkles for my favorite girl. My hours of wasted time is your gain! By the way, some of the links featured below are affiliate links. If you click and purchase one of products, I might receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting my cosplay addiction!

Fabric

Cape – I haven’t gotten any pictures of the cape yet, so you’ll just have to believe me when I say it exists. I love this fabric. It’s super light and has such a lovely flow. I’ve used it in a bunch of projects and haven’t encountered any issue with dying it. 

Over Dress – I’ve used this shantung sateen on more projects than I can count. It has a lovely weight and I like having the opportunity to choose between the shiny and textured sides.

Under Dress/Lining – This is a very basic/inexpensive taffeta. I’ve used it before for dresses in my early cosplay projects, but now I use it mostly to line dresses or give undergarments more body. It takes dye relatively well, as long as it’s a polyester dye. 

Embroidery

Embroidery Floss – So. Much. Embroidery. I was working on this project during the height of the lockdown so all my threads were bought online. This was a bit a bit tricky since I couldn’t see anything in person. As a result, it took several tries to get the colors I was envisioning. 
Satin Floss: S552, S798, S995, and S797
Metallic: D168 and D415.

Dye

iDye Poly – This is probably my favorite dye for synthetic fabrics. Make sure you use it in a well ventilated area, the fumes are no joke.

Shiny Things

Flatback Gems– I love how bright and shiny these are. I want an excuse to use them in all my cosplays. These gems are all over Elsa’s gown. 

Mini Rhombus Crystals – These crystals were used as accent on the bodice. They are super tiny, but I wanted something small that would fit in the geometric shapes along the bodice.

Rhinestones – These are the gems along the hem of the overdress. The colors I used were pink, lake blue, blue, and sapphire blue.

Crystal Chain – I acutally used this chain for my Hannah Alexander Catwoman design. For Elsa, this is what I used to create the latice patterns on the lower sleeves.