Frozen Dresses

This is way behind in being posted but I still wanted to write it even though it is about three months delayed.

We have become close with a special family. Their mommy (aka Iron Woman) is going to graduate school. Having done that with two small children I know how tough it is. She's just as crazy as I am and is doing it with three small children. We have a fairly complex schedule of juggling kid duties on my non-work days (Tues-Thurs). We are more than happy to do it to help as part of a team effort to help her through school. Let me tell you, it has been such a blessing to us to have these kiddos around and to have this special family in our lives.

For the girls' birthdays this summer I made them Frozen dresses. The older, L (T's age), asked me one day on the way home from kindergarten last year, "Ms. J, could you make me a Frozen dress?" (as I had just made one for Sarah). I replied, "I don't know, L. I have a lot of projects going on. Maybe I can finish it for Christmas." She was totally fine with that. Well, I really wanted to get them done for their birthdays. At that point, there were very few Frozen costumes or even homemade Frozen dresses available. I had designed my older daughter's from my own ideas. It was not perfect but it was comfortable, washable, and most importantly, sufficiently Frozen for her.

It took about a month to pull these together but it was worth the expression on L's face when she saw it. She would lament to me, "Christmas is a long time away". So I had a little "Christmas in July" gathering for our two families - put up a tree and hung stockings and everything. I had the gifts wrapped under the tree and at the end of our evening together they opened their gifts. I kept waiting for the "ah hah" moment when L would realize what Christmas in July meant but she did not quite catch on which was also exciting because it kept things a surprise. When gifts were opened, she was one happy girl. There is a photo of L with arms in the air from excitement.

However, this event did spark a tradition which we plan to pursue each year and that is "Christmas in July". My four year old, Lil Sister or S, wanted to hear about Baby Jesus every night before bed for several nights and she still requests Jesus stories for bedtime. Because all of us have birthdays around Christmas as well as all the craziness the holiday season brings, getting the full dose of Christmas joy is often hard. This was a great way to be able to bring that back and focus on the true meaning versus just going from one family gathering or event to another. 

Some of the photos are provided by Iron Woman and some I took. I have to say, the girls' dresses turned out better than S's. She still loves hers, though, and I will likely make her another when she out grows this current one or decides she wants a different look. Oh, and it went perfectly as  L and B's birthday party was, of course - Frozen!

About the photos - early ones are from our Christmas in July celebration - tree, cookie making, Nativity stickers, cookie decorating (oh yes, it went everywhere and I am still finding Christmas colored food beads but it was still awesome), and gift opening. 

I have also included some of just the dresses and how I put them together. (I used buttons to attach the capes versus velco. I crocheted the snowflakes and the edging on the dresses. I did also make the crowns and the storage bags. 

I also had to make my little baby daughter a special dress to wear to the birthday party - an Anna dress (she was SO cute I just kept smiling seeing her in her little dress). 

I also added some photos of S wearing her Frozen wig which I made from yarn. I crocheted a few snowflakes to put on it so it looks more Frozeny (I think that word needs to be added to the English dictionary after all the crazy Frozen phenomenon. 

Last set of photos are the girls wearing their dresses and maybe one crazy one of their older brother being silly wearing the matching gloves (that was my sweet Hubby's contribution - he wanted in on the fun, too). Little B was showing her unhappiness that I made the sleeves of her dress a bit too tight. Don't worry, I think the problem has since been fixed as I put in new elastic in them.