Since its December 2013 premiere, Christmas can’t pass without Ice Magic and Elsa, but once we’re a little disgusted with the ice queen’s bluish dress, it’s time to create something unique. Fortunately, the internet is full of better and better fan-arts about Elsa: Dark, Aqua, Flora, Terra, and countless other names and ideas have come to light. Still, Fire Elsa became my favorite, so in 2016 I started making the costume, which required a lot of patience, and friendly support, and was not exempt from tipping over, gluing into nights, and intoxication.
How do we get started?
First and foremost, choose the right ingredients: glitter decor rubber, textile glue, precision scissors, a mannequin, crystals, and most importantly, a corset. To find a good corset size, the waist size should be taken as a basis, and it is important to use a relatively comfortable piece as the base of the costume. I ordered the corset and crystals online, while I bought the decor rubber and textile glue at a store in Budapest. Three tubes of glue were used, and I bought different shades of decor rubber, four per color: red, orange, dark orange, and gold.
The pieces of decor rubber should be cut into the desired shape well in advance, this became the extended parallelogram for me, I drew the lines with the help of a ruler and cut them along them to extract the desired shapes. This is no small game of patience, as a nice straight cut and accuracy are important. It’s worth planning the location of the color scheme, I optically slender my waist by using a darker shade of orange on the edge of the corset – the same goes for any color scheme.
Patience, patience, patience
And now it’s time for a real patience game because we have to stick the cut pieces one by one on the corset. It is worth starting the costume from below and deciding in advance whether to let a few pieces hang in the air from below or start working right in the corset line. Luckily, the textile glue dries relatively quickly, but when we get to the limit of discoloration, it’s worth resting for a good one hour (I had to rest for days), because then the pieces that have already been put on may slip a bit. It’s okay to see a little more of the underlying corset, as the next layer will cover everything. When colors meet, you may want to make a small transition without a sharp border between the colors. It’s worth putting a couple of movies or series into basic noise that we know well, if you want to be authentic, then Disney movies are the winners.
Unfortunately, I didn’t joke before, a second layer is needed, but here we have to be more careful because the glue glides better on the glossy surface, it will take even more patience and perseverance than before, but even after the first layer, the corset looks wonderful. And if we can’t take our nerves anymore, well, let it go and take a longer break! And if you can still see a few protruding parts, or just want to reinforce them in the gradient, you can also glue pieces that match the third layer to some places.
If there are pieces of cut decor rubber left or just the wrong shape, you might want to put them away, because they could come in handy at any time if a stray piece of decor rubber falls off (I left three pieces in total after two con and three photos, so you can handle it) in the already formed form, gradient.
The crystals are worth gluing at the very end, I bought two types of colors, red and gold, so I didn’t use stones for the orange part. (Picture 7) It is not worth gluing them everywhere, as it is basically a very striking, glittering costume, less is more now in terms of crystals. They toss up the corset, but especially when they get closer to us. You might want to put a ribbon that matches the color scheme in your corset to harmonize with the costume, find plenty of pieces of the right thickness in a hobby shop or haberdashery store – to keep the threads out of it, you might want to “fry” them a little with a lighter.
Although at first, I thought I would leave the ruffled part on top of the corset on the costume – because it would look great – unfortunately I was wrong, so I managed to stretch my patience again as I could no longer peel off the ruffle, so I decided to dye what I used a light gold textile dye and then a glitter gold decor textile dye. So before you get into the making process, think carefully about your plans, and even at the very end, nothing is lost, as good cosplayers solve everything! I painted the unwanted ruffle in three coats, both on the outside and inside, and then applied it in two coats of glitter paint.
Accessories and ideas
For a cloak, I used three feet long and one and a half feet wide organza, luckily I found a piece with an orange and gold gradient. On the longitudinal part, it is worth folding in half and then cutting one side in a large, circular arc (this will be the lower part of the mantle), while on the other side a smaller arc cut, according to how wide our backs are. I used the simplest stapling method for the corset, the best friend of all cosplayers: the safety pin! And if you want to decorate, you can use rhinestones, mica, decor rubber, or even paint in the same way.
For shoes, I used an old gold ballerina (it’s always worth looking around to find real treasures in your closet), cut off the bow, and put red and gold stones on it on a rhinestone applicator to try to imitate a flame – with more or less success. It is worth getting such an applicator, although we need special heat-adhesive crystals, they do not cost more than their smooth counterparts at all, and you can work with it much faster and more precisely.
It is also worth buying or making hair similar to the ones seen in the braid of the original Elsa, the overall effect of the costume is extremely enhanced by the small accessories and the returning colors. And since it’s an original cosplay, we can toss the costume with any other accessory – of course, the most important accessory is Olaf!
There is always a worm in joy
While I love my costume, the difficulty of wearing it is worth mentioning, as there’s something uncomfortable in every cosplay. Since this corset can’t be pulled as tightly as a smooth one, thanks to the two layers of decor rubber turning into armor, it’s worth adjusting several times in the first half-hour. The movement will be a little cumbersome in it, and sitting down is downright cruel because if you work with a little drooping piece at the bottom, it will unfortunately bend.
Elsa and Frozen has rightly become one of the best-known modern Disney movies, and if you want to bring a little variety to the cast, make one of the versions listed earlier, one or two minor changes to the making process described here, and you can have your unique design. – it’s worth cutting in!
