So, I had splurged on some sequin fabric, since I didn’t want to spend the time glueing thousands of sequins to a bodice.

And the fabric just does not work.

While Elsa’s dress does appear darker teal in some pictures, the whole dress is always the same shade. This fabric itself is way too dark next to the skirt fabric I am using.

Lesson learned – always buy a swatch when color really really matters. (Also, this fabric is non returnable. Anyone in need of a yard of stretch teal sequin fabric?)

So, since I had such good luck at Joann for the skirt, I drove to a farther-away bigger Joann in Cupertino to see what I could find. Whaddya know, they had an entire “elsa fabric” section. Something tells me I won’t be the only Elsa at halloween?

I ended up buying this metallic blue netting fabric. Now, it doesn’t look anything like rectangle sequins. But it adds enough interest and texture to the top of the bodice to make it look different than the skirt, without being a radically different color.

Plain fabric to the left, layered fabric to the right

I think it works. And, I can always glue on a billion sequins in the future if I want to improve the dress. I might also try bleach/paint on the sequin fabric just to see what happens, since I can’t return it, but that also comes down to how much extra time I have.