Costume, Part II - The Main Event

Just a warning - this post will be very picture-heavy.

First, I can't believe I forgot an accessory. On the day of the party I just wasn't satisfied with the earrings I had bought. They were beautiful but the round shape didn't fit with the theme and they just seemed too big, so I whipped up some easy pendant earrings with leftover beads bought for one of my previous necklace designs.

Earrings

On to the rest of the costume. When I finally settled on this Renaissance design for the main dress I thought maybe I could skip making all the underthings that are supposed to go with it and get away with just making the hoop skirt. Turns out I had to make all the underthings but the shift in order to get things to look right.

Underthings

Final dress pattern

So I made the corset, the hoop skirt, and the bum roll.

Corset front

Corset back

Close-up of corset boning

This costume was my first time working with boning and there was an absolute ton of it in the corset. The above picture shows one side of the corset where each channel has a strip of boning in it. Then in the middle of the corset is a piece of wood that was fitted into its own pocket and tied in with a ribbon. Apparently the wooden piece is called a busk and would turn out to be very important in giving the gown the correct look and shape.

Hoop skirt from the front

The bum roll

I'm not quite sure of the point of the bum roll, other than it acted almost like an extra hoop while also helping to lift the underskirt away from the hoops so they wouldn't show through as much. Or maybe Renaissance people just liked big butts!

Underthings from the front

Underthings from the back

Next was the underskirt which acted like a barrier between the hoops and the gown so the hoops wouldn't show through, plus the front panel provided a contrast fabric to the main gown.

Underskirt back

Underskirt front

 For the contrast fabric I used that same silver I had used in the rejected dress and once again it was very difficult to work with. I've worked with brocade before, even metallic brocades, and I've worked with slippery fabrics and done just fine but this one was an absolute bear to work with. Note how the sides of the silver fabric look like they're pulled up, that's because they were. The fabric had slipped from the felt backing while being sewed to the felt which caused it to drape incorrectly. I ended up pulling it tight and hand sewing to keep it pulled upward. At least the sides of the silver wouldn't get seen once the gown was over it.

Also note how you can see the outline of the top hoop. I had taken the top hoop in once already but probably should have taken it in more to combat this problem. Since I was in a time crunch, though, I left it because even taking it in a little bit completely changed the length of the gown and my cape, and I was worried about them getting too long.

 Next came the gown itself.

Gown back

Gown front

 The silver fabric was used for a contrast to line the sleeves and once again it slipped while being sewed. Maybe there's some trick I don't know about? Anyway, in the picture of the front of the gown it looks like the sleeve on the right has a silver border - it doesn't. The silver brocade just decided to lay funny so here's another picture which shows the sleeves better.

These sleeves weren't part of the original dress pattern, I actually took them from a different pattern that I already had and it took a little work to get them to fit with the partial sleeve already attached to the bodice of the gown because the existing sleeve was much wider than the piece I needed to attach. I ended up doing a tuck on the underside of the existing sleeve which allowed me mostly full range of motion, then I sewed the new sleeve on and the lacing allowed me to fit the pieces together without it being obvious they were two different sizes.

Sleeve pattern (top right)

Close-up of sleeve detail

To this I added the accessories I had made, like the belt and necklace. I also embellished the bodice of the gown with trim and pearls. I wanted to do so much more embellishment but there just wasn't enough time.

Close-up of the bodice detail

With belt and necklace

Then I added the cape which I ended up making out of a bright white polyester shantung - much easier to embroider than the crushed velvet.

My beginner embroidery - Celtic snowflakes

 I had two embroidery patterns I wanted to use, Celtic snowflakes and Norse wolves. I ended up doing the snowflakes on the bottom front corners then for the wolves I cut the pattern in half and did them on either side of the top front. Both patterns were bought from the very excellent online embroidery store Urban Threads. I really wanted to connect the patterns with a border of Celtic embroidery and then do the same border pattern around the bottom but that was another thing I ran out of time for.

Crappy picture + beginner embroidery, Wolf pattern

Wolf pattern

Close-up of cape detail, better picture of wolf embroidery

Cape front

Cape back

To the final costume I added the rest of the accessories I talked about in the previous post - crown, shoes, etc. and then I covered my face, neck, and lower arms in white makeup and wore a white wig and some fake nails I had painted white. Honestly the makeup ended up being more trouble than it was worth because I didn't have time to apply it properly before my family party started. The wig was also a lot of trouble, especially because it was very thin in the back and tough to pin the crown onto.

As for pictures of me in the costume? Well, my mom snapped two quick pictures as my friend and I were heading out the door to our other costume party, but she took them with her camera instead of mine and I haven't yet been able to get them from her. Plus I'm a little nervous to see those pics as I know the makeup did not look good that night. However, when the snow flies my plan is to have pictures taken of me in the costume outside. My sister is just starting out as a professional photographer and has already agreed to do the pictures for me, we are both quite excited about doing a session and I'm sure those pics will look a lot better than any from the party.

Costume, Part I - Accessories and Do-Overs

At least part of the reason this costume took so long to create was because I couldn't make up my mind which direction I wanted to go with it. I just knew that in the end I wanted to look like an elegant Snow Queen. I had to laugh when Frozen came out because I knew similar costumes would gain in popularity and, had I finished in 2013 as I originally intended, I would have beaten the release of Frozen. Anyway.....

I wasn't sure if I should make the costume more elvish and woodsy, light and ethereal, or queenly and commanding. In the end I went with queenly and commanding because it was easier to envision and there were more costume patterns to choose from in that style.

Still, I wanted it to be as "realistic" and "authentic" as possible. It's hard for me to explain what I mean by realistic and authentic other than I was sure I did not want to use any fabric that had an actual snowflake pattern printed on it. Ditto for overly sparkly fabrics. However, I still wanted to evoke a little bit of an ethereal and natural element to the costume so I went for things that reminded me of ice, icicles, and snowflakes without being blatant. As you will see over the next couple posts my costume ended up becoming what I call Queen of Winter Goes to the Ball.

First pattern (bottom left style)

Unfinished reject

First, my early mistakes. I started this first dress while I still thought I might go in the elvish and woodsy direction. But when I was nearly done with the dress and tried it on I decided it just wasn't working for me. The white fabric was pretty much see-through. The silver fabric draped funny in the front, made my chest look weird, and didn't really work with the white fabric. Plus I thought the silver fabric kind of made for a space alien-looking collar. So I started again.

Too much like a wedding dress

The next pattern was one I had actually bought before the elvish one. I went back to it after I realized the elvish dress just wasn't working. I thought long and hard about whether I should use this pattern and do a silver dress with white contrast or a white dress with silver contrast. Ultimately I decided a white dress would be more in line with my vision for a Snow Queen, and also that the silver brocade, although gorgeous, was too hellish to work with for an entire dress. However, once I finally made up my mind to go with a white dress and silver accents I realized this pattern would likely look too much like a wedding dress. So it was back to the drawing board.

Nearly finished crushed velvet cape

Cape style (bottom right)

One thing I was sure I wanted to make, no matter the style of dress, was a cape. I started with a pattern I had used once before which made a decent cape and by the time I was done I had made the same cape three times for this costume. Twice in two different fabrics and once for the lining. First I made it from a beautiful off-white crushed velvet which perfectly matched the fake fur I bought to trim it with. I nearly completed the crushed velvet cape before realizing my heart was set on adding embroidery, and as a beginner embroiderer I didn't fancy my chances of floating the crushed velvet in order to embroider on it without ending up with hoop burn. So, this got set aside as well in favor of another fabric.

These are just a few examples of things I did more than once for this costume. The necklace I did got remade three times, and the trim and beading on the final gown got redone twice with two separate trims. I was beginning to think I would end up doing everything more than once before I was done but thankfully that wasn't the case.

Final necklace

On to the accessories. I started with the necklace, which I originally envisioned as a statement necklace, so I gathered beads of all kinds from tiny clear seed beads, to pearls, to large pendants. My original vision didn't work so I scrapped that and attempted a mishmashed twist of beads. That also didn't work so I went for something simpler and finally hit on the right combination. It was my first time working with wire instead of chain to make a necklace and I was pleased with how it turned out. I think the silver spikes look like icicles and the silver filigree looks like snowflakes (though I think they were meant to be flowers). Still, I love the combination with the clear glass beads.

Crown front

Crown from the side

Next I made the crown, which I felt was quite possibly the most important piece of the entire costume because it was needed to really make it clear what I was trying to be. Despite the pressure placed on getting the crown right it was actually one of the easier pieces I made. I found a couple great online tutorials here and here and I took the best of both to create what I wanted. The crown is mostly made of hot glue, then wire for the base plus silver nail polish, glitter nail polish and iron-on jewels (which I glued on).

The Mask

Following that I made a mask which was the one piece I didn't end up wearing. I thought it turned out great but when I put it on I realized I made too many "icicles" and it wasn't delicate enough to give the effect I wanted. Instead it looked too solid and a little too much like a superhero mask from a distance. It is also made from hot glue, silver and sparkly nail polish, glued-on jewels and elastic for string. The inspiration and tutorial for it came from here.

Belt

 Next I made a belt which was the easiest and quickest accessory I made. I took the pendants that I had originally bought to use for my statement necklace idea and just attached them to a chain I had bought. It took some experimenting to get everything even so it would lay properly as a belt and then it took me a while to decide which beads would hang on the very ends of the chain but otherwise I was amazed at how quickly it was done. The beads on the end aren't pictured here but they're the same as the clear glass ones in the necklace.

Shoes

Lastly for accessories I quickly fabric-covered a pair of my mom's old shoes. I didn't need to be very creative with these as they weren't going to be seen. Still, I wanted something that matched with the theme. They are covered with the fabric I ended up using for my dress, then covered with more glued-on jewels, and hot glue icicles (which don't really show up in the picture).

I think that's a long enough post for now. To be continued.

Done

The costume is finished and it was a success. Our family Halloween party was great and so was the costume party I went to.

I need to spot-clean the costume a bit and then I can take some pictures of all the different pieces and hopefully do a post on it soon.

And now that I'm done I have to work on all the chores I let slip during the last few weeks of frantic costume-making. Like cleaning my bathroom, which I spent a lot of today doing. And honestly, as much as I enjoy costume-making it kinda feels good to be doing something else for a change.....well, as long as that something else isn't homework!

Almost Wordless Sunday

Regularly Scheduled Procrastination

Mainly homework and my costume.

Anyway, I know I've been slacking on the blog lately and doing the bare minimum to keep up with my goal of posting once a week, but I promise I'll get back to writing something more substantial on here in about two weeks. Till then you'll have to enjoy whatever humor or inspiration I can scrounge up from Pinterest.