Live Action Fairy Godmother- The bodice Part 2

As my study break over exams I nearly made the base of my bodice as well as the wings to go on it.

Firstly, was the wings. I created a template out of paper of the shape i wanted my wings to be. I then went around the outside of this in wire and added 4 layers of organza over top. 2 plain white and 2 crystal. I embroidered the inside and beaded around the outside.
That's the real quick low down on making my wings.

The bodice was a lot more tedious.  The lining had channels which were for boning and then actual outside had 4 different layers of fabric per pattern piece which all had to be basted down and then sewn together. The layers went as followed- Satin, Blue crystal Organza and 2 layers of white Fairy Organza. This created the soft the blue that her gown has while making it look shiny~!

That was a real short update but hopefully next will either be the embroidery of the main panel and finishing off of the bodice or the starting of the skirt. Probably the skirt. Not going to lie I like seeing the costume come together before having to neatly finish up tedious things.

Live Action Fairy Godmother- Bodice Part 1

I started this waaayy before i intended!! But never the less I've begun construction on her bodice.
I patterned this by myself using my Mannequin, Glad Wrap and Masking tape. Sounds like a weird combo but it works!! I promise! I added one of my bras to the mannequin, as my bewbs were bigger than what my mannequin was, and wrapped the whole thing in glad wrap, then using the masking tape to tape around it.

 

As you can probably see in the photos i only cover one side properly. Its mainly because when tracing out the pattern pieces you only need one copy.

I then traced where i want my seams and cut that out. I then placed that onto paper and added seam allowances to it and cut it out as a mock up.

I actually ended up sewing at a lower seam allowance than i had planned for but after making a rough mock up i decided that when i make my final i could sew at my 15cm seam allowance.
I haven't mocked up my sleeves but I'm hopping that will be reasonably straight forward. 

Im going to add a inbuilt corset thing into this so i had heaps of fabric left over at the back so all should be well!

I've ordered 20 meters of a blue organza and need to order a sheer fabric to go over top of that but everything is well on the way! While i wait for that i might start planning the wings out!

Live Action Fairy Godmother Cosplay- Planning.

After making Ariel’s pink dress I found myself in need to make more big dresses. I had always had a love with them, even before I began cosplay. 
I’ve never entered a Cosplay Competition before and with the idea to create The Fairy Godmother already in mind I decided to make her costume for the next Cosplay Competition within my area which would be Christchurch or Dunedin March 2017. With over 10 months to complete it I set out on Planning.

Planning
To start off with I sourced a pattern from simplicity which was originally made for Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother. Comparing it to the original piece warn by Helena Bohmna Carter I found that while it could be used for a quick easy costume, I thought that it shouldn’t be used for a competitive piece. Taking that into mind I decided on creating my own pattern for the bodice using a cling wrap and duct tape method. 

To even begin making that full skirt I needed something to help support in underneath. An ordinary hoop skirt would work as it wouldn’t match the silhouette of the original piece. A pannier however seemed to be the best solution.

After looking a Angela Carltons Cinderella inspired dress I decided to use her method of a base satin, followed by a organza and then a sheer fabric overtop to create the pale blue of the bodice and of the skirt. The main panel however has a difference in the rest which I was going to counter by embroidering it.

The collar seemed to have lace look to the top of it. I decided to use a rough pattern from Simplicity’s Snow White Pattern and alter it to fit with the rest of the costume. I also needed to source a place to get lace and lace appliques.

The wings looked like the best part of the costume. I was going to make the wins by using a wire outline and covering it in a crystal organza and then a plain sheer, I was also going to embellish it with beading, piping and embroidery. 

At this point in the planning I convinced myself that I was just going to fully wing the skirt and hope like hell it turned out similar. At this stage I had planned for 40 meters of organza and 11 meters for satin. This was going to be one heavy creation.

Penny Cosplay! Intro and Swords

I always have the difficulty of trying to limit my cosplays. More recently I've been trying to focus more on the sewing aspect of it. But after binge watching RWBY over the last couple of days I've decided to work on Penny which should still stay with the sewing but also grow with my love for prop making.

Look at the adorable little bot ;)

But knowing me i wanted to add something that made her pop! And that was making 8 swords and mounting it so that they looked like they were standing in mid air. The challenge of this already sounds fun.


The swords
I've used a similar technique for making these as i did with my Scissor Blade. I drew out a template and traced it onto foam core 3 times per blade with extra layers where needed. I then grabbed a craft knife and carved away it until i was happy. Wanting to make these as light as i possibly could i opted for a different way of sealing in the gaps, that way was PVA. Which actually worked really well. I used about 3-4 layers of PVA per side. After that i painted it to how i think it looked, not wanting to draw on accuracy but on my imagination. 

I then used craft foam to add any extra details. So far I've managed to completely finish 1 and partly finish 2. Only 5 more to go!!

 That paint is also glow in the dark! So cool~

Remaking Ariel

Nearly a year ago today i made my first ball gown cosplay. It was of my all time favorite Disney princess, Ariel.
I fell in love with this design here.

However with my lack of sewing knowledge at the time i ended up making the whole thing out of cheap satin and painted on all of those wonderful embroidered pieces.  

The beast that i have since retired was defiantly something that pushed my skills.