Final Submission for the Official and Unofficial Contests + Some extra detail shots

^FINAL SUBMISSION ^

Because of a trip I had to prepare for, I didn't have time to take or create any new shots or collages. Below is a close-up of the bottles we used in the shoot (my boyfriend made them).

Detail Pics

I just took some final pictures of the costume today, just to show the pieces separately. The one photo that I took of my didn't make the final cut, so I didn't put it in my submission. But now looking at it I kind of wish I would of because I didn't show the back of the costume at all. Oh well, I'm still happy with what I submitted. Well enjoy the pics.

Contest Over

Now that the contest is over I feel like I have time to catch up on my posts. This is a picture of the back of the jacket, at this point in time my process is basically this. I draw out the design of the gold pattern, then I draw it out to scale on tracing paper. Then I use transfer paper and my awesome spikey tracing wheel to put the design on the fabric and the trim gets hand stitched down. It is tedious, but it looks amazing when it's done.

The other thing that still needs to get added are the green gems, my boyfriend helped me make molds of item out of sculpey, and then we just used green sculpey and pressed them in the molds. Once they were baked he painted the varnish on, so they would have a shine to them. While he was doing this I was working hard to try and finish the gold design, which always seemed to take longer than I thought. Once they were dry, I glued them onto felt because it made me uneasy to glue the gems onto the fabric itself. There is always a chance that the glue will soak all the way through the fabric and make it hard and just look terrible on the inside. So I opted to glue them onto felt first and then sew them on. Each gem had gold around them so that worked out well because the gold trim hid the felt well. I'll take more pictures then.

Progress Pic

This is a picture I took last Friday, I took a break because I was having difficulty sewing in the sleeve, so I decided to take a pic and take a short break. When I took the picture I was getting a little worried because I hadn't finished a single piece of her outfit. She has five pieces to her outfit and I feel like half of it is the gold design. I'm sewing the gold trim on with some metallic thread, which makes the process a little slower, because the thread gets tangled easily but it seemed like the best solution. I did debate on using a clear mono-filament thread but i really wanted the gold to stand out and I also wanted the contrast to between the fabric and the trim to be sharp.

Anyhoo, I'm happy with it at this point in time, just really concerned at how long the back of the skirt is going to take. Since, to put the design on the sleeve took two hours, and the design on the back of the skirt takes up half of it. It will probably take twice that, I'll just keep working on it slow and steady

I'll try to post another picture tonight, the plan is to take test pics and figure out what will work best.

Lady Althea Cosplay

The Subject: Lady Althea

I mainly decided to make Lady Althea's outfit because I love the gold embroidery on her outfit, and I felt that it would be a great challenge for me. Since I haven't made anything for myself in an incredibly long time, and I would love to have a costume to go to conventions with. Anywhoo, I started working on my costume last Friday, I went to Jo-anns and was kind of skeptical because sometimes they don't have quality fabric or not enough of the fabric, or its not the right color. But this time worked out perfectly, as soon as I walked into the store I was drawn to this purple suiting and to make matters even better the suiting had spandex in it. So I was thrilled because that would make fitting the bodice and etc that much easier.

The next dilemma that I had to think about was how was I going to problem solve my way through the gold details ( I run a six-head embroidery machine during the day but I felt like that would be too easy). The next thing I thought of was to couch down gold trim in the pattern that I needed to but, I still wasn't sure because I also knew that this would take an insane amount of time because Lady Althea has this on practically half of her costume. At the same time though it seemed the best way to replicate the intricate gold designs. I did end up buying the rest of this gold trim (14 yds.) because at that point in time I had no way of knowing how much I needed.

The main reason why I don't like Jo-anns is that they let you return fabric, which is good if you get the wrong type of fabric, but bad if your someone like me and want a seven yard piece. And that is precisely what happened to me when I went up to the counter to have my fabric cut, the bolt was in three pieces! Ugh! Luckily, there was a three yard piece, which I absolutely needed to have a continuous piece for her semi-wrap skirt. Overall, I was excited to have gotten all my supplies so I could get started.