wing harness (Posted 23rd May 2012)

So, I've finished the sparkle on the wings finally and attached a harness section between them to slide into my bodice.
Currently I'm having issues getting them into the bodice so I'm going to re-sew some slightly wider channels to work with. Another issue I'm having is that I can't fully close up the zip without the bust gathering coming out, but I hope that'll be sorted when everything is fastened in place more securely. I will add a satin panel onto the wing harness though in case it won't shut and have spare ribbon around to fix things.
Note: I couldn't see this myself till I looked at the image but the wings weren't sitting flat so there's some creasing, but when I next do them I'll angle them further up so that the bottom half is not crushed against my back.
Dear Kami these things are hard to get on, but at least they stay relatively still once they're on.

Wings 2 (Posted 16th May 2012)

A lot of work on these so far. You can see in the image that there are two main textures, one is the same fabric used for the sleeves (power mesh) and the other is irridescent film. I've also added glitter along the frame and veins to cover where the fabric ends where it's been glue-gunned onto the wire.
One wing is finished on one side, although it still needs glitter on the other side, so tomorrow's job is to cover the other side and then work on the harness.

Wings (Posted 14th May 2012)

Got the main frame for these done now. One is bigger than the other which is frustrating, but I'm not remaking them with the time I have left. I'm currently in the process of wrapping the frames in floristry tape, which will make the frame all an even white colour before I add glitter to the veins.
So hopefully will have those done in a few days.
Dress also is sewn together all but a few details. Had to re-adjust the shoulders and neckline so it'd fit but hopefully that won't show too much.

Phase two (Posted 22nd April 2012)

Aprox 2000 sequins now attached and I've almost covered the entire dress... so will use the other 2000 in another layer across the skirt, and across the trail I plan to attach to the back (to cover the wing harness a little). Anything left will go on the wings.
I apologize for the lack of any more progress images on this costume but to be frank, the pretty of it does not show it's best in a static image. If you want to know how it's looking, ask Dare2Shine or CakeyKelso, as they saw it in person over the Kitacon weekend. The sequins look so nice when the dress moves so I'm really looking forward to getting it onto stage.
Speaking of which, I've got a place in the Sunday Masquerade, so yeah, I am quietly panicking. I'm not a very confident person and I've always had my sister to support me, so my brain is telling my that my legs are going to collapse and all the rhinestones are going to fall off my dress and I'm going to start hysterically crying backstage for no reason. I'm sure that'll pass though once the costume is finished and I've run around the house wearing it a few times.
On the bright side though, I have all the supplies I need to finish this now, so when mum goes back to work tomorrow I can take over the house with wings. They should be done by the end of the week, as most of the framework is already finished so it's just a case of glueing the fabric in place.
The wand is on it's way but is taking a lot of work, mostly because I'm insisting on wiring in LED's to the star at the end. I'm making the base wand out of clear plastic tubes to create a hollow middle for SFX usage, and I'll then cover the whole thing in clay to give it an even gold surface. I'm making the star from the same material as the gems on the dress so that hopefully the LED's will glow through the same way.

Phase one (Posted 6th February 2012)

8000 rhinestones out of 10000 now attached.
Each one is glued on using fabric glue and some fiddly cocktail stick work, in an arrangement to look as if they are forming the stars of light on her dress.
Has taken me about 3 weeks to do that much, and I have 2000 rhinestones and 4000 sequins yet to attach. So halfway there.
All the sewing has been done except for the back seam, hem and bust gathering (currently just bulldog clipped in place so I know where the rhinestones need to go), which will be done once all the embellishment has been finished.
So the dress has aprox 3 weeks left till completion, then I have the gems to construct, the wings to finish wrestling, and the sash to sort. Might be done before May if I'm lucky.
Note for anyone else who might be mad enough to try anything like this: listening to the craftwork special day on 6 music while doing an incredibly tedious and repetitive task is really stupid. I feel like I've kinda lost another level of sanity.

Getting there (Posted 15th January 2012)

So, the entire dress is now cut out and ready to be sewn up and glammed.
The main dress is made out of Duchess Satin, cut on the bias to give maximum flexibility and to stay true to the inspiration for the character, Jean Harlow. It falls very prettily and reflects the light softly, which hopefully will really enhance the sparkle of it all without blowing up wierd in photos.
The photo to this journal is of my experimentation with spare rhinetones and scrap fabric for the way I will apply them onto the costume. I plan to add the Disney sparkle stars exactly where they were drawn on the costume with blocks of rhinestones and little crosses everywhere, along with the sequins which will be sewn across the entire costume. If this thing doesn't sparkle on stage I will seriously cry.
I'm using Power Mesh for the sleeves, cut out in the style of a half circle skirt for both arms to give plenty of body and movement to them. Each will be attached at the top edge by an armband of clear elastic to keep them in place on my arms when I'm dancing about. The same fabric will be used in the wings, with irridescent paint to show the lines and patterns the way they are drawn in the film.
All I have left to do is to find the darker blue fabric for the hip sash and headband and get hold of the wire I need for the wings. Then actually construct the thing.

Make-up trial (Posted 13th December 2011)

What do we think? Should I dye my hair that colour?

Madness (Posted 11th December 2011)

So yeah, I thought I was mad when I was looking at the amount of sparkles this was going to need, but this costume is truly testing my sanity, along with the bounderies of how much I am willing to give to cosplay.
I am really struggling with the idea of the wig, for a few reasons. The first reason is that my hair is naturally dark blonde/light brown, which is not so bad, but it does mean that any stray hair (which I find seriously hard to control even with gel, clips, braiding and wig caps), will show up really badly against the kind of light blonde I'll need for this, so I'm super worried that it's going to look terrible.
Secondly, finding a wig that's right is proving next to impossible. The usual places I buy wigs do not sell any without bangs or with a decent center parting, unless I want one is white or black, which it obviously isn't. I'll probably have to get one which is way longer than it needs to be to account for the waves I need to create, since not many wig sellers sell anything between short and long, but that's fine as long as it's thick enough and has no bangs.
So I'm faced with a problem. I will probably have to lighten my own natural hair to make sure it doesn't show up through the wig, which is already annoying as I've spent the last 2 years getting my hair away from dye and it's only just grown out.
The question now is whether to go completely mad and just go blonde so I can use my own hair for Blue Fairy. Any thoughts anyone?

Sparkle (Posted 20th November 2011)

Yeah, this is pretty much going to be the basis of this costume. The dress itself I hope will be very simple, though I do plan to have multiple layers for movement and general prettiness, so I do want to embelish this to within an inch of it's life. I can't wait to buy fabrics, and get casting for those gems, but I've promised my mum I won't cosplay until after christmas, so I'm stuck making plans and sketches.
So far I have almost 14000 sequins and rhinestones to attach by hand onto the dress, and glitter aswell. The sparkles are in 3 different shades of blue and also in clear, so they should catch the light beatifully, with any luck making the same sparkle that the original had.
Am I mad? Yes. Have I been watching too much SCD? Yes. In my defence I do want to make this for a masquerade entry so I want it to be truly beautiful, and if it doesn't recreate magic under stage lights there's no point to making it. It's a costume featured in one of Disney's most iconic and beautiful scenes, with all of the 1940's glamour to go with it, so I really want to do it justice.
I'm planning to have electronics in this costume which are better than with Cadie (totally didn't even get turned on), which hopefully will set off all the pretty in the hall. After all, if you can't turn a simple costume into a complicated sparkle-factory with Disney, when can you?