Wig (Posted 13th March 2013)

Had a couple of spare hours today so decided to style the wig
I wish I'd taken a 'before' photo, it looked like a cloud!
Spent at least 30 minutes brushing the tip og the wig with warm water so it would sit flat-ish on my head, then pulled it into a half-ponytail with the help of my mum, pinning it down with pearly hair-grips. It was originally a full ponytail, but because the wig is so curly, the pony was too short.
Once the half pony was secure, we (Mum and I) tied a beaded hair scarf thingie around it to hide the bobble. We then used a couple of sparkly clips to pull the rest of the hair up so that it looks like a proper high ponytail, pinning remaining stray bits of hair with pearly grips. Finished off with the pink chiffon bow thingy I made ages ago!
Really happy with how it's turned out :) I bought some pearl spiral things to add a bit more jazz to it but I'll put those in at the con. It's safe in a box and it's not coming out until Gemucon haha!

Boot covers of doom (Posted 9th March 2013)

I can't beleive how much stress these have caused me!
I made these by cutting a base of white pleather (after multiple mock-ups and paper patterns), then covered them in red brocade.
This was no where near shiny enough so I threw some trims at them. I bought a top really cheap in a sale because it had beautiful applique beadwork on the shoulders, and used said applique to jazz up the outer sides of the boots. I then sewed some beads (like on the bag) onto the bias binding around the toe bit.

They probably could be better, but I'm happy enough with how they look.
Photo is of the outer side (on shoe) and front view (not on shoe) of the right boot. It fits on the shoe better when it's on my foot

Cape, arm cape and strap (Posted 22nd February 2013)

I started work on the cape today and it's not going too badly
So far I have hemmed some lilac chiffon with matching sheer ribbon. I'm in the process of pinning some fabric flowers onto it because I cannot paint for toffee. Run out of fabric flowers after severely underestimating the amount I'd need. May try to get some varying size ones, failing that buy extra and clump them together.
So far the cape looks like a big rectangle with some flowers on it. Once the flowers are on, I'm going to gather the top edge of it to give it some swoopy volume. Not sure how I'm going to do the rest of the cape thingy. I'm HOPING to somehow use the surplus at the top to form that wierd hood bit some of the art has, and bring one side over into a strap.

...It makes sense to me okay haha

EDIT 26/2 I am seriously done with flowers. There are approximately 121 on that cape
EDIT 5/3 Cape is attached to dress, and I managed to get the hood/strap concept to work after all of the trial and error. Sewed the rest of the purple crystals (a grand total of 5 or 6) onto the hood to give a little sparkle. On the strap bit, I added some red jewel beads from the remnants of the chocker trim.
On the other shoulder, I used a strip of christmas ribbon to form a strap. I sewed the arm cape onto the underside of this strap, and sewed the pauldron to the topside of it. I actually can't believe this is almost done!

Dress progress and gauntlets (Posted 19th February 2013)

After god knows how long, I have finally nearly finished the dress. I somehow managed to make the skirt about 4 or 5 sizes too big, and so I ended up having to gradually take it in bit by bit so I didn't screw up.
I've taken a bit of artistic licence with the shape of the skirt. It's still a little flared as if I'd taken it in any further it would have looked awful. I've also given the hem more of a scallop shape than in the art. This was mostly due to how the skirt was sitting on me. The straight skirt with the side splits just didn't work with the fabric, it looked too harsh to me! The rest of the dress and costume is very fancy and feminine, so the rounded hemline just seemed right.
Just need to sew the hems and add some gold bias.

GAUNTLETS ARE DONE
I used more brocade, and did a little embroidery (just a fishbone stitch to look like a vine and a rosette chain flower). I put the same trims as the dress and pauldron around the top, and some gold bias around the bottom.

top and embroidery (Posted 10th January 2013)

I finally reached a point with the top half of the dress where I felt I could take a decent progress image. I utterly screwed up my first attempt, so I made a second. Screwed up the front panel so redid that one, so the one you see in the picture I uploaded is version 2.5
Got an embroidery book for christmas so I have been having a LOT of fun. In the end I used a fair few different stitches: satin, split stitch, double-threaded backstitch, fishbone stitch, herringbone stitch and scroll stitch (this sounds like a game of spot-the-stitch).
I still need to add some beads for embellishment, and the trims around the top. Also, I only roughly pinned in the zip, so the front looks really wonky right now. It'll look a lot better when it's finished!
Time taken: just don't even try asking

Pauldron (Posted 22nd November 2012)

I am a wuss and won't start the dress yet, so I made the pauldron over the past couple of days.
I covered a shoulder pad with brocade (and dress lining) to start off with. I then did a swirly pattern over the top with a chain (pic 1). This was frustating as hell. In the end I used Terra's anthology design and then went crazy with the rest of the chain.
Next, I sewed on a pretty leaf/bead thing I bought and a couple of shiny beads (pic 2)
Finally I went around the edges with a gold and a pearl trim to match what I will do on the dress and gauntlets (pic 3).
I'm really happy with the result! Sooo gaudy XD

Other achievements include putting together a bunch of scarves using various fabrics and trims. Oh, and I made a bead chain thing. Said bead chain ended up being too heavy to just be tied onto my hips, so I sewed it lightly to one of the scarves.

Bag (Posted 14th November 2012)

So I have spent at least 20 hours making a bag that blends into my cosplay.
Using some red brocade, I have made a drawstring pouch. On this I have sewn on ribbon and more beads than I care to count.
NEVER METALLIC THREAD AND BROCADE AGAIN
No photo does this bag justice

Shiny things (Posted 25th October 2012)

I've been a busy magpie, collecting lots of shiny things to jazz up the cosplay a bit. I have a couple of hairclips, a bigass flower, some pretty rings and a big brooch. So many sparkles~

wig and trims (Posted 16th October 2012)

I BOUGHT MORE TRIMS NOTHING CAN STOP MY INCESSANT NEED TO PURCHASE TRIMS
This one is a pretty pink chiffon trim with lilac flowers. I spotted it while gtting stuff for Susan, and was like HNNNG THAT WOULD LOOK AMAZING AS ONE OF THE HAIR SCARF THINGIES. So I pulled it off the shelf and looked at the price, wondering how much of my soul I would have to sell to obtain this beautiful trim.
76p a metre. 76P WAT
So I bought a metre at vast expense. It's going to clash HIDEOUSLY with the redness of the costume but idgaf.
Oh and wig is on order. Its white and curly and poofy. I am going to have a cloud on my head and it will be glorious.

Necklace choker (Posted 7th October 2012)

I spotted yet more pretty trims and ribbons in the fabric shop today, and so decided to make a choker necklace. The choker is made from a maroon velvet ribbon and a beaded trim. I then attached beads and a pendant to this. This didn;t seem like enough, so I used an old necklace chain to make it look more like the Sakizou artwork.
So goddamn happy with this. Took about 4 hours in total.

So it begins (Posted 31st July 2012)

Mum treated me to some blue and red brocade fabrics today because I was feeling inordinately sick but still helped with the food shop and housework
It such beautiful fabric ;_; I will use the red for the dress, gloves and boot covers and the blue for one of the many waist sashes.