25th February 2011: Finished Mic prop Finished prop, and the ref.
25th February 2011: Mic prop Materials for mic prop,
- actually same mic I used for Florence.. from pound shop, just snipped the lead off and it becomes a radio mic :P
- Pink craft paper
- Sellotape
18th February 2011: Sequins Cossie now covered in sequin fabric. This was harder than it sounds! The sequin fabric is only two way stetch, so I had cut and tailor to fit around my curves, esp the around the back. This involved lots of pinning whilst wearing it and then sew a bit, test fit, sew a bit, test fit etc.
Well its done now.
Pink stripes and bustle next. Still an afternoon and evening left. I can do this! ^_^
17th February 2011: Final fix The boning idea didnt exactly work out. :S
I finished making the boning parts and tacked one against the long side seam, then tried the costume on. That was when I discovered I would not be able to bend at the waist, ha ha ha ha. Duhhhh. Now I know why corset boning stops at the waist!
So, next I cut the boning in half so it finished at the waist, tried it on...hmm it did hold the cossie stretched but was poking out at the waist now. This is why corsets are NOT made using thin stretch lycra! Boy, fast learning curve with this one!
Finally it dawned on me the pulling down problem started only after the swimsuit back was sewed onto to the elastic back strap. So I unpicked the back seam and tried the costume on. The swimsuit back sprang down leaving a gap, but it wasnt pulling on the whole costume any more. *Huzzah*
Final fix - so I cut a fill in piece of black lycra and sewed over the gap between swimsuit and elastic strap. ..problem solved. Phew. Back on course..
Pic - the grey area shows the gap between the back elastic and swimsuit. I tried to photo the lycra patch but since they are both black doesnt show up well, so heres a sketch.
15th February 2011: Steel boning to the rescue! Dayum. Hit a snag..the costume keeps riding down and I keep having to pull it back up. The elastic halterneck is doing its best but is not winning, the swimsuit lycra is just too elasticy and the bra top ends up slipping down and exposing my serious lack of boobage. Not good. :S
So, Rescue plan - I am going to put in some boning up the side seams to hold the costume stretched lengthways.. Fortunately I have a small length of Steel boning in my goodie bag which my mom gave me. I have just made up some bone casings out of thick linen fabric. I didnt have a pattern or anything so I just ran some stright parallel lines with a bit of allowance. But the edges frayed badly, so I turned them inward, ironed flat, and then sewed them shut that way ..did I do a flat-felled seam?? Anyway Im pretty pleased with them. Looks pretty functional. Now to cut the steel and round the ends off with a metal file. Then sew em into the costume and hope it works..
13th February 2011: under structure Progress
Bra top and swimsuit now joined together. Also a new halter neck strap has been added.. it is 1 1/2 inch black eleastic strip which I joined onto the end of the swimsuit. Im really impressed with the new Stretch needle, the machine joined the pieces together on stretch stitch very happily.
Next stage - to cover with the sequin fabric. Hope this goes smoothly. I noticed my sequin fabric is only 2 way stretch. Obv that will work ok width ways around the body. But the bra cups could be awkward.. :S
12th February 2011: under structure As mentioned the bra cup shapes of the swimsuit are not right for this costume. So I took this base bra and sewed in a cuple of foam bra cups (white) to fill out the semi circles and make the topline look as it should. Also removed the bra straps totally. This base bra will be sewn onto the swimsuit. Fortunately there is enough stretch in everything that I wont need a back opening. I can squeeze my hips through ok. So the bra hook-eye clasp is now sewn shut.
pic left - bra unmodified
pic right - bra after mods
12th February 2011: Base swinsuit This is the swimsuit I am using as a base. eBay cheap ;)
I bought size 12..for the extra body length - in hopes that the top will stay up easier. But it meant I have had to really tailor in the waist to get a nice fit. Took off about 2 inches from each side seam! The leg holes were a tad loose too so I took the leg seams in by an inch.
Still..on the plus side - I did get to use my new Stretch needle in the machine. *__* Wow! what can I say! Swithched machine to stretch stitch with this needle and not one complaint from the machine. I may have finally mastered sewing Lycra. *___*
Oh..note that the bra cups shapes are no good for this costume. :/ And neither are the shoulder straps. So they need modding...
9th February 2011: Costume pattern I did lots of screen grabs from Katys music vid on YT. So today I spent some time looking at these freeze frames of different angles and sketched the costume details. I spent time re-drawing the sketches until they looked pretty accurate.
So this is mainly what I will be working from to make my costume.
17th January 2011: Diamante lashes Found these on eBy. Diamante lashes you are MINE!
umm 5 quid..on their way. ^_^
17th January 2011: Hair and Makeup Some close ups of Katys hair and makeup - taken from Japan awards interview on YouTube, screen grabed and enlarged ..Shows enough detail for me to have a good go at the makeup.. :)
30th December 2010: Pink sequins Not much done yet!
But I picked up this bag of mixed pink and cerise coloured sequins from Poundland. They will go around the outer edges of the bustle frills. I looked at various add-on trimmings, but they would all work out very expensive - from experience of doing a tutu I know that the frill layers take veeeeery long lenghts of tulle, so they would swallw up lots of metres of trimming. Anywho all I want is some extra sparkle on the outer edges of the bustle, which you can see if you look at screen captures or vid playback. I imagine Katys costume bustle was made using net which already came with sparkle along the edges, but I think if I sew the sequins along the outer edges of my bustle frills it will appear like it should. Thats the plan anyway. :)
18th December 2010: Fabrics At last! I has fabrics.
I went to the market today and selected my fabrics, a medium weight Pink Satin for the side panels and some Neon Pink floppy netting which has sparkly bits, to make the bustle tail thingy out of.
6th December 2010: Shoes progress Original Bows and Ribbon details - removed. The ribbony strips seemed to be glued inside the shoe fabric layers so they wouldnt just pull out of the slits like I expected. So I had to cut each piece off. The remaining slits in the shoe fabric are visible only if you look for them..but to be on the safe side I will glue them down tight, then and sprinkle some more pink glitter all over.
3rd December 2010: Hot pink glitter shoes ^^ I snapped these up, eBay £1.04! ^^ the postage was more, at £4.50
They need a lil work.. the glitter colour has faded slightly different on one shoe, maybe in a shop window too long?? so I need to add another layer of pink glitter to make them match identically. And I do like the bows but they're not needed for this costume so I will carefully take them off. Then I think the shoes will be a good match for this costume.
I don't know why but I always relax about a cosplay once the footwear is sorted. ^_^
27th November 2010: Black Sequin Fabric! Thanks to Tab for helping me with the info..this fabric is called Fishscale Sequin Fabric.
I found this in an eBy shop. £11.99 plus postage of £1.99 for 1 metre It comes on stretch black jersey, Fabulous! Arived today.
Now to find the hot pink stuff... ^_^
12th November 2010: Black Sequin fabric Struck out on eBy for Black Sequin fabric. They are all like manufactured dots on streatch backing, too regular. No No NO! I want proper sequins!
Next stop charity shop - see if I can find a proper sequined dress to cut up. I want this costume to SPARKLE!. ^_^
Will start working on a pattern rough (loads of spare fabric). ..Between the playboy bunny cos pattern and a med leg swimsuit I have, should be able to make up the pattern rough for the main bodice pretty easily.