30th May 2011: Expo! Wore this to May Expo on Saturday. It was epic! I only found one tiny Snow White (seriously, I think she was about 4 or 5 years old at most) and her mother was so happy to have me take a photo with her daughter.

Since someone asked me: to cover up my eyebrows, we first trimmed them short (I've felt eyebrow-nude all week!) and then on the day Pez used prittstick (seriously; it's nontoxic and it works) to glue my brow hair down flat against my forehead. Then a layer of white snazeroo dabbed on; translucent powder to set it; then greasepaint over the top to make the areas more skin-coloured. Then normal foundation/powder, so they blended with the rest of my makeup. That meant we could draw in the new scary brows instead. :P Tutorials on this sort of thing are on youtube, and are totally worth checking out if you want to try.

Pez did most my makeup on the day in the loos at Expo, and Zombiemama stepped it to help with the eyeshadow and fake lashes; in an ideal world we'd do the makeup in a better place but hey, it turned out pretty well!

27th May 2011: Done! Sewing the collar on was nightmareish, but it's done. And Pez helped sew on the necklace, and so... it's ALL READY. Expo, here I come.

25th May 2011: Collar 2 Well.

It took rather a high heat setting to press the wadding down this thin; I was quite worried I'd scorch the fabric. Whee.

The fabric sits looser on it than I'd like; I'dreally love it to have a crisper curve and top edge, but I suspect I'd have to sacrifice having fabric on it to achieve that.

It's only loosely pinned into place for this picture. It needs to be stitched on; then the pendant (which Pez has made <3) can be attached.

25th May 2011: Crown, again Ta-da!

I love the tiny pearl on the tip. :P Colour looks a bit weird in the pic; it's actually a very Disneyish yellow gold.

(The foam taped around the head is Pez's fault.)

23rd May 2011: Collar 1 Pez raised some potential issues with making the collar from fabric-covered fosshape; she was worried about the fabric drooping from the lower side. Which is a damned good point; I'd entirely disregarded that.

So! After a little experimenting, I'll probably end up using fusible web to secure the fabric to the collar base. And instead of fosshape I think I'm going to use plain old wadding; it will iron down nice and slim and stiff, but doesn't set as fast (or as hard, but that's the trade-off) as fosshape. Which gives me the time I need to iron it with the fabric and fusible web, and bend it into shape before it sets stiff.

Mmm, plan adjustments.

23rd May 2011: Crown 1 So far: made a paper template, then cut the shape out of foam and have since adjusted the size a little so it sits in the right place and is the right height etc.

Already it looks like a crown! Need to hot-glue the ends of the foam together, add the raised edges, then MAKE IT ALL GOLD muahaha.

23rd May 2011: Fur trim... All done, on both sleeves and cloak. I actually unpicked the sleeves and redid them, as my first pass was kind of shoddy.

TWO SOLID DAYS OF STITCHING LATER...

But that trim is looking *good* now. Aw yeah.

So that's the cloak and dress totally finished. Pez has made the base of the necklace. Tomorrow is crown-and-collar day. :)

17th May 2011: Cloak, moar Measured the edge of the cloak for the fur trim. 4.2 metres of fur has now been cut. No wonder the cloak is so swishy. :D

(Fluff everywhere. And I have to handsew the trim along the top and bottom edges and there will be more shed fur everywhere. MY LIFE.)

17th May 2011: And still to do: Currently left to do:

* Make the crown (as before)

* Make the necklace (Pez is stepping in on this, since her sculpture skills are better and I asked. :P The red acrylic gem is sitting nicely in a disc of paper-clay at the moment. And I found a nice thick gold chain.)

* Make the collar (As before)

* Finish the dress (neaten up the raw edges on the inside. :P And I also need to stitch down the last of the fur trim on one sleeve; haven't quite finished that.)

* Finish the cloak (neaten the raw edges inside the hood a bit, trim the lower edge with fur.)

The fur trim, oh god. That lower cloak edge is VERY LONG and I have to hand-stitch and augh.

17th May 2011: Cloak/hood The right-hand side is what the cloak+hood looks like at the moment, the left-hand side is earlier today, before I'd hemmed the edges and the base of the central panel (and reshaped the fosshape peak of the hood).

There is SO MUCH CLOAK and it's all velvety and silky and feels very luxurious. And now I have to add a fur trim along the immensely long hem. Whee!

14th May 2011: Left to do I need to:

* Make the crown (EVA foam, and a gold wax buff to colour it. And I bought a big fake pearl earring stud to stick on the front spike, too. :D)

* Make the necklace (Pez found me a red acrylic crystal of suitable size, and I'll make the rest of the pendant out of... something. We have lots of sculpty materials, I'll see what works. And more goldfinger/rub 'n' buff to colour it. I have gold chain to attach it to the collar, also.)

* Make the collar (fosshape! And then white taffeta over the top of that. I've some vague schemes to keep it in the right place, too.)

* Finish the dress (hem it.)

* Finish the cloak (line it, do some more adjustments to the snood shape, attach snood to cloak, add the panel at the front, trim the lower edge with fur.)

At some point I need to do a makeup test, and if I have the time I do want to make the little hand-cover things. And then I'll put everything on, and will be SO WEIGHED DOWN BY COSTUME OMG.

14th May 2011: Dress, continued Fur trim added to sleeves, dressing gown cord (thanks to lovely facebook peeps for the suggestion) on top. I need to sew the hem, obviously, but it's looking pretty good I think!

The fur is really heavy. And the velvet is really thick. I may die of heat exhaustion at expo despite no wig. :D

14th May 2011: Cloak+hood The black velvet cloak is sewn together from the neck down, and part of the red lining is ready to be added. And it'll look good, I think - lots of fabric, lots of swoosh, and the fur I have for the trim (which is soft and thick and beautiful) will add quite a bit of weight too. Though it also sheds like a git, so I'm kind of not looking forward to sewing it on.

The really awkward bit is the snood around her face.

I'm using stretch velvet for the actual snood, because otherwise it will not go over my head. :D And to make the point on her forehead, I decided to sew fosshape in to provide stiffness.

Fosshape + stretch fabric is a recipe for sadness. My widow's peak is a bit lopsided, and I can't unstitch/redo it without wrecking the hood. Ugh. I'll figure something out.

Need to put a panel in the front of the cloak, as her cloak doesn't close fully; sewing that so it integrates with the neck of the snood and with the rest of the cloak will be... challenging. :D

I'll be fosshaping the collar, too, but I don't think that'll be as awkward; the fabric that's going to cover it is taffeta, and it's stiff enough that it shouldn't pucker like the stretch velvet did.

8th May 2011: Dress progress Well, that's the dress - I need to hem it at the base, obviously, but otherwise it's more or less done. I've started putting the white fur trim on the sleeves. Good god, so much fluff everywhere. :D

27th December 2010: Moving forward I now have a pattern I can adapt for the dress (one with sleeves of the right style), and a pattern I can re-use for the cloak--I just need to work out how to do that tight hood-with-widows-peak.

I need to source the velvet soon--the black isn't likely to be hard to get even if I leave it late, but those purples aren't going to be quite so easy...

2nd December 2010: Checking outfit This needs to be done for May Expo!

* A dark blue-purple gown with wrist-length sleeves in a slightly lighter shade. Looks like a rich, heavy fabric--not necessarily a velvet, but similarly expensive-feeling. The sleeves are a bit like kimono sleeves; they drape all the way down to floor length, but are gathered around the wrist and closed on that front edge. On the leading edge, they're trimmed with white from floor to wrist and back down.
* Triangular back-of-hand covering--in the same darkish blue purple--looks like it might be the edge of an undersleeve, really? Extends halfway along each back-of-palm.
* Black heavy velvet cloak with a rich, blood-red silk lining. The base is trimmed with a white edge in what is probably supposed to be ermine. Hmm. Cloak continues up into tightly-fitted hood ending in widow's peak, concealing all of hair.
* white, very high collar. Probably satin; quite flat in profile (compared to most collars). front points of collar lead into white (white-goldish?) necklace/clasp with a large gold circular pendant/closure. Large red gem in centre of gold pendant.
* dress is belted with a heavy red braided cord. some official versions have a gold braided cord belt instead, but this isn't visible anywhere in the film.
* gold mid-heeled court shoes (seem to have a red gem set in the front of each shoe, where a buckle would be)
* spiky gold crown with a little pearly knob on the front peak!