Making of... Cosplay, Good Queen #1

I recently did a costume Masquerade at AnimegaCon. I thought you all might get a kick out of seeing my documentation for it. My friends and I won 2nd place for our costumes. We won a Best Craftsmanship award. Im not really familiar with Anime catagories... but I think that Craftsman is the equivilent to Masters class... I think it also has to do with construction. Meh. I don't even know. Can you tell I'm an Anime noob? :D We cosplayed a Takarazuka opera called Prince of the Land of Roses. Basically it's Beauty and the Beast. Ironically enough we had no Beauty, only a Beast. That is my friend ...in the blue wig as the beast. Didn't she do an amazing job? played the Evil Queen in red. I wish you could see the beading in her wig ... and I'm in gray... I'm the Good Queen. There's quite a lot of construction notes on this costume. I"ll post the peices one at a time. I'm starting at the Bodice.

The girl in leather and pink was some kind of Con mascot... Yah.

Bodice Materials:

Simplicity 8881 poly poi de soie (duchess satin) polished cotton poly lining rigilene boning spiral steel boning glass pearls silver metallic netting lace daisies in 2 sizes silver trim pearl trim AB sequins AB heat affix crystals pre-strung pearl trim

Overview This costumes bodice is based on a typical Elizabethan bodice. It has a squared neckline, pointed center front and straight center back. The armscye is open and high without a dropped shoulder. The center front is heavily decorated with a line of pearls, lace, and sequins, not unlike an Elizabethan stomacher.

I used Simplicity 8881 for the bodice pattern. I fit it over my 1780’s stays from Corsets and Crinolines and my Mara Riley linen shift.

Construction

The bodices construction was fairly simple. I used polished cotton as the strength layer and applied boning to it. The strength layer was flatlined to the fashion poi de soie layer and those layers where treated as one.

The center fronts embellishments were added before the bodice was assembled. I basted a layer of metallic net to the center front poi de soie piece, treated them as one and applied it to cotton muslin that I then put in an embroidery frame to do all of the beading and lace work by hand.

The center front was assembled with the fashion layer, the strength layer, and the lining layer separate from the rest of the bodice. The neckline was turned inside the lining and strength layer. All other edges were left raw and unturned, but basted together to be treated as one.

All the other pattern pieces were assembled. The fashion and strength layers were assembled as one, and lining was assembled separately. The lining and fashion layers were joined at the neckline.

The center front was joined to the side front using the “Folded Seam Method” . This is usually used in corsetry but I’ve found that square necklines take to this kind of seam very well. With this method you get a nice crisp corner. The neckline edge was top stitched on the lining to the seam allowances to keep the lining from creeping up.

(This diagram belongs to a poster from the corset makers community. Thank you so much for making it and being awesome.)

The waist edge was finished in the victorian method, by treating all layers as one. On the outside a strip of self bias is sewn and turned under to inside and whipped stitched down to lining only.

The Center back is finished with hand bound eyelets for lacing. There is a modesty panel and either side of the eyelets are reinforced with spiral steel bones.

Materials:

Simplicity 4508
Butterick 6630
poi de soie
poly lining
1 inch synthetic horse hair braid
3 types of net lace
metallic trim
pre strung pearl trim
pearl trim
metallic net
glass pearls

Overview
These sleeves are based loosely in Tudor and Elizabethan fashion. The slashed and puffed upper sleeve, as well as the open over sleeve is typical of these eras.




Shiney shoes! :)

Construction
I used Butterick 6630 for the under sleeves without alteration, except for the added pearled fabric strips.

The pearled strips are bias cut tubes of poi de soie. I sewed metallic trim down each center. I than added glass pearls by hand to the center of each strip. I then sewed by hand lengths of pre strung pearl trim. The lower sleeve is decorated with hand sewn sequins. The under-sleeve is completely lined.

I used Simplicity 4508 for the over sleeve. I had to alter the pattern by adding a sleeve cap. The sleeve has an outside layer of poi de soie and a lining of metallic net. I trimmed the sleeve with net lace and metallic trim.