Let's start at the bottom and work our way up! Bootstrappin’The shoes are boot covers made to go around one of my favorite pairs of black pumps! They’re a dark brown, stretch fabric that I had lying around in my scrap pile. They lace up the front with the help of ribbon loops set into pleather (hey, I was out of zippers). The ombré blue detail is my tried-and-true ‘paint-on-the-back-of-chiffon’ technique. I have a tutorial for this coming out soon, so keep your eyes peeled! The short version is, I painted Jacquard metallic colors on the back of a piece of blue chiffon and peeled it up once it dried to get a glittery, ombré strip of fabric! I then hand-sewed it to the boot covers. Finally, the toe is made from 6mm EVA foam, painted with acrylic paints! I haven’t sealed it yet because I’m a bad cosplayer. xD Shin FinsThe shin guards are made of floor mat EVA foam (3/8” thickness), trimmed with 2mm craft foam. I also used 2mm craft foam to make the fins on the tops! I flat patterned the shin guards using my leg measurements and making sneaky darts where I wanted the shape to curve a bit more. These lace up the back with hemp twine — and they have to be laced really tightly or they make my shins look enormous D: The blue paints are all custom-mixed Craftsmart acrylics. Because acrylics dry very quickly, I couldn't do a true blended gradient. I used a dark coat as a base, gradually stippling lighter and lighter shades over it until I had a nice fade to light blue! I like the final result; it has a natural feel to it that a perfectly blended gradient just wouldn't achieve. Gold paints are all Jacquard Metallics because I'm in love with how darned shiny and beautiful they are. The bracers were constructed using all the same techniques! They're just smaller. I don't even have a pun for these tights, they just made me cryThese tights easily took up more time than anything else in the costume, and I'm not even remotely kidding. They're made of three layers of power mesh: one nude, two blue ombré. Why two? One layer was too transparent, and I really wanted the color to POP. Unfortunately, that means I had to reverse-appliqué two separate layers of very delicate stretch fabric in lots of very inconvenient shapes. Each leg took about 20 hours to complete. They're finished off with a couple handfuls of flatback pearls from AliExpress! All the stuff in the middleOkay, so there's a lot going on around the torso. Let's start with the most obvious: the front and back shells! These are 4mm foam, again with 2mm edging. They're backed with styrene for stability. They're held with a pleather strap threaded through the back of both shells that goes around my waist. Over top of those are the hip plates, made of 8mm foam from TNT Cosplay Supply, trimmed with 2mm foam. All the raised gold details are hot glue! The dangly pearl strings are all attached via rings on the inside of the hip plates. They have clasps so I can detach them if needed! The swimsuit, which is mostly hidden under all of the armor, is a ponte de roma knit. It's a heavy weight knit fabric that was actually used in the 1910s and 1920s for swimwear! I think I should get some historical accuracy points for that. The trim is all blue shiny milliskin from Spandex House, which is slightly less historically correct. This swimsuit does not have straps. It's held up by magic (aka the elastic band encased in the top blue trim). I also wear a loosely laced corset underneath to smooth out the fabric. And, of course, the whole thing is embroidered. I wrote an entire tutorial about how I did that! Magical Floating BoobiesI had to do quite a bit of thinking to make these work! Y U MAKE MAGICAL FLOATING BOOBIE PLATES, HANNAH?! The shells themselves are, once again, made out of foam: a 6mm base, 4mm raised shell segments, and 2mm trim. There are two major points of support: multi-stranded wire loop that tucks into the corset/swimsuit, and clear matte elastic straps. It provides enough support that I don't actually have to wear a bra (which is kind of a good thing considering how exposed it would be). Pearly GoodnessThe necklace was the first part of the costume I completed! These are glass pearls rather than acrylic because they have a beautiful shine. I also chose to use ivory pearls for most of the costume. They look fancier than straight white pearls in my opinion! It's time to D-D-D-D-DRAPE!This is the second iteration of the arm drapes! The first one was made out a semi-opaque fabric, and the shape of them left a lot to be desired. The new fabric is a soft tulle from the JoAnn Fabrics Casa Collection, which is much more transparent and flowy. The transparency is a big plus: it means you can actually see all the other details of the costume! The arm drapes are held on with a harness made of clear elastic and two hooks that attach to the necklace. Everything is topped off with 2mm-6mm halfback pearls! The skirt is made of the same fabric; it's a simple circle skirt that ties on underneath the armor around the torso. /glassesI am ridiculously proud of these glasses. I cut and dyed the glasses myself and salvaged the arms and hinging mechanism from a pair of free, clear glasses. I installed the hinge so that these glasses actually fold up for easy transportation! I added two small pearls to the front of the glasses to hide the hinge! Wiggle WiggleOh my GAWD this wig. I love it, but it was also a pain in the patella. I found this ombré lace front on Amazon.com and sewed some long Arda wefts in to extend the braid. I also added ocean green wefts to darken the crown of the wig! I styled it into finger waves by using lots of hope, prayers, and YouTube tutorials! There are also pearls interspersed throughout the wig, both on top (halfback pearls held on by Got2b Glued Ultrahold Gel, and pearl strands woven into the braid. PHEW! That was quite the detail post! Congratulations on making it to the end! Thank you again for being delightful Patrons! If you have any preferences on which detail gallery you'd like to see next, feel free to drop me a line in the Suggestion Box! (check the Patreon monthly update post for the current month's password!)
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Ginny Liz StorytimeEntirely too much rambling about costumes, but if that's your thing... Archives
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