Ah, it feels so good to cross things off lists! Yesterday I tackled the white dress for my sister’s Megpoid cosplay.
Here, if you need reminding, is an image of the costume in question.
And here’s my version! I spent all day yesterday constructing the dress, but admittedly I was working pretty leisurely on it. The construction is simple and I probably could have finished in half a day.
I didn’t take many pictures of it during construction, but here’s a close up of the bodice and the inside of the bodice:
I drafted the pattern on my dress form, to my sister’s measurements. Since it’s a strapless dress, I built it more sturdily than my own. The inner layer is an old thrifted white sheet, the fashion layer is white peach skin, and it’s lined with white lining fabric. I added a hefty amount of boning (some industrial-size zip ties that my dad gave me for free; score!) There are two bones to each seam and some in between seam, as well. One thing I really hate sometimes is seeing a good costume – historical or otherwise – ruined by looking slummy because of a lack of proper undergarments/structuring. Stays and corsets are important for historical costuming, and I guess for me that carries over into modern costuming as well; the silhouette is important. So, anyway, that’s the reason for that. (Sorry for the spiel!)
The skirt is a half-circle. It took me some thinking to decide how to do the skirt of the dress, because the green petticoat was cut in a full circle only for fullness – I didn’t want the dress skirt to be that full. In the picture, it pretty much lays flat over the green fluff layer. So I played around with some fabric and the petticoat on my dress form until I decided that a half-circle would do.
And also…
A hat! I whipped this together in about ten minutes with some hot glue and an old black felt hat I happened to have laying around. The green flowers I had gone shopping for last week, and I went to every craft store in town to find what I wanted – but I was working off memory and didn’t have a picture of the costume with me, so maybe I was being more picky than I needed to be. Anyhow, none of the flowers I found were actually camellias, but they’re all a good close match. The flowers on the dress were bought for this project; the white flower on the hat and the crystals were bought a while back on clearance, as well as the green striped ribbon.
This project is essentially finished (“essentially finished” – my catchphrase) and it’s nice to have finally completed something! I’ve been working on bits and pieces of stuff but there’s a sense of accomplishment in having a costume all done. All I have left on this one is to add a bit more green tulle to the petticoat (or maybe I’ll add it to the white skirt itself) to cover that little gap where I pulled the skirt up to attach the flower.
And what did I work on today…?
Hint: it involves… yet more ruffles! I’ll post about that tomorrow.