Costume Con 30

I was not the only one in a crazy 18th Century Dress!  And we all had secrets to tell…

The courtyard gardens of the hotel were so pretty…it was almost like being at Versailles.  That is, if Versailles had palm trees and cactus.

Crazy dresses call for crazy poses.

Shoes and Hat 5/10/12

I don’t have proper 18th century shoes (though I do have my eye on the new heels coming from American Duchess) so I bought a pair of modern pink slides.  The heel is all wrong, but I can totally work it with the proper decoration!

And for the hat/fascinator, I had an ebay faux-food artist make me a custom faux cupcake.  Which I then put on a few paper doilies and attached to a hair clip.  So stinking cute!  I love it.  This might be my favorite accessory EVER.

If you’re ever in the mood for a faux cupcake or other non-edible edible, check out ebay seller:  http://myworld.ebay.com/faux-real

She does great work, and she’s brilliant to deal with!

Finished!  3/7/12

Except for a few minor details (like white lace for the sleeves), the outfit is done!  Yay!

The bodice ended up being a complete problem…I ended up having to re-cut it, but now it works.  On to the pictures:

I covered my own buttons; each has a little hand-embroidered cupcake on it.

The petticoat is made from a bed dust ruffle I found at Value Village for a couple of bucks.  Pre-ruffled, yay!  All I had to do was put in a waistband.  I love using sheets and bedding for costumes.

And here it is…I ended up deciding against using the pockets I made.  I went with the more round, “cupcake” shape,  as seen in the prints in a previous post.  I still need to tweak the new bum pad a little….I think I want it to extend around the hips a little more.

Forgive the rumpled skirt.  I didn’t iron it.

See?  I think it needs a bigger bum pad.  But of course my bum is naturally bigger than the dummy’s.  She’s (oddly enough) got no bum at all!

One of the things I still need to do is attach the ties that polonaise the skirts.  Sharp-eyed readers will notice that right now, the left side is pink, and right side is white.  I think I’m going to use pink, but I’m out of pink ribbon.  This style of skirt is cool, because you can let the skirt hang long in back, too, for a different look.

 

 

AND…the whole cupcake polonaise could be reversible, if I want.  Turned inside out, the lovely stripe shows.  I call this version the “Watermelon Dress”.

I bought a wig, and spray painted it pink.  It worked PERFECTLY…except for one thing. The color didn’t go well enough with my dress.  So I am saving the ‘cotton candy wig’ (as I am calling it) for a future dress, and starting anew with this wig:

I will find a spray paint that’s a better match to the color, take out the flower and feather, and put a faux cupcake in my hair.  I’m trying to get a fake cupcake maker on ebay to make me one in my colors.

For the curious, here’s how my cotton candy wig turned out.

I started with one cheap, tacky white wig.

The hair is that super glossy, totally fake looking Halloween quality.

Then I just took ordinary spray paint and started laying it on.  The paint also acts as hairspray, because it totally holds the styling in place!

Plus, it does away with the ugly glossy fakeness, and makes it look (to me, anyway) like a powered wig.  Even more so in person.  The pics really don’t show that well.

I totally love this method of coloring wigs, and am going to be doing it more in the future!

Bodice Progress – 1/13/11

Got the bodice cut out and partly sewn together.  Then I played with trim:

This going to be such a cute outfit!  And I *think* it’s going to be one of my Costume Con 2012 dresses.

Pocket Hoops 12/16/10

FINALLY I have some progress to report…the pocket hoops are done!  (I just need to find a green ribbon to replace the currently-purple waist tie.)

I used the JP Ryan pattern, and it worked really well.

I wish I had enough of the green ruffle to trim along all three boning channels, but I had just enough for one.

Also, I finally got the grommets I ordered, so I can finish the stays and get my exact measurements wearing them.  And then I can start working on the bodice muslin!

AND, due to popular demand, I have started a facebook page just for crazy/silly/fun 18th century dresses.  You can come find us here.

Corset and Fabric – 11/27/10

I’ve had the 19th century strapless stays pattern forever – even had the fabric cut out – but I never made it.  Until today.  Today, I finally got it together!  It still needs grommets, because I ran out, but otherwise, here it is:

It’s interesting that the fabric I bought ages ago is lime green and pink – the same colors as the cupcake dress is going to be!  For boning I used plastic cable ties.

And here is the cupcake dress fabric:

The pink will be for the bodice/over skirt.  The stripe will either be the underskirt or the lining for the over skirt.  I also bought a solid pink, and a lime green, so the underskirt could end up being any of these colors, depending on what looks best.  The other colors will then become a petticoat, and the material for my pocket hoops.

Tomorrow, I believe I am going to make a muslin of the dress bodice, then cut it out in the cupcake fabric.  Let me tell you, after working on stuff for Steamcon II so exclusively, it feels very odd to be working on something that not only has NO deadline, but not even a fixed occasion to wear!  It’s nice!

The Style I Want 11/23/10

I think I have it narrowed down to pretty much exactly what I want.

I want a robe a la anglaise, only with the skirts in a polonaise, like the yellow skirt in the post just before this one.  I want the skirts also fairly short, like this dress:

I think the shorter skirt will give it more of a ‘cupcake’ shape.  I also want a ‘zone front’ the bodice on this one:

Or this one:

Jo-Ann’s is having a monster Black Friday sale. I think I’m go see if I can buy the cupcake fabric!

“Let Them Eat Cake”  11/16/10

 

Otherwise known as the “Cupcake” dress, this will be a period 18th style dress as far as construction goes (probably a robe d’anglais, although I have not settled definitely on a style yet) but will be made out of silly cupcake prints in print and green.   

I do want it to be very poofy and frilly and extremely girly!