Cosplay Throwback: Bellatrix Lestrange

When?
Way back in 2010 for a Christmas costume party. 

 How?
I bought a stretchy black velvet dress and added silver puff paint to the top to mimic embroidery. I made a corset from pieces of a leather skirt (this was back when Threadbanger did sewing tutorials, so I used instructions from their Pirate costume video).

 The sleeves are made from velour with eyelet tape sewn on. Everything is laces together with black wool. The necklace is made from polymer clay and a length of wool. 

Has it aged well?
Not really ,since I disassembled most of it for other projects! It looks very handmade in the photos, but has a certain charm to it, except for my hair, which looks very sad. My hair is actually difficult to curl: it is very straight and thick, and though I can make it wavy, curls are usually beyond me. I also hadn't discovered back-combing at the time. My makeup skills have certainly improved since then!

Would I remake it?
As interesting a character as Bellatrix is, I don't particularly wish to remake this costume. If I do, it will be an interesting experience to see how far I've come in seven years of costume making.

Cosplay and non-cosplay projects

Non-cosplay

A non-cosplay related project this time: pillowcase skirts.

So far, only the red one is finished. I based these on a Chic Steals tutorial but I skipped the elastic waistband and replaced it with a cloth one. I also added a zip and a button (a surprisingly nice one that I found on a pair of overalls). Here's the black version. The zip is brown because that's the darkest the shop had.

Cosplay

My completed Bellatrix costume. This was a simple enough dress: I just altered a huge dress that I found in a charity shop to the appropriate size. the gloves were made of some cheap stretchy velvet (the sort that gets made into tracksuits) with eyelet tape down the sides. The gloves are sewn to the dress with black wool. I also laced them up with wool.

THIS, on the other hand, was a nightmare.

Hand-sewn leather under-bust corset. I would like nothing better than to replace this, but it will do for tomorrow: MICA are having a Christmas party at the Drayton, and the DVD of Turning Japanese will be released, which should be worth watching.

I'm pleased with the necklace: the bird skull is made from polymer clay, with wire inside to make a loop so that it can hang on a necklace. Now all I have to do is curl my hair and look crazy-and wear a warm coat, because the temperature is dropping like crazy.

***

I totally forgot to mention this, but last week a fellow cosplayer (she was dressed as Misa from Death Note. I'm plotting to steal her wonderful boots. And choker. Possibly socks too :) ) and I represented MICA on the television programme 'Hadd Ghalik'. Eesh, now I know why Maltese TV has such a bad reputation (I don't watch Maltese television). It was a game show, but in between games there were dances (why oh why does everyone dance to Grease Lightnin'? It is such a cliche.) and songs (Mamma Mia-another cliche but fun, not to mention a crowd pleaser; and some song I don't know). We had to stand among the audience and 'attract attention to ourselves' (that was our brief). Being honest, the little girl who zoomed on stage during one of the games got more publicity than us (though that really annoyed the presenter-justifiably).

We had the camera on us once while we were in the audience, just to say who we were, and we presented the prizes at the end.

Too many costumes!

NEVER work on three costumes at once! It is very tiring nad confusing. At least the Princess Mononoke one is finished. I ended up recycling a polo neck sweater to make the dress. The mask was fantastic. The sheepskin didn't try to strangle me and the vegan police didn't come to arrest me.

Here's a picture of me and the other cosplayers from the Turning Japanese shoot.

My Bellatrix costume (which will probably be used for the NEXT HP7) has issues with the corset. I chopped up an old leather skirt to use, and I drafted a pattern using Dark DIY's guide , but it doesn't fit very well and look pretty manky. And my machine hates leather and leather needles-it has bust 3 needles already. I may have to bid adieu to the corset and make another one out of a more pliable material: any suggestions? I've also heard of a material called liquid latexs-you can make a corset out of cotton or something and paint over it with the liquid latex, and get this leathery effect.

The actual dress is more or less finished. It's a velvet dress which I resized and covered in silver swirls at the bust. The gloves need to have the last few eyelets inserted: I used eyelet tape for the sides, but to connect the gloves to the dress I need to add some eyelets by hand.

The final costume is Magenta from the Rocky Horror Show. This is turning into a reconstructin project: I cut the collar and cuffs off an old school shirt nad basted them to a black shirt. Paired with a black skirt, it look like a dress. The apron is made from an old sheet and an old skirt. The skirt in question was tiered, so I removed the two bottom tiers nad made them into straps and ruffles. He sheet makes up the front of the apron. It still needs to be sewn together, but it looks great. I also need to come up with some sort of maid cap.