Costume Thoughts: Alice through the Looking Glass

I often choose a costume just because I like the way it looks; probably just as often as choosing to make costumes because I like the character. Sometimes a costume is just so interesting that I want to try my hand at recreating it. Such is the case for Alice's costume in "Alice: Through the Looking Glass". The first film, in my opinion, was a little disappointing. I have yet to see the sequel, but the plot sounds strange yet dull (not a good combination for an Alice-inspired story)

But Colleen Atwood came back to do the costumes, and I think they are gorgeous. My favourite is Alice's Mandarin inspired costume.

I have no ideal why I like it so much. I don't normally like these colours separately, and I never thought I would like them together, but it works so well. Colleen Atwood you genius!

In the film, Alice says her outfit is inspired by the Dowager Empress of China; makes sense, since in the last film we saw Alice setting off for China to expand her family company's trading routes. It features a purple blouse with a Mandarin collar, a decorative collar, wide-legged trousers reminiscent of hakama or hanbok, and boots.

The Blouse

Alice's blouse has lots of interesting details. It seems to have a Mandarin collar and slight puff sleeves: there's a seam on the sleeve, so I think there's a puff sleeve sewn to the lower sleeve, 

According to Colleen Atwood, the costume department embroidered the purple silk themselves with a design including rabbits and little hats. A purple brocade would work very well, unless you have the time and skill to embroider (or print) metres of silk. 

The blouse is covered with beautiful floral embroidery. There's also red piping along some of the seams, and red buttons on the upper sleeves. 

The way the blouse closes reminds me of a Cheongsam, closing on one side along the collar bone. The blouse might tie shut with ribbons, because in the picture below you can see a red ribbon hanging down on Alice's blouse.  

Alice seems to be wearing an orange shirt under the purple blouse: you can see it through the slits at the waist and sleeves of the purple blouse. In some shots the orange shirt seems to have pleated details on the sleeves and near the waist.

The Collar

 Initially Alice wears this beautiful ornate collar with this costume, though there are some scenes where she isn't wearing it. 

Colleen Atwood made the collar from leather and fabric, with gold pieces that apparently came from inexpensive Indonesian wedding crowns. 

You could probably make this collar from leather, vinyl, or craft foam (not many Indonesian wedding crowns in my part of the world, so I'll be using one or more of these materials)

The Trousers

According to Colleen Attwood, Alice only wears trousers in the film, though many are disguised as skirts. The trousers are supposed to be more practical. This pair remind me of Hakama.

  The trousers seem to be made of emerald green material, probably silk, with golden yellow stripes. They are pleated, and decorated with a wide purple and red trim at the hem.

The pleats are a little more obvious in these exhibition pictures. They look like box pleats to me. 

The boots

Alice wears some very comfortable looking boots. I think the colour scheme is a call back to her shoes in the first film:

I think the boots are inspired by traditional Chinese boots. They might be made of canvas, but I'm no expert of shoes.

Costume Thoughts: Alice Madness Returns Royal Suite

Been a while, hasn't it? This is what happens when you go to vet school: you lose all your free time as you desperately try to learn all the branches of the maxillary artery, the effects of hyper-vitaminosis of Retinol, and just why we have oral exams for so many subjects.

So as you may have surmised, I haven't had much time for sewing. I've sewn a few parts of a Merida costume (her epilogue dress), and I'm planning some projects for the holidays. 

So until I can actually get some sewing done, time for Costume Thoughts! This time, I'm looking at Alice: Madness Returns' Royal Suit dress.

This is the dress that Alice wears as she makes her way through the Queen's castle in the game. I love this design. I love the combination of colours and all the little details. Unfortunatley all the details have made this a very complicated project for me. I've tried to make it once or twice, but I haven't succeeded yet. The first time, I accidentally used stretch satin, and had no idea how to do applique, so I gave up because it looked disastrous. 

There are details everywhere, from head to toe. Depending on whether you look at game screenshots or the artbook, Alice either has a little ruff or a black collar with gold trim. I like both designs, though I do like making little ruffs. She's wearing an Omega pendant; hard to see but I think it is attached to the collar of her dress.

Then there's the bodice. There are alternating panels of black/brown and red, with gold and white details. I've seen some cosplayers sew a black/brown bodice, then sew the red panels on top. They disguise the seams with trim, which often looks really good.

There are diamond and heart appliques, and gold and white trim. The gold trim is along most of the seams, with a little white trim here and there. Ric rac trim would be perfect, though I have seen cosplayers using a flat braid trim or bias tape. 

Her sleeves are puff sleeves. I think this style of sleeve is called 'slashed'. One way of making these is to make a red puff sleeve, then sew strips of black fabric over the gathered sleeve, then sew the whole thing to the bodice. A similar result can be achieve by making a red and black striped sleeve, then pleating it so that the red peaks out from between the black pleats. The sleeve cuff also has applique and trim details.

Her lower sleeves look like arm warmers and separate gloves. The arm warmers have a crenallated appearance. These gloves from cosplayforce look like they are made of a stretch satin. It's tricky to make these crenallations stand up nicely and not flop over, unless you use some kind of interfacing.

 I'm not sure how I would tackle these. One idea I've had is to make the arm warmers from non stretch fabric, then add elastic to help them fit. 

Next is Alice's apron. It has a pointed appearance. Once again there's decorative trim and some appliques: the two astrological symbols, and a black heart (or perhaps a spade?). The apron is attached to a black waistband, with gold trim. 

At the back of the sash is a large black bow, with gold heart appliques and gold trim. The bow has long tails, also decorated with gold trim. Alice has a skull on the centre of the bow: it might be a stylised bird skull. Some cosplayers used red LEDs for the skull's eyes, which looks fantastic. 

Alice's skirt might be two layers, though you could easily fake that. There seems to be a red overskirt (decorated with gold, black and white trim), with a dark underskirt. The underskirt is decorated with gold trim and a chequered applique in gold and black. You could get away with creating a single skirt panel for the underskirt, and sewing it to the red skirt: this would save on fabric, and would probably be less bulky and heavy. 

Alice is wearing striped black and white tights, with black buckled boots. For hot days, thigh high socks would be more comfortable than full tights. 

Materials: I would choose materials that you are comfortable working with. This dress would look gorgeous in matt satin, but equally nice in velvet. Even a well made cotton dress could look good. I'm planning on using either velvet or matt satin, with interfaced gold lycra for the appliques. The advantage of using lycra for the appliques is that you don't need to satin stitch the edges to prevent fraying. Iron-on vinyl would also look fantastic.

The lower sleeves would probably look better made from stretch material. 

Costume Thoughts: Akuma Homura

NB. SPOILERS for Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion Story

I really like Puella Magi Madoka Magica; from concept to music, I think it's fantastic. Two of my favourite designs from the anime (and subsequent movies) are Ultimate Madoka (Godoka, or Madokami) and Ultimate Homura (Devimura, Akuma Homura, Homucifer). Today, I'll be talking about Homucifer.

I am pondering making this costume, and am wondering about how to make the bodice.
The bodice is strapless, with a low v-shape in front. 

initially I was going to make a corset, but then I saw the back of the dress: it is essentially backless, except for one strap.

Now i'm wondering what is the best method to use:
1. Non stretch fabric, very structured, edges held down with sock glue or similar
2. Stretch black material, maybe in the form of a leotard so that it doesn't ride up.
3. Adding flesh coloured panels to either the stretch or non stretch method. This method seems like a good method, but I worry about finding material that matches my skin.

I did have a look at the woks of other cosplayers, but it is tricky to see how they achieved the bodice. One managed to make a non stretch bodice with fabric panels (mesh, I think) that matched her skin. Others look like they've taped/glued theirs down.

Other points: the feathers. It would be prohibitively expensive use make an entirely feathered skirt. It would also be difficult to maintain. I think tulle or chiffon shaped into triangles would create a similar effect (the picture below is an example). I would  sew a floor-length overskirt that is much shorter in the front from black material, lined with galaxy fabric. An easier way of doing this would be to have 2 skirts: one short one, and one long overskirt (like a bustle). Due to the layers of "feathers" the separation of the skirts probably wouldn't be too obvious.

Next, Homura's accessories: the gloves, shoes, arm bands, hair ribbon, and stockings. The stocking's aren't too hard to find. I've found "backgammon" stockings that look good: you can buy them in white and black, or purple and black, or tint them with poly-dyes. I've also seen people use Argyle print thigh highs, or use tights with a smaller diamond or checkered pattern.

The arm bands can be ribbon or cut from the same fabric as the bodice and tied on, or attached using elastic. The bow looks like it is attached to a hair band, so I would personally tie a bow with maroon ribbon and stitch or glue it to a hair band. You can buy black gloves, though if you want them to perfectly match the bodice you have have a hard time finding a perfect match, unless you want to make your own gloves.  

Homura's shoes remind me of ballet slippers. I think the simplest way to make them is to stitch thin black elastic to flat shoes.

Finally, Homura's wings. These are quite unique, and have a very mechanical appearance. I think these could be made of craft foam or even real feathers. I'm not sure what I would use to make the "wing bones", nor how I would attach it; possibly clear elastic?

Costume Thoughts: Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn

I wanted to start a series of posts where I look at costumes and share my thoughts on them. And after the news about "Suicide Squad", I thought I would start with Harley Quinn

So, recently photos from the "Suicide Squad" set have been released, including photos of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

 And here's her costume. 

I actually really like most of this costume. Harley Quinn would definitely wear this, based on the various images of her from the comics and games.

The colour scheme seems to be based on the Suicide Squad comic: red and blue. The dyed ponytails resembles Harley in Arkham City. So far, so good. I also like how this costume is slightly less revealing than some of her other looks. I will say, this is an impractical costume. Those sneaker boots are cute, but I doubt anyone can run around in them. If I remember correctly, Harley is a gymnast: I can't imagine cartwheels in heels is safe for your ankles. Wedges would have made more sense I think.  I don't know what to expect from "Suicide Squad"

 Harley Quinn, or the film in general. I haven't seen most of the recent DC Universe films because I keep hearing bad things about them. I want to be excited for "Suicide Squad". Mind, I had similar feelings when "Sucker Punch" came out, but saw it and loved it. 

I really hope the film acknowledges how abusive and messed up her relationship with the Joker (Mister J) is. Hopefully we'll get a character arc where Harley realises just how awful the Joker is for her, and gets herself out, or already knows how bad the status quo is for her.

How I would make the costume:

The costume can be broken down into these pieces:

• Wig
• T-shirt
• Jacket
• Shorts
• Accessories

Wig:

For the hair, unless you've got the right coloured hair, it's probably easiest to use a wig. Some ideas for a base wig:

• Arda's Chibi wig in titanium, ash, or platinum blonde 
• Epic Cosplay clip on ponytails and a base wig in natural blonde 
• Ali Stark's tutorial on creating a ponytail wig from a normal wig 
• Generic cosplay wig from ebay 
• Chiaroscuro's Wig tutorial 
• Not entirely relevant, but a more fantastical Harley Quinn wig tutorial

T-Shirt:

The t-shirt says "Daddy's Little Monster".  Apart from the random slogan it's a nice shirt. You could probably add the text with t-shirt transfer paper, though a stencil or a very steady hand and marker pen would work. I would probably modify an existing t-shirt and use dye to colour the top part. Watered down blue acrlyic or fabric paint would work in a pinch. Fabric markers would be ideal for the red stripes. 

Tutorial by Miikaela Padua 

Full costume tutorial  

Jacket:

There are already a few tutorials out on creating the jacket. I've seen satin used, though I imagine a good quality velour could look good.

Audrye Roe's Tutorial on Youtube

Chiaroscuro Cosplay's tutorial on Tumblr

Shorts: 

I quite like her sequin shorts. If I were to make them I would probably buy a red pair and a blue pair from ebay and stitch them together. I don't have much experience working with sequins though. I'd also wear dance tights or make the shorts longer, because I don't really want my butt hanging out. 

Accessories:

Harley is wearing fishnet tights with tears in them. She also has several tattoos. She has a black studded holster. You could replicate the holster by buying or making a black holster and adding metal studs to it.

Harley's also got a fairly standard studded belt, though it has a weird diamond or rhombus shaped buckle in gold. 

I like the accessories too, especially the studded belt and bracelets. The whole outfit makes me think of a roller derby (okay, I've never been to one, because Malta is limited like that, but I have an idea of what they look like :P). The belt and bracelets should be easy enough to buy. 

In some pictures, Harley seems to be wearing a red glove on her left hand, and some chunky gold rings.

Her choker seems to say "Puddin": if they're basing her character on cartoon Harley, then I think this is totally in character. Animated series Harley Quinn would definitely wear a choker commemorating her beloved Puddin': she's obsessed with him. 

Her shoes are some kind of heeled boots that look a bit like trainers. I would personally use wedges, as I feel they look better for this particular costume. 

Her bat looks like a normal baseball bat with the words "Good night" stenciled on in red. There also seems to be a scrawl of text or a design beneath the stenciled letters.