Hipster Ariel

Just a short post about an outfit I made over the past two days. I needed a break from the Royal Suit, and decided to make a summer outfit. I had this beautiful green mermaid fabric, and I wanted to make an Ariel inspired look (my very first cosplay was Ariel, so this is also a nod to that).

I used an existing skirt to create a pattern for this one. I traced the pattern on to the mermaid cloth, cut it out, and sewed the pieces together. I added a waistband, then a zip for closure. Originally I wanted to have pockets, but they gaped open and looked so ugly that I got rid of them. One day I will learn how to make pockets that do not gape open. 

For the top, I was inspired by an Annika Victoria tutorial:

I made from crop top from an old, cut up t-shirt. The resulting top is a bit wonky, but at least it looks nice from the front. 

Under the Sea, Part 3

The mermaid costume is finally complete-now I can concentrate on making ACEOs, figuring out the kind of makeup to use for this costume and studying for my exams (NB, this list was not made in order of priority. No, really!).
The scaling process took a very long time. I had the skirt stretched out with cardboard inside it which made things a little easier. I think I should have used fabric paint rather than acrylic paint, because machine washes actually seem top remove acrylic paint. Remember the purple-sweater dress? Almost all the black stripes were removed and some are totally gone. Neil Buchanan got it wrong, or washing powder has really advanced since the Nineties. I'll have to hand wash anyone due to the fins and tail.
I printed the scales on with a piece of foam stuck on to cardboard. After that was done and dry, I made the tail pieces. I need the costume to be easy to move around in, so the tail is not going to cover my feet. Instead I cut out fin-shaped pieces of cloth from the material that I was originally going to use to make the skirt and sewed them around the hem. This was inspired by the method used for the Tatterskirt.

The fins were actually made from one strips of cloth: the same piece of old sheet used for the fins. I pinched the middle of the cloth to form a little knot, which I hand-sewed into place. I think sewed the strip of cloth to the waistband, folding and sewing the bottom hem to make it more like Ariel's fins are in the film. I was lazy and didn't sew all the way around the edges, but it would probably be worth the extras effort to secure the fins properly.

I also purchased a red wig for 8 Euro to complete the look. It's lovely: the hair doesn't look to fake and the wig is very comfy. The biggest challenge will be tucking my hair under the wig, which will require a lot of hairpins, gel and brute force.

Here's the finished skirt.

I'll be wearing this on the 5th June at the Earth Garden festival.

Under the Sea: Part 2

I've finished dying the skirt. It is now a lovely shade of forest green, though some of the white threads didn't aborb much dye and are a pale green shade instead. The Dylon instructions are really easy to follow, thoughIgot very bored stirring the skirt for 20 minutes

Under the Sea

The Malta Comic Con group is turning up at the Earth Garden in Ta' Qali, and guess who's turning up too? Yep, me. Though I've got criminal law on the 8th, and the exhibition at the Earth Garden is on the 6th June. As if that wasn't enough, someone suggested that it might be fun to turn up in costume . . . well, I can never resist a challenge! Surprisingly it took me only a minute to think of a simple, summer costume: Though I've never actually seen the film (though I did see the sequel, and bits of the TV series, where Triton is an arbitrary imbecile who probably would have been overthrown and guillotined by the unhappy masses-oops, here's Political Philosophy interacting with Disney). The costume is relativley simple: just a tight skirt with thinner cloth to make the fins and tail, and a purple shell-bra. I had most of the necessary items:cloth (pale green, but I figured that it could be dyed), scallop shells, a flesh-cloured bra, and a glue gun. All I needed to buy was purple acrylic paint and green dye.

You probably can't see, but the dye is Dylon Forest Green, and the paint is Iris-coloured acrylic, suitable for woods and ceramics, and can be cleaned with soapy water (the shells wouldn't last a second in a washing machine).

Unfortunatley I made a mistake by not measuring the cloth for the skirt properly. Instead, I sat down on the cloth with my legs stretched out and drew around my legs, as I'd seen on a few Youtube mermaid costume tutorials: big mistake, because the cloth wouldn't go round when I pinned it to try it on. Even adding gussets on the sides didn't help.

I decided that it was time to take drastic action, and so I bought some white, stretchy ankle-length trousers. After searchign the Threadbanger forums for help, I converted the trousers into a skirt by undoing the stitches on the inside of the legs and lower part of the crotch, as we all the hem on the legs. That was very boring: good thing I had Philosophy of Law ntoes to glance at and lots of nice msuic (lots of Kimya Dawon). I then sewed the legs to each other to make a stretchy pencil skirt. This was much more succesful than my previous attempt using a cotton sheet.

1) The original garment
2) Unpick stitches . . . 3) The unpicked trousers, before sewing
4) The finished skirt

Suprisingly the shell bra was the easiest thing to make. I found an old flesh-coloured bra and stuck two big scallop shells to the cups using a glue gun and lots and lots of glue to keep it secure. The iris Acrylic (cost me less than 2 Euro) went on nicely: I tried sponging ti on at first, but it went on better with a paintbrush. I gave it three coats, and a coat of PVa Glue on top to stop the paint from chipping. I added glitter gel but I didn't notice any change, so I didn't bother applying any more.

So now the shell top is completely finished, and the skirt just needs finishing off. It will be dyed Forest green, then when it's dry I'll add scales using fabric paint and a potato print (so much easier than stencilling), then I'll add the fins and the tail. The tail isn't going to be a typical fish-tail: it will be lots of strips of the pale green sheet that I originally planned to make the skirt out of, and sew these strips around the hem of the skirt: it will look more or less like a tail, and it will be a lot easier for me to work than if I had a proepr tail. I might add a proper tail at the back if the skirt looks like it needs it. the fins will be more of that pale green sheet.

The finishing touches will be hair and makeup. I have to find a temporary hair colouring product: I htink Clair's accessories will have something like that. I'm not sure whether I should go for sea green/turqouise eyeshadow, aquamarine and purple or pink, green and yellow .

To be continued . . .