Cosplay Throwbacks: Violet Baudelaire

When? I made this for Comic Con 2010. I came second in the skit contest: pretty good, huh? My skit was Violet's monologue from one of the teaser trailers.

How? When I made this costume I was still quite an amateur when it came to sewing. The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes was the most useful resource while I was sewing it, because it contained a detailed guide on how she made the costume.
I started off by making a very very basic bodice (this bodice tutorial) out of muslin. Then I added on bits and pieces of fabric and hacked away at it with scissors until I got more or less the right shape. Then I cut it out in purple cotton and organza, and sewed the bodice and circle skirt. It was tricky because the ribbons had to be sewn to the organza before sewing the cotton and organza together. Note to beginners: try not to use organza when you are first learning to sew costumes. It is difficult to cut, and frays a lot. The hardest part of the costume was appliqueing the weird embryo shapes on the skirt: sewing organza to organza (with the help of a lot of fabric glue). I cheated with the eyelets and bought eyelet tape. I altered a pair of boots to look like Violet's.

Has it aged well? Surprisingly well, although it sometimes makes me cringe a little because I can see all of my mistakes. The worst is probably the glue stains on the organza, and the waistband. I messed up the skirt and made it too tight, and had to add elastic to the waist to make it close. The costume isn't totally accurate but considering my skill level I think it still looks very good, though it's more or less retired.

Would I remake it? Yes, but I would use different methods, and try and get it as accurate as possible. If I have the money and time to make it, then I will, because I still love the character and the design.

Malta Comic-con 2010 and Violet photos at last

Malta Comic Con: two very tiring, very enjoyable days. I managed to sell quite a few accessories and I will be uploading the rest here for sale.

I won second prize in the cosplay contest on Sunday; I was judging the day before. There were some fantastic costumes: Link (Legend of Zelda), Freddie Mercury (I think), Final Fantasy (good costumes but an under-rehearsed skit)
Have a look at this video: this was one of the best skits on Saturday.

Violet Costume Completed!

EDIT: I added an elastic waistband and got rid of the bias binding because the latter was far too tight.

At last it's finished! No photos just yet, but only because I'll be wearing it to the Malta International Cosplayer's Association photoshoot today, where I should get some good shots. I've done my hair, with some help from my mother and a lot of gel to keep the wispy bits in check (my own fault for asking the hairdresser to layer my hair back in July)

There are a few things that need altering: the wool lacing of the vest will be replaced with ribbon, and the glued on decoration will be sewn on in due course. the msot pressing task was sewing on the pleats to the overskirt. the actual pleats used were really difficult to understand: I couldn't make head nor tail of them
So I used a different method called knife pleating and then I cut out a triangular shape on each pleat. It looked great and was eaiser to do. I used chiffon so that the pleats would ahve a different textured from the organza overskirt.

Photos of my Lady Gaga costume will be up here shortly. Sadly everyone thought that I was Wonder Woman :(.

Pendant and sleeves done

The puff sleeves are finally sewn on to the undershirt, and I found pendant to wear and a piece of black ribbon to hang it from. Only the eyelets and pleats left!
Oh, and I bought my blonde wig for going Gaga. It is quite long, and will do for the Sucker Punch

Violet skirt 90% done

Finally the organza overlay is attached to the purple skirt. Yay for eyelet tape: it has saved me so much work. It was a chore enough to attach the eight lengths of eyelet tape to the four sections (a miscalculation on my part: I made six panels when in fact only four were needed, and in fact on four would fit. Whoops!). First I had to make rolled hems on the organza panels, then baste them, then cut out and pin down lengths of eyelet tape, then sew the tape on. It's a good thing I borrowed a sewing machine for this!

I cheated with the "embreyo" shapes and the stripes: there are less stripes and instead of sewing the shapes on, they are glue on. I haven't finished them all yet, but so far they look good.

It was worth the effort because the skirt looks fantastic, and another major part of the costume is finished. This means I can work on my Lady Gaga costume with minimal guilt. I still need to make the pleats for the hem, finish the sleeves, put in the rest of the eyelets lace up anything that needs lacing, find some ribbon for my hair , write a presentation about cosplay and come up with some sort of necklace to wear (if you look at the picture you can see some kind of locket).

Bodice and Puff Sleeves

Guess who's been playing with the levels in photoshop? Most of the eyelets are in. As for the skirt, I've bought 10 metres of eyelet tape (I love to cheat).The tape is at present light blue, but an encounter with black Dylon should fix that. I've got some good fabric glue to stick the ribbons and 'embryo' shapes on to the organza panels.

Organza looks great but I find it annoying: it frays very easily and starts to look like laddered tights.

I've started work on the puff sleeves too. The first one is finished. I had to do this twice: the first time I made it far to small and it began to cut off my circulation. I used elastic the second time, which is much comfier. The sleeves are attached to a tank top. The purple 'ribbon' is actually elastic that I've coloured with a fabric marker. I owe a lot to What the Craft
The tank top just needs a greyish panel on the front to make it look like the original costume. The fishnet sleeves are sorted: I have a pair of long fishnet gloves that will stretch to the right length.

Note to self: Choose an easier costume next time!

I'm going to be preparing a presentation on cosplay for Comic Con in mid-October, and this costume will feature prominently in the Intermediate to Expert section. Expert will include just about every costume from Marie Antoinette, Sleepy Hollow and Pirates of the Caribbean!

Violet Baudelaire costume continued

The boots are finished at last. I'm working on the bodice as I type (not literally . . . :P ). I made some laterations to it. I think I will have to line it to make it stiffer: I'll pick up some red lining material when I go to get the sheer black/charcoal fabric for the overskirt, skirt decoration and bodice stripes-and the velvet ribbon for the front panels. And a million and one grommets, plus a few hook and eye fastenings, and a multidude of black and purple ribbons for various fastenings.
I wish the sewing machine hadn't broken at such as inconvenient time: the needle snapped when I was sewing a brush holder, and the replacement needles isn't working out very well. I was consdiering getting a new sewing machine and perhaps a serger, and now it seems that I shall have to. Hopefully Lidly will get a few in stock, otherwise I'll use someone else's machine or handsew (hope I won't have to!)
I need to stop browsing The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes : I want to make almost all the costumes there-but I will restrain myself! Though my follow-ups to the Violet costume will probably be Arwen's Blood Red gown, Dorothy's costume from The WIzard of Oz, and Neytiri from Avatar, not necessarily in that order though.

Violet Baudelaire cosplay: Boots and Bodice

So far I have finished making a template for the bodice. the idea is to make a cloth template then trace a pattern from it on to tracing paper. I started by following Dawn's Costume Guide to make a basic bodice shape. I then slowly began to add bits and pieces to make it look more like Coleen Atwood's deisgn, such as the sleeves . . .

The triangular points on the front of the bodice . . . . . . and on the back . . .

. . . finishing off by making the back a little higher with some horrendous neon cloth that used to be a pair of trousers.

These boots cost roughly 10 Euro to make: 5 for the boots and 5 for the buttons and thread. One is already finished, though it took quite a while, since I'm have to blanket stitch by hand. I have a feeling that somewhere in the manufacture of these boots glue or interfacing was used because my needle is decidley sticky after a few hours of sewing.

Cosplay decided and star dress: take 2

My costume for Comic Con 2010 is decided: Violet Baudelaire. I'm going with Violet mainly because this is a difficult costume: there are pleats all over the hem of the two-layer skirt, lots of applique, and the top part of the dress is a bodice, which I've never made before.






I think I will need to make that duct tape dressform after all.
Here's a rough sketch of the costume:






I'm starting off with Violet's boots, which look like this:

I have some boots that I bought for 5 Euro from a charity shop which can be remade into Violet's boots. I'll be adding buttons to make them look more authentic, as well as some straps. The buttons (all 14 of them) were about 5 Euro.

My other project is finishing the star dress. The first draft was a total and utter failure (see previous blog entries). None of the original fabric could be salvaged, so I used a long cotton scarf as my base fabric and a less complicated pattern. The skirt is made up of six panels, while the bodice was absed on a halter-neck t-shirt of mine.