Hahahaha

This is what happens when you create a cosplay in two days.
It turned out...decently. I used the acrylic ink and rubbing alcohol method to dye the wig -- had I had more time I would have loved to ...y'know, get the right colour, and style it. But I didn't. There were a ton of issues with this costume that really built up on me but I see some things I'd like to keep and some I'd like to reaaaally get rid of.

Favourite part of the costume: that little vial in my hand. It was dyed water and then I added pieces of dried ice and it bubbled and steamed and was downright suh-weet. It really looked all supersciency. Unfortunately the dried ice kinda didn't last too long so I had to keep refilling it and that got frustrating.

Favourite part of Wasabi Animeland Con: Well, there were some really nice things in the Dealer room (SLAYERS STUFF REALLY?!) and the music videos were pretty cool (my favourite was the Big O one... really there were too many "hah let's make a joke about SEX" videos).

I also made a Tenchi shirt for my boyfriend. I think his shirt turned out beautifully. The only issue with it was that I accidentally grabbed a pattern a size too small and it ...er...was a size too small.



I eyeballed the entire Washu costume, no patterns. Which is part of why it turned out so badly. I love the purple skirt, though. I was supremely pleased with that.

Wasabi

So I'm going to Wasabi Con.

I decided this...yesterday.

So I am going to attempt to come up with a Washu from Tenchi Muyo. Should be interesting. The wig is going to be downright horrific and I have already accepted this fact. So we will see. Updates soon.

Ashlotte

So I got bored with the idea of making a Rose costume -- I may still do it, but having finished the Halloween costume I realized how remarkably simple it is, so I can figure that out any ol' time.

I realized how badly I want to do Ashlotte from Soul Calibur IV, so now I've decided to start working on that because I really am a huge dork who likes to randomly switch projects. Problem? Figuring out how to make the metal dress. The cage, the arm things, I have some ideas in progress for that. It's that damn dress. I certainly can't make it out of metal -- not that I wouldn't like to, I just wouldn't be able to get ahold of the equipment. Oh, and the skill.

The character:
...my internet at my parents' house sucks so it's just not going to happen. If I remember to, I will come back and put up her picture. If you don't know who she is, she's a special character in Soul Calibur and easily googleable.


Stay tuned for sketches and thoughts. I'll try to keep a running list of what happens, since I've already realized no one else has a nice tutorial (at least that I can find...) and it's frickin' impossible to find a photograph of her from the back so I'll have to try to convince one of my friends who owns the game to let me play it.

Halloween

Totally forgot to update this.

I finished the dress in time for Halloween (while jamming to Repo! The Genetic Opera), the problem was that where I went was way too small and crowded for me to wear my hoops, so all of my pictures are hoop-less.

But all the same.

The final product:
That's my friend Christopher, whom I went to hang out with for Halloween, on the phone with his friend. He is, in fact, wearing a Mal costume from Firefly. I found this thrilling.

Eventually I'll try to get a photo out in my yard with my full gown and hoopskirt on, the skirt should go out about two/three more feet more than it does. I went to Cabellas in that gown, it cracked me up.

So there's my "practice gown" -- I'm pretty pleased, it was remarkably easy to make (especially with my dress form).

More Underpinnings

Today was productive! I've been so in the mood to create!









































Screw organizing the photos. They're up there in a jumble.

Somewhere you will see a set of fabric - the striped kilty stuff is what I'm using for the mockup gown (also known as my halloween costume).

The pants thingies are my Pantalettes. I kinda...screwed up the pattern since I didn't understand it and just kinda made some crap up and ended up with some pantslike things. xDDD They're more like bloomers or pantaloons but ... they work. What they should be is two legs that tie up around a waistband but I end my accuracy at things that expose the nethers. I'm really pleased with the delicate decorating.

I also made Petticoat two. It didn't turn out as well because I was frankly tired of ruffling so I tried a ruffle and it made it too small, so I cut the damn thing in half, finished the two sides, and made a bustle. xDDD

And then I tossed the fabric overtop the rest of the mess to see how it looked. I love the fabric. Yay Scottish flair. It's...not accurate. But screw it.

So there we go. My underpinnings are almost done. Once I get the chemise finished I'm set to go. Then I can start cringing while I work on the gown. xDD

Petticoats All Around

I finished petticoat one last night, that was...uh. Fun. It took about nine hours. This is because I got the insane urge to make a ruffled bottom. Not thinking that the draw-in of the skirt would achieve the same damn thing. So I killed about six yards of fabric machine-ruffling. How did I do this? Sew an inch. Fold over. Sew an inch. Fold over. Sew an inch. Stab self in face.

I will say, I'm very pleased with the end product.

But I would like to never, ever do it again. So I'll be trying something else for Petticoat #2.

How did I do this?

I had a nice long bit of white 100% cotton that was about 120" wide. I then eyeballed it, and then tossed it over my head while wearing the hoops. Then I stabbed a hole through it right over my head and cut my way through. Then I took it off and cut it a bit more flat. Then I made a tunnel for the tie to go through. Voila, it was a bunching skirt.

Then, I trimmed it up to about six inches off the ground, and stared at it plaintively for a while.

Then I started ruffling.

After eight hours of ruffling, attaching the ruffles gently to the bottom, hemming each ruffle with a cute little zig-zag stitch... it was done.

I'm still thinking of adding some lace...everywhere... it's an awfully plain petticoat... but for now here she is.

I wish I'd taken a few progress pics, it didn't occur to me that anyone might like to see. I don't think it's too difficult (and SO not worth a pattern. That's a waste of money for a petticoat, I wouldn't bother unless I were making a corded petticoat).


See how you can still see the hoops? This is why two petticoats is a great idea for hoops this large.











Argh. This thing is insaaaanely hard to take photos of yourself in when you're just trying to set the camera down with the timer on!










Hallu ruffles.

I will admit I made a mistake in that I should have hemmed both edges BEFORE I ruffled. Now the top edge of the ruffles is raw and too small to hem down.









And thus the ruffles are again ...ruffly. I'm so proud of them.















And this wouldn't be complete without a dramatic, dreamy shot of the floofed sitting skirt. Yay.

How to Make a Hoopskirt for Under $40

So I'm only so dedicated to historical accuracy. Over $100 for an undergarment that no one will see? I think not, ladies and gentlemen.

If you want to see a great tutorial, try here - the Dreamstress has a great method.

So here's how I did it.

Materials

• 100ft of Polytubing (which is this stuff, although I didn't get mine here: http://www.berryhilldrip.com/PolyPg.htm) - I chose 3/4", which was 0.23 a foot so $23
• 2-1/2" wide ribbon (I bought a 25 yard spool of it at Walmart and used about half. If you're taller than me you'll need more) $5
• Scissors (...I...own them so free?)
• Sewing Machine (this is a serious pain in the butt without it)
• Duct tape $3ish a roll
• About 1yd of cheap fabric to make a waistband $2
• 1pkg of something to use as a tie (I got about 2-1/2yds of bias piping stuff. I bet shoelaces would work too) $3
• Final Price - Roughly $36

The Waistband
I chose to do this first just because. If you don't want to, then don't. Won't be an issue.

My waist is about 22" and I wanted a slight scrunch so I cut my fabric about 30" long, and maybe...3-4" wide.

I folded it in half, and sewed about half an inch down from the fold to create a little tunnel for the tie to go through. Then I finagled the tie through the tunnel with a wire hanger. After swearing about that for about half an hour...I had it ready to go. The idea was to sew the skirt strips into the area into between the folds for extra awesome.

(note from the future: It totally works)















The Strips
See those white strips hanging down from the waistband? Expect those to take roughly four hours of hair-yanking to accomplish. They take FOREVERholycrap. They work really well, and turn out very strong, but I still wanted to kick myself.

Step One: Figure out how tall you are, and then adjust. I made my strips 37" long. I'm 5'0" tall. I'm pretty pleased with how close the hoops are to the floor so I'd add/subtract the inches depending on how tall you are compared to me.

Step Two: Cut lots of strips. I cut twenty, and only used sixteen. If you plan to have a lot of hoops/really heavy gown I'd cut more like forty strips and use all of them for extra stiffness. I like a little sway and don't plan to have an extremely heavy gown.

Step Three: Start sewing. Gently fold in each edge and sew down the length to keep the edges in. This strengthens the ribbon and keeps it from fraying on you.

Once you've done this on EVERY SINGLE ONE (yes, really, it takes forever) then you get to sew AGAIN. This time, it's more complicated.









Step Four: Put the two wrong-side together. Then you get to start sewing. First, 1" from whichever side you choose. This is the bottom. Then, 2" up from that is the next one. Then 4" up from that, 2" up from that. The 4" is the distance between each hoop, the 2" is the slot the hoops go through (if you choose a smaller hoop size than I did you will want to adjust the size of the slot). Do this until you have as many 2" slots as you intend to have hoops. I chose five hoops, so I have five 2" slots. Then I had a fair amount of "extra" up top. This is good.

Step Five: The extra is used for sewing into your waistband. I put mine in about 4" apart. Check each to be sure you have the hoop slots at the same height all the way around - don't want to screw up here. I used a tight zig-zag stitch to secure them in.










aaaaand done.





The Hoops
This was, for me, the absolute easiest part. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you go over 140" at the biggest hoop, you will need to have much longer strips. Even if you're 5' I would suggest 42" strips. The bigger the hoop the more space they have! I wound up with a British Farthingale from the pre-Restoration at first - total Tabletop!

I chose to make five hoops. The fun here is that you can do WHATEVER you want! I chose to do these measurements, and I chose to do five. If you want to do more, go ahead. If you want to do less, cool. If you want to use my measurements, right on. If you want a tiny hoop (like...the kind that can fit through a door) cool! If you want something ridiculously huge, go for it. Just try to keep your proportions. I went for 13" difference between each hoop.

Top Level 88"
Second Level 101"
Third Level 114"
Fourth Level 127"
Fifth Level 140"

Also, I cut about 1" larger than each of these measurements, and then I slit 1" down on one end of each and squeezed to shove that end into the other. This makes it sturdier when you duct tape. And if your hoops are large enough to not fit well through things, you WANT sturdy. Because these suckers actually have a little BEND to them.

Also, there's my puppy. Heehee.



The Grand Finale
You have finally completed the pieces! You have a full waistband, and you have your hoops. You're ready to thread them through! This, you can figure out on your own really. If you made the ribbons right, it's okay to be a little rough with them. If you have a dress form, YAY. I used mine and it made it really easy. If you don't, it's not impossible just takes a bit of maneuvering. Once you've pushed each hoop through the ribbons, push the slit end into the other end and then wrap with duct tape (or Gorilla Tape, which I'm particularly fond of).

Once all of the hoops are in, carefully adjust your ribbons to make them straight. This will force the shape of the skirt to be circular and even.

And just like that, you have a hoop.












Don't forget your petticoats! I tossed some fabric around mine to get a look at how it works, and I can see the hoops right through it. So what you want is two or so petticoats to keep things smooth and pretty. These big hoops require a bit of coverage to hide!




















So there you have it. I got the original idea for this from my Theatre teacher many years ago. However, I got the more specific ideas (like the genius ribbons) from The Dreamstress.

And thus, Masqued has created a hoopskirt for under $40 in under five hours. Step one, complete.