For such a picnic as this

My school friends used to organise occasional picnics with dress codes. For one, the theme was 'heroines' and I chose to go as Esther as characterised by Veggietales in Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen. In the show Esther has three outfits and, naturally, I chose the most extravagant one.

I searched all of Canberra and part of New South Wales looking for a burgundy fabric with a gold stripe, but apparently such a thing doesn't exist. I had to settle for a plain satin. If I ever find the elusive stripe I will make the dress again because the satin has an unpleasant texture and the weave is skewed so it doesn't hang straight. I couldn't do anything about it at the time because I only had a short amount of time before the picnic. The outfit wasn't completely finished in time for the picnic so I wore it held together with bulldog clips.

For a pattern, I used a 1960s pattern that I had previously modified to be an underdress for a 1930s dress (the overdress for which I haven't made yet).

For Esther’s waistpiece, I cut down my Victorian corset pattern (TV110) and cut the back on the fold instead of having it lace up (more details here). I also added extra centre front panels as I didn't want a gap and slimming wasn't necessary. This was the first corset I made with a coutil layer. My outer fabric was the gold brocade leftover from my doublet (used right side out this time) and the lining was yellow, leftover from my Victorian gown. This corset has since had a lot of wear in my everyday wardrobe.

I made the gold and purple thing down the front separately then sewed it to the dress. For wearing, it pins onto the corset, hiding the lacing. I was trying to keep the plasticky 'computer generated' texture of the character in the show so, for the purple, I used craft foam. The gold is a smoothly textured satin leftover from a barbie costume. It's sewn together on the sewing machine – the foam sews fine (but it doesn't unpick well). The 'gem' is a cheap ring I found in a jewellery shop when on holiday after the picnic.

The frame of the shoulder piece is made of buckram edged in gardening wire. It has faux suede on the outside and satin on the inside. It was all sewn together by hand; trying to get a needle through two layers of suede around buckram and wire is a painful process. This is the only thing I've managed to break a hand-sewing needle on (and a heavy duty one at that). The collar opens at the front and fastens with snaps. In the animation there is a shiny pattern on the suede but I didn’t want to risk damaging the fabric for something that is barely noticeable. I also didn't quite manage to get the shape of the turned up edges – such sculpting is a bit beyond me. I chose the white fabric because of its texture. The jewel is made from sculpey III and has a purple craft gem in it.

Misery

Ruby Gloom is a children’s cartoon that I am unreasonably fond of. My favourite character is Misery who is basically a living bad luck charm, constantly being hit by lightning and the like. I had no occasion to wear a Misery costume but I wanted to make one, so I used the lack of deadline to take my time and make it as good as I wanted it to be. It was also an interesting exercise in interpreting a costume design from 2D animation: the character does not have human proportions, animated fabric doesn’t have to behave like real fabric, and details (like sleeve length) vary between shots.

I decided I wanted to make a costume that looked more like a realistic outfit rather than keep to an animated texture. I was going to do this by adding beading and embroidery, but after I had done the embroidery I thought it was enough. This outfit is Misery’s house dress so it probably wouldn’t be too fancy. The show has a goth-y aesthetic so I did some research of goth fashion before I started my design. I’m not sure that I used anything I found in particular, but it was useful information to keep in the back of my mind.

Bodice adapted from Simplicity 2172

Misery is associated with a spider motif so I embroidered a spiderweb pattern over the bodice. I’ve always liked the look of the non-spiral webs that we get in the backyard so I used a photo of one for my embroidery pattern. To transfer the design to the corset I used an overhead projector to shine the photo on the bodice and traced it on. The web is embroidered using chain stitch and iridescent thread the same colour as the satin. The embroidery alone (without beading) broke up the colour blocking and was subtle enough to add an extra layer of feature to the outfit without deviating too far from the original design.

For Misery’s dress I used the pattern Burda 2484. Because the neck and skirt of Misery’s dress are a different colour from the sleeves I changed the pattern so that the side pieces went all the way to the shoulder line rather than the armhole. That way any visible shoulder fabric would be the same as the sleeves. Finding complementary purples was difficult, but Patchwork On Parker in Cootamundra had the perfect stuff.

Misery wears a spider brooch at her throat – I made mine out of Sculpey.

The neck piece was a lot of work. After I made a couple of failed patterns, my mum draped fabric around my neck to make a pattern. (Draping a pattern on your own neck is difficult!) Misery’s collar has ribbing or some other vertically striped texture. I used flat-felled seams to get the effect.

After much experimentation I came to the conclusion that my real chiffon was never going to drape as well as the animated stuff. To get the right shape I cut the shape of the drapery into the chiffon. To finish the edges of the veil I melted it over a candle. This meant there was no bulky hem (and it seemed appropriate for a character who was always being singed). The flowers are just decorative; the veil is held in place by a comb. I bought 3m of chiffon so that I would have some room to experiment but ended up using all of it.

I am very happy with the finished result. 

 Ruby Gloom® Mighty Fine YTV is a trademark of Corus Entertainment Inc.