Finding closure

I have now finished my re-creation of Elizabeth's first outfit from Bioshock Infinite.

When I last wrote about the shirt I said I was dreading the buttonholes. Turns out it was most fortuitous that I left them for a while as eventually I noticed something else in my reference images.

Elizabeth's shirt doesn't have buttonholes. The buttons are on the right front (the side that is on top) even when the shirt is open. Cue great rejoicing.

Fake buttons over other kinds of joins is also period accurate so after this discovery I lost no time in finishing the closure. Buttons on the outside, snaps on the inside, and hooks and loops at the very top, as, in the picture, her outfit has no visible fastenings when the neck is open.

The yoke is attached with flat-felled seams. The back has a central pleat and is gathered (unevenly) into the yoke.

To keep the bulk of the shirt at the back, the pleat is secured below the skirt level using a technique I found in Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques.

The scarf is a bias-cut rectangle sewn into a tube. I used the wrong side of a soft satin. The choker is made from eyelet lace with a ribbon running through the middle. The ribbon is used to fasten it at the back of the neck.

I entered this outfit in the Canberra Show and won first place in the Summer/Winter Garment category.

Bioshock Infinite belongs to Take-Two Interactive Software

Start simple be hanged II

The first post about my Tia Dalma costume covered the bodice and mantua.

Skirts
The two skirts are both constructed from two rectangles of fabric with an elastic waist (because I had not yet developed a distaste for elastic). The underskirt is made of lovely satin and the overskirt is made from two printed cottons which don’t have quite the right drape. Both skirts are intentionally unfinished to allow them to fray. The skirts are worn over a bumroll.

Jewellery

Some beads I painted to match the reference images but since the photos weren’t great I just put stuff together that had a similar look. I didn’t work out what the chicken’s foot was until after making the necklace, so I just have some shell beads tied together. I also bought the Master Replicas version of Tia Dalma’s crab-shaped music box necklace but I was disappointed by its quality. By my standard of ‘replica’ the locket should have opened (I would forgive it for not playing music) or at very least it should looked like the original from all angles but the one I bought is hollow in the back.

Hair
I curled my hair the night before the Disney party and, on the day, I styled it with a mixture of curls, plaits and teasing (and feathers). I have since made fake dreadlocks by fingerweaving featherwool.

Modifications

Of course, the most significant improvement is the addition of the sea.

There were several parts of this outfit I wasn’t happy with. After the party, I decided to take the bodice apart and remake it. And gradually, over the following years, I did. I made the bodice shorter and replaced the boning with cable ties and added some extra boning channels. The boning I had originally used came on a roll and never really lost the curve which meant it stuck into me in some places and didn’t follow my shape in others.

I also replaced the trim on the overskirt with two layers of fringe.

Belt 

I also made a new belt. The original belt I made was too short so I had added an extension in the centre back. This wasn’t a problem for wearing it, because it was under the Mantua, but I was unhappy with it and it meant I couldn’t use the belt with other outfits which I had a notion to do. I was also unimpressed with the fabric I had used – it was a knit fabric and kept stretching out of shape. In the meantime I had found some better reference pictures so I was able to do an improved decorative scheme. I had originally used red sequins along the edge (I don’t know why either) but now I was able to use more accurate rows of beads – although still not wooden beads because the amount I’d need was outside my budget. The cowry shells on my first belt were actually another belt sewn on, but for the new one I was able to use individual shells (salvaged from another belt, naturally).

It was a good idea to start costuming with such a big project – it made my subsequent projects appear quite reasonable to my family.

Canberra Show-off

Just a quick report from this year's Canberra show.

I entered my Assassin's Creed II costume in the Performance Costume category (sadly the only entry) and Elizabeth in the Summer/Winter Garment section.

I won firsts for both outfits. I got some nice comments from the judges about Elizabeth, complimenting my pintucks but also recommending that I user a neater finishing technique on the inside; this is something I will work on.

My assassin won overall champion of Non-professional with more than Two Years Experience entries.

Start simple be hanged

The year my school friends and I turned 16 provided many opportunities for dressing up. At the time I was making a hobby of sewing decorative throw cushions (we still have more than anyone knows what to do with). I had been exploring the costuming part of the internet and thought I would like to do that too and I made a couple of very simple costumes with help from my mum.

My best friend had a Disney themed birthday party. I chose to go as Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean. This choice brought lots of new experiences: making a corset, making patterns from scratch, researching and attempting screen accuracy, and accumulating supplies. It also later introduced the concepts of redoing things after wearing, and wearing an outfit only once.

While not necessarily obvious at a first glance Tia Dalma’s costume is based on 18th century styles, being comprised of a mantua over stays and skirts.

Stays
I used McCall's 4861 for the corset, changing the shape slightly to be more accurate to the movie. I made my corset with 5 layers. There are two inner layers, which are used for the boning channels, a lining, the fashion fabric and a net overlay. The linings and the outer layer were sewn together around three edges and slipped over the inner layers, a bit like putting a pillowcase on a pillow. The lower edge is bound with trim over the netting layer which started life as a reusable shopping bag. I didn’t shape the netting at all, just stretched it over the top of the corset. Having made other corsets now, I do not think much of this method of construction – all the separate layers never quite match up.

I chose not to include the damage that can be discerned on Tia Dalma’s corset in the movie – I couldn’t work out how to do it and it isn’t very noticeable.

To my great frustration I was never able to find an image of the back of the actual corset. I searched the internet and freeze-framed the movie but was unable to find a clear reference. Mine laces up the back, with a sort of loop tape because I was too lazy to do eyelets. When I first wore it I had to lace it up myself, which is possible but not fun.

Mantua
I worked with my mum to draw the pattern for the mantua (making sure it had all the right pieces and seam placement) over a shirt pattern. I found a lovely pink brocade at Spotlight for the mantua but there wasn’t a lot of it. I cut and sewed up the bodice and draped the remainder of the fabric as the skirt. And by draped, I mean I put it on and pinned the skirt to the bodice behind me, then took it off and handsewed where the pins were. The tail of the bodice is lined, up to the point where the skirt is joined in.

At first I made the bodice with shoulder seams and inset sleeves, expecting just to push them off-shoulder but this didn’t sit properly so we just cut the neckline round at off-the-shoulder level. The result is that I can’t raise my arms in this costume, but I have come to regard arm-movement as an unnecessary luxury in a costume, so I was (and am) not much bothered by this.

The sleeve frills are made with a circle of crinkled red and yellow tie-dyed fabric which I tea-stained to age; a circle of lace and a few extra strips of lace. I have never managed to find trim for the sleeve at all like that used in the film. I have replaced it since the party but I am still not happy with it.

The mantua attaches to the bodice with hooks and eyes. I had to add extra eyes to the bodice when I put it on since I kept losing them in the futz at the top of the stays.


To be continued...





Pirates of the Caribbean belongs to Disney

Equipment upgrade

I've finished the buckle for my Assassin's Creed II costume. (Part 1 – making the cast – is here.)

The first step after taking it out of the mould was to trim off the flash and sand the rough edges. The resin sanded quite easily.

 

Then I engraved the patterns on the arms. I hadn't done these patterns on the clay sculpt because I wasn't sure how to do it without disrupting the shape of the arms. I could do the designs on the 'badge' in the clay because they were very fine but I thought the lines on the arm would displace too much clay to be done nicely. I had tested engraving on my practice piece and it looked promising but I'm not sure that it actually worked that well on the final article. I found the engraving was inconsistent along the lines in regard to how wide or deep it was. In the end result the lines are still a bit too shallow to show up clearly under the paint and didn't catch the black wash as they should have.

This is the pattern I engraved. I cleverly forgot to take a picture of the engraving itself.

After the engraving I needed to prime the surface. I used one part sealant, one part acrylic. I had tested painting resin with spray paint but found that in the weeks it was kicking around my sewing table a lot of the paint had come off. So I went with a different approach for the final article in hopes of a more permanent finish.

Next came two coats of silver acrylic and then a black wash (watered down acrylic).

I thought it looked pretty good at this stage, if a bit darkly smudged in places.

Lastly I did a coat of pewter rub'n'buff. I'm not 100% sold on this – it didn't get as shiny as I'd hoped (it's pretty hard to buff in those small crevices) and a bit too much of the black wash got covered over. That said, it's still eminently usable. 

To make the belt I used a (very cut down) corset pattern. I put the mini-corset inside a tube of red fabric. The seam on the tube is open behind where the buckle goes. I then screwed the buckle to the fabric.

I made sure the fabric beneath the buckle was loose enough to look draped.

The corset laces at the side and one end of the red tube tucks inside the other one. The overlap is covered by a thinner sash (not pictured).

Assassin’s Creed belongs to Ubisoft.