Halloween 2016 Early Planning

So as you can tell the plan didn’t work out so much, my pretty gold brocade coset is still in planning and the most crafty thing I’ve done since was last minute alterations on an old Belle costume for Halloween.

But with SDCC last week I’m feeling inspired to do something a bit more complex for Halloween this year. It seems super early to be thinking about it but I’m going to be on holiday for a couple of weeks in August and by the time I get back it’ll be basically September, which is 8 weekends to Halloween. It seems like a lot from this side but it vanishes with frightening rapidity as it gets closer to the deadline.

But even with plenty of planning I’m a bit worried about the time because when I say “a bit more complex” my crazy-pants brain says “hey why not super complex” and so my goal is to have a full Dragon Age Inquisition Morrigan Ballgown by October 29th.

So from the top I’m going to need:

• Black wig with feather accessory
• Crazy necklace collar – 1
• Burgundy brocade bodice with lace trim, gold scale centre and leather cuffs.
• Feathered brooch
• Studded leather underbust corset with lace trim
• Fingerless leather gloves with snake cuff bangle on the right.
• Black/forest green velvet overskirt with beaded trim and silver fly embellishments
• Burgundy brocade underskirt
• Some sort of structured undergarment to get the weird skirt shape. 1
• Flat buckled leather boots.

Now figuring out some of this will be much easier thanks to the lovely people at Bioware who posted this guide with lots of detailed renders to help figure out some of the intricacies that usually require lots of image searches and screen shots. In addition to the hosted pics they also have a downloadable pdf which contains colour swatches and design samples.

I’ll post more about the various components separately and hopefully have a wrap up post here in 3 months time.

 

Overbust Corset – Part 1

This started out of a combination of boredom, a desire to work on some corset making skills and a desire to make use of a pretty gold and pink brocade fabric I bought as a remnant a few years back.

I made my first corset for my costume for halloween just gone, part of a steampunk Dorothy outfit. It came out pretty good but there’s always room for improvement.

Steampunk Dorothy Costume

The first corset was designed to go over an undershirt so I didn’t do a lining on it (just two layers of duck canvas core and a top decorative layer) and it the top of the neckline went straight across the bustline. For the new one, which will be a stand alone piece of outerwear I wanted to go for a much higher sweetheart neckline, fully line the corset and make a lacing panel for the back.

So that’s the plan but it’s a long way down the line.

Step 1 was drafting the pattern. The pattern I used was this one. Sidney Eileen is a great resource for beginner corset makers and the method I’ll be using is entirely hers.

Next step was adjusting the pattern to my measurements, for which I used the method here. I have a feeling I’m going to need to make some changes to the pattern so for the first mock up I traced the pattern from the draft.

I started this a few weeks back so I had already drafted out the pattern and cut out a mock up from some plain white duck canvas. This weekend’s project was putting together the mock up, which I’ve almost completed. I just need to add a zip to the front for a mock up busk, add some grommets at the back  for lacing and it will be ready for the first fitting. Progress 🙂

The Plan

I normally do crafty things for a specific event or occasion, but I decided I wanted to make more of an effort to do things more regularly, partly to keep busy and partly to break out of the cycle of manic activity before an event then crushing boredom after.

I also decided I wanted to start a blog about it so I’d have some record of how I go about doing things so I can start having some semblance of repeatability for what I make.

I’ll be keeping a list of planned and ongoing projects so my flashes of inspiration don’t disappear into the ether.

The goals

1. Always have at least one project going.

2. Make some progress on at least one project each weekend.

3. Write about it.

Current Projects

1. Overbust corset

2. Workstation

3. Sundress

ETA: Given how this first post looks, I think that #4 needs to be figure out how to use wordpress to make this look pretty (or at least less horrible).