Azelma - research through movie watching

I spent a while collecting screenshots of various background characters to use as inspiration for my Azelma outfit.

As always, click for larger

Initially I only remembered Fantine's pink dress as being pretty from my first time watching the movie. Now that I went back to it, I realise why. Smocking! A very pretty embroidery technique that I've never had cause to learn before. At a glance, it seems to be really tricky and time consuming to make, but the results are so very pretty. I also looked at the light blue dress she wears later on, before changing to the red outfit. It's super simple, no decorations whatsoever. It's interesting in that the skirt is completely flat in the front but gathered/pleated in the back. It's not a style I'm particularily fond of though, so I'll probably not be copying it. It looks like the dress laces in the back, I imagine you pull it on over your head to put it on, since it probably only opens down to the beginning of the skirt.

Many of the characters in the background seem to be wearing a blouse/bodice and a skirt, rather than a dress. But I've made up my mind on making a dress. On top of shift, stays and a couple of petticoats, this is what I'll be going for. At the moment, I'm thinking green dress, white/beige apron and maybe a pale teracotta shawl. We'll see what fabrics I'll manage to find.

What I haven't decided yet, is what to wear on my head. I won't have a wig, I want to use my own hair. But there needs to be some kind of headgear too! I like the look of the two middle ones, even though I'm not entirely sure how the top middle one is constructed, since it shows so briefly. The one to the right is really funny, but might end up looking a bit too silly. The one to the left.. Well, I have no idea how it's constructed, but a lot of the women in the movie wear it. I'll probably just ignore it and go for one of the middle models.

Two extra shots with interesting details to them. The woman in the top right of the left shot seems to have a drawstring on her dress, only time I've seen it on a dress and not a shift though, so I'll probably ignore it. Striped fabric seems a common pattern, I'm thinking green striped will be pretty for the dress. The shawl in the shot to the right is really nice, with it's scalloped edge. I might make one like that, add some more detail to the dress without making it look too fancy.

Constructing a corset

Princess Celestia isn't the only cosplay I'm currently planning. I've also been invited by Cherazor to join a Les Miserables cosplay group. While the others will be reproducing characters out of the movie (I believe that so far we have Gavroche, Mlle Thénardier and Javert), I decided to go down a different route. I'm realising more and more that I prefer costumes where I get a lot of freedom to do my own design, so I decided to pick up the book and find a character that isn't explicitly named and portrayed in the movie.

In the end my choice landed on Azelma Thénardier, Eponine's little sister who isn't part of the musical at all. This gives me the freedom to do whatever I want with it, while still having a proper name for the character, rather than just claiming to be some random poor revolutionary from the streets of Paris.

While the revolution does take place at 1832, I've focused my research on the 1820s. The Thénardiers aren't exactly prosperous, especially not towards the later parts of the movie/musical/book, so it seems highly unlikely that Azelma would be dressed in the latest fashion. Also, dresses from the 1820's are absolutely adorable, the gradual change from regency towards romantic fashion produces some truly pretty things. The waists are moving downwards again and the sleeves aren't yet as stupidly poofy as they become in the thirties.

But before I can even think about making the dress, I need proper underwear! At the very minimum I'll need a shift (underdress), stays (corset, that is) and a couple of petticoats. The shift and petticoats shouldn't be too hard to make, the corset will be a bit more of a challenge. While I'm fairly familiar with the theories of making one, I've never actually done it.

I'm reluctant to spend more money than neccessary on the costume, so I started googling for online patterns and instructions.

First realisation: To most people "corset" equals "victorian corset" and no other model or style has existed, ever. This... Makes research of a more obscure model somewhat frustrating.

Second realisation: I'm inbetween two periods of fashion. Googling for regency won't give me the right models, googling for romantic won't be quite right either. Yes, I can google by specific years, but it isn't nearly as handy as having a neat label to put on the style I'm looking for.

There are several different models of corsets/stays available from this time period.

Shamelessly stolen borrowed from here

The shorter ones are closer to a modern bra than what you'd consider a corset, seem to be much more comfy and waaay easier to make. However, I get the impression that they are popular earlier than I'd like to, even as poor as Azelma is, I doubt she'd be wearing a thirty year old corset. They are also, and most importantly, only suited for small, slim and petite girls who already have a body fitting in with the ideal and fashion at the time. Not so much suited for me then. I'll need the full version that goes all the way down over the hips.

In the end, I stumbled on this. It's really handy, well written instructions, lots of pictures of both the original vintage one as well as construction of the new one. There's only one drawback, there are no instructions on how to draft your own pattern. I'll definately need to make my own, I'm nowhere near as small and skinny as she is, I'll need to adapt the pattern to my bodyshape.

Here are my results, based on her photos and pattern pictures:

Click for larger!

The side piece, green in my sketch, is the trickiest one. It's not immediately obvious how it works from only looking at the pattern pieces. Once I looked closer at the photos of the corset I realised that it's more a case of the green and blue pieces making up the front while the orange makes up the back, seeing how the seam between green and orange pretty much ends up being a side seam.

This is all well and good, but what I really need is to know what measurements to take, and how they will affect the pattern. These are my guesses for that:

The corset must go all the way down over the top of the hips. Not so far that it gets in the way of walking, obviously, but if it stops too far up it creates a decidedly unflattering bulge. An inversed muffintop, so to speak. It'll also be avoided by making sure it flares enough at the bottom to not be as tight around the hips as it will be around the waist and bust.

Overall, I'm not aiming to have a super tight corset. These aren't victorian corsets, after all, and we're not aiming to look like wasps. In fact, this corset is more after shaping you towards a smooth body shape rather than trying to make you look tiny. The orange and yellow measurements should be fairly straightforward. I should be able to get the yellow positioned right on the side piece simply by putting it at a straight angle against the green and at the correct distance from orange. I'll also need to remember to calculate for the space the lacing takes up in the back, on all the pictures I've seen the corset has been laced fairly widely, you're not aiming towards having the two back pieces meet.

The pink one will be trickier. Firstly, because of the armscye and how on earth I'll be measuring that to get a good size (I'm leaning towards wildly guessing and hoping it'll turn out all right..). Secondly, I'm not sure how to measure it right. It'll need to be smaller than my actual bust measurement, since that's the one place where the corset will constrain and shape the most. But how much? I have no real way of knowing. The gussets in front make sure the corset bulges at least a bit at the bust, we're not looking to be completely flat. But it should still be somewhat straight. On the other hand, I don't want it to be straight enough that I end up with a stupidly enthusiastic pushup effect. 

I'm thinking that what I'll have to do is simply make the measurements as best as I can, make a mockup of scrap fabric, adjust it when I can try it on, turn that into pattern pieces, rinse and repeat until it looks good. This will be fun!

New Cosplay: Princess Celestia

I'm a brony.
And proud of it.
I really love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And on top of that, I'm going to a brony convention this summer: Crystalcon. Clearly, I need a pony themed cosplay.

To be honest, I've been considering doing one for a while now. It's tricky though, the amount of characters in the show are somewhat limited and whichever I choose I can be sure that there will be numerous others around as well. Time to think outside the box in order to stand out!

Firstly, I've decided to go for Princess Celestia. I do love the character, she's awesome. She also seems to be one of the less often portrayed ones in cosplays, at least in the cons I've been to so far.

She's also really pretty. That's important too.

So what do I know about her? She's pretty much a goddess in the realm of the ponies, for at the very least a thousand years she's been the ruler of Equestria, controlling the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, fighting off numerous powerful badguys and defeating them on her own. Sure, nowadays Luna takes care of half of the moving of celestial bodies across the sky, and she seems to be content to let Twilight Sparkle and her friends take care of any threats towards the peace. But before that, she must've done it all by herself, for centuries and centuries.

Initially I figured that I'd make a pretty white dress and add pastel and gold details to it, seeing how she's all pretty and a princess and all. But then again, considering her story and what she's capable of, she seems much more badass than a princess in a frilly white dress.

The term "Warrior Queen Celestia" popped into my mind.

She needs armour. And weapons. My sketches took a completely new direction. In the end, this is what I settled for:

A white, gold studded gambeson, white leather pauldrons, greaves and bracers. Golden gorget with a gem, mirroring the gold thing she wears around her neck as a pony. It always looked a bit too thick to be a necklace anyway. I don't want her with a sword and shield, but rather a pole weapon of some sort. A spear, halberd, naginata... I haven't decided on that quite yet, but probably one with a golden blade rather than steel, to match the rest of her looks.

Since deciding on this, I've made even more research on how to craft the things I need, as well as making some more in-depth sketches for a few of the parts.

The parts I will need to make for the costume so far are:

• Shirt and trousers to go underneath: Most likely white cotton and rather plain as they won't be very visible
• White gambeson: White cotton again, "gold" studs and possibly "gold" buckles for closing it.
• White leather belt: Hoping to find at thrift store
• Shoes: Will use my larp boots, unless I find nice white shoes that aren't too expensive.
• Greaves&Bracers: Will make out of craft foam.
• Pauldrons: Main parts out of craft foam, hoping to find thin white leather belts at thrift store to make the straps out of, putting "gold" buckles on them if at all possible.
• Gorget: Craft foam again. Looking into ways of making the purple gem needed, will possibly have to cast one myself out of resin.
• Hanging belt thingy: white fabric, possibly something shiny and satiny. Embroidered cutie mark in yellow and gold thread.
• Belt bags: Since I'll otherwise not have any pockets. White with gold buckles, probably fabric rather than leather (even though leather would be neat)
• Crown: Looking into wire wrapping techniques. Would be neat to make it that way rather than the solid and strange looking one she wears as a pony.
• Weapon: I really, really want a larp one like this one but it's probably way beyond my budget. Will need to research other options.
• Wig: Shouldn't need too much work, simply finding one I like of suitable colours.

All in all, there are a lot of parts to the outfit, but I'm really excited about it and really looking forward to working on it!

Tardis finished!

Wow, I should've made this post ages ago. Anyway, the Tardis costume is mostly finished now.

That's me together with the lovely Cherry from Cherazor's Closet as the 10th Doctor. Do check out her page, she creates some truly awesome stuff. :)

After that shot was taken I finally managed to get a hold of a led lamp to put inside the hat. (Thank you, Ikea and your cheap table decoration lamps!)

Apologies for the atrocious picture quality, it's the only shot I have so far that shows the light well.

The outfit is definately done now, but as always there are still other things that can be done to improve it.

My plans so far are:

• A nice fluffy petticoat to give the skirt some more volume. (I'm seriously considering buying a readymade one, and then add some of the gold tulle I got, it's too soft for me to make an entire petticoat ouf of, unless I buy lots and lots more of it)
• Ribbons in the back so that I can tie it and give it some further definition and shape at the waist. That, or taking it in so that the entire thing becomes a little tighter.
• Blue embroidery on the collar of the shirt. It's hard to see, but the collar of the shirt has a lovely white-on-white embroidered pattern. I figure that it'll look even nicer if it's filled in with blue!