Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Princess Garnet til Alexandros Tutorial


Since cosplay.com wont allow me to edit in the description as to how I made my Garnet cosplay, I shall post it here for all of those curious as to how I made it. ^_^

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8 yards of white casa satin was purchased for $7.99 per yard.

Corset Top:       

I used about 7/8 yard of casa satin fabric for the corset top.  I followed McCall's Bridal Elegance M5321 Size AA pattern; however, it was altered slightly to fit the style of the character. 

1.     I cut out the pieces of the pattern twice: once for the outer layer and again for the inner layer.
2.     I followed the pattern and sewed both pieces accordingly. 
3.     Once the two halves were sewn, I sewed the boning onto the wrong side of the inner layer.
4.     After the boning was sewn, I pinned the right sides of both layers together, sewed ½ inch along the top and the bottom, then I turned the corset top inside out, touched it up and then ironed it.
5.     I purchased a 7” separating zipper and a pack of white hooks.  I sewed in the zipper and added two hooks on the top to close the gap left by whatever the zipper didn’t close.

Embroidery:  I hand embroidered the vines along the front of the corset

Total number of hours to sew the corset top: 5 hours
Total number of hours to draw embroidered pattern: 30 minutes
Total number of hours to do embroidery: 6 hours

Total hours for top: 11 h 30m




Skirt:
For skirt I used 4.5 yards of casa satin fabric.  I cut out the pattern for the skirt and tailored the pieces to be at the desired length.
Once everything was cut out, I sewed the pieces together.  For the piece in the back, I started sewing about nine inches down [to leave room for a zipper].

I made a 1.5 inch hem in the front of the dress, and towards the back it increased in length to create the train.  I blind stitched the hem and pressed it.

Tier:
For the tier I used 3 yards of white casa satin.  The two front pieces of the tier were originally from a mistake I made for the skirt.  Not wanting those pieces to go to waste, I simply added them onto the 3 yards for the tier.

To make the tier, I wrapped the 3 yards of fabric around my mannequin and pinned the 2 extra pieces from the skirt to the front.  From there I pinned and tailored the fabric to create the tier.  Once satisfied, I sewed the two pieces to the large piece of fabric and then sewed it in the front so that it can slip over my head.  Then, I placed the entire piece on the floor, evened it out, and cut the curve from the shorter front, to the longer back to get the nice round shape.  Once that was cut, I cut the extra fabric off of the waistline in a perfectly straight line.

I hemmed the waist and sewed along the bottom edge and left about an inch unsewn so that I could insert elastic.  Then I made a 1-inch hem, pressed it, blind stitched it and pressed it again.

I hand embroided 14 of golden fleur-de-lis around the rim of the skirt.  It took me about 28 hours.
I made a 1 inch hem and pressed,

Total number of hours to sew the skirt: 5h 30min
            Total number of hours do draw embroided pattern:
            Total number of hours to do embroidery: 28
Total number of hours to sew the tier: 2h 40min
Total number of hours do draw embroided pattern: 3 h
Total number of hours to do embroidery: 18
Total number of hours for embroidery: 46 h

Total hours for skirt[s]: 21.5

Gloves:
I already had a pair of similar gloves in black, so all I did was trace them, cut the white pair out, and hem it.

Total number of hours to sew gloves: 10 minutes
Total number of hours to draw embroided pattern: 20 min
Total number of hours to do embroidery: 4 hours



Armbands:
I cut out two butterfly shapes, 16 teardrops in 3 sizes and two 9-inch strips and filed them to smooth them out.  I painted them silver and glued them together, adding hooks on the inside.  With model magic clay, I made two small circles and painted them emerald green.  Once dried, I glued them on the top center of the butterflies.  Using 12 inches of chain for each armband, I glued them to the low center back of the butterflies and below the hook on the inside.

Total number of hours to make armbands: 1 h

Headpiece:
To make the headpiece, I had a few pictures available from the game as well as other cosplayers to get an idea as to how they went about creating their headpiece.  I used one 8 oz. pack of white model magic clay, rolled and flattened it out using a dough roller and the palm of my hands.  Once everything was flattened, I took a small piece, rolled it into a ball, pressed it again and molded it into the shape of an oval.  I took another piece of clay but this time rolled it then cut it into two long strands.  I then wrapped the strands around the oval to form an Egyptian-like crown, I cut off the ends and with those remaining pieces, I added a strand around the top of the oval, rounding it off.  With the rest of those two strands, I made a “bridge” on each side of the oval to connect to the teardrop wing pieces.

For the teardrop wings, I once again took some clay, rolled it into a strand and shaped it accordingly.  To fill in the space, I rolled out some clay as thin as I could get it, filled in the teardrop and pressed it flat.  With a butter knife, I highlighted the indentations.

With some more rolled out strands, I formed a lotus shaped piece that will connect the teardrop wings to the rose.

To make the rose, I rolled out six long strands of clay.  I used three for each rose.  I attached [3] strands at the top and braided them to the bottom.  I sealed the braid with the butter knife, cutting it, and from the top of the braid [the starting point] I rolled it inwards. 

All of the “spikes” and outlining was made from more strands of rolled clay.  The balls were obviously balls that I flattened on the underside.  The teardrops I rolled into teardrop shapes and the jewel in the middle was rolled and flattened into shape as well.

I painted two coats of silver paint on the front and back and two coats of green for the jewels.  Took two days to paint/dry.

Total time for headpiece [not including painting]: 3.40








Necklace:
For the necklace I flattened out a small piece of clay and made it round.  Then I made a short strand and wrapped it around the rim of the shape I had already formed.  I rolled out whatever was left of the strand to be thinner and then cut it into five pieces which I attached and pressed onto the shape, making it look more like a crown.  With small pieces of clay I made circles which I pressed on at the bottom of the crown-forming strands, as well as another piece on top.

I painted two coats of silver paint on the outside and inside.  Took two days to paint/dry.

Total time for necklace [not including painting or drying time]: 10 minutes

Belt:
With four large pieces of clay, I rolled three of them into teardrops of the same size.  With the other piece, I created another teardrop but flattened it and made it wider at the base.  I then rolled out a long strand and used it as the rim of the oval mirror.

I painted two coats of green paint on the jewels and front and back of the main teardrop.  I painted two coats of silver around the rim of the teardrop and mirror.  Took two days to paint/dry.


Total time for belt [not including painting]: 10 minutes

Total number of hours for painting: 2



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Total number of hours for entire costume: 80h 20min

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