Construction Details:

It started out with roughly 7 or 8 yards of red trim that I got at Walmart, a pack of double fold red bias tape, a pack of gold studs, an extra small black cotton T-shirt and black spandex leggings, lots of 3/4" wide black elastic, and black velvet fabric. All the lace (triangle ones for the leggings, for the neck choker and neckline, and for the sides of the leggings and bottom of the top) was bought in Fashion District, and took me two ~5 hour trips to find all the ones I wanted. The T-shirt and leggings were bought from Fashion district for about $5 each too! The triangle lace, side/back lace and red bias tape all had to be handsewn onto the leggings. I had to sew it on while I was wearing it, because otherwise the leggings won't be able to stretch when you put it on...so that took quite some time. The leggings were actually a bit too long, so I cut off the bottoms and used it for the "undersleeves" part that show under the red ruffles on the arms, and two gold buttons were attached to the bottom of each sleeve. Being made out of spandex they were supposed to stay up on my arms by themselves but somehow I lost weight...and they kept sliding down the day I was wearing them :( So I'm going to have to resize that. Next I put on the T-shirt and marked it along the sides where I wanted it cut. Keep in mind that you're adding about 2~3" of length on once the red trim is attached to it, so cut according to that. The one I got was a V-neck, so I made a cut in the back that matched the one in the front, going a bit deeper. The bottom half of the shirt I cut into a semicircle shape and used it for the short skirt. The key to attaching the red trim is to keep pinning and unpinning it to the shirt until you get it to look right. Once it's pinned properly in place, running it through the sewing machine is so much easier. I decided to hold off on adding embroidered roses on the front because I thought it would be a bit too much. I might add it in the future, if I can find some embroidery patches that I like, the ones I saw in Fashion District were all too big or too gaudy, and didn't fit well with the costume. Two rows of red ruffles are needed on the sleeves and skirt, and one row across the front and ending in the back. The skirt closes in the front and is kept together with velcro. The waist and ribbon were made out of green fabric. Velcro was also used to keep it together; the closure is in the back, which is covered by the giant bow. The gold hearts on the side are actually earrings that I found and sewed onto the sides of the belt. The big gold heart in the back was made from craft foam and gold spray paint. The shoulder armor pads as well as the neckpeice were drafted and cut for me by Evalime :D Which I then spraypainted and added some gold studs to it to make it more 3D. He also made me the dagger almost overnight so mad props to him XD I wouldn't have been able to have completed this costume without his help! Finally the leg and arm "armor" parts are made of black elastic and black velvet material. I ended up using velvet instead of stuff like leather or pleather because I had it lying around and the rich material felt like it fit more with a dancer character. A paper mockup was made which I then traced onto the fabric and cut out. It's held together by the black elastic and velcro. I bought gold iron on studs but hotglued it on instead of ironing. Shoes were bought from Marshall's and a quick heart mold, some gold spraypaint, red ribbon and some hotglue turned them into dancer shoes.

Personal Thoughts:

Still at 90% completion, I'm still missing some lace at the neckline and more criss-cross lines at the back, but I didn't want to rush that part, so I'll be taking my time with it. Other than that is is super comfortable to wear and I would definitely wear it again.

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