Construction Details:

Kanzeon was an interesting project for me, inasmuch as it was outside of my usual (highly floofy) tendencies by ... well, quite a bit. But D and Ginryuu had me at hir door sign, and since I needed more snark in my cosplay diet, I went for it. XD

There's a deceptively high amount of fabric in this costume. Underneath are a leotard and two layers of footless tights to make me decent, plus an underbust corset to let the belt sit a little more properly on my not-so-proper figure. Made the corset and modified the leotard, but tights were just purchased. Over that goes the 'dress',which is actually three pieces: a front and back panel for the skirt and an open-fronted top. All three are silk chiffon over cotton voile, sewn with french seams to avoid fraying, and fasten with twill tape ties. For all that there are probably about six yards of fabric in the dress, it folds up to fit easily into a gallon-sized ziploc bag -- which is somewhere between terrifying and hilarious.

I went through several attempts before I figured out how to make the bling look like what I wanted -- I knew from the beginning I was probably going to do vinyl overlays, since I didn't want to worry about paint cracking from being bent, but wasn't sure how to lay things underneath to get the textured effect. In the end, I wound up using Peltex interfacing, cotton cord, and upholstery piping under the vinyl, fabric glue and hot glue to set it, and industrial sticky-back velcro to fasten it. The sunburst pendant is wood, a mirror, wood putty, and screw eyes all attached to aluminium chains. The earrings are clip-ons that look great but hurt like a bitch and a half. Hir scarf is also silk chiffon, with gold-plated tube beads and jump rings and teal glass pearls on the ends.

Instead of a wig, I've got two sets of extensions over my own hair -- one for the bangs, and one for the ponytail. Looks good, but the weight is a serious achy pain in the neck. (I think most of the weight is actually pulling my own hair into a bun under the tail. That's sad, isn't it?)

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