Construction Details:

Its probably painstakingly obvious at this point that I love hoopskirts and ruffles.

The outfit was actually a lot of fun to make. I made the hoopskirt myself and drafted my own patterns for the petticoat, skirt, and the wrap that goes around her shoulders. The shirt is a heavily modified blouse pattern and all of the ruffle tape is hand made. The broach is cast from resin, the silver around it is sheet metal and cut up bottlecap-style findings. I even made my own hat! The rim is heavy felt covered with Egyptian cotton (which the rest of the dress is made of.)

Personal Thoughts:

This is a very special costume for me for reasons that I won't go too much into. I was working on Kihel during a personal tragedy, which helped keep my mind occupied through the hardest months. I feel I have a connection to the character because I experienced something similar to what she goes through. I know it sounds silly, but it was very important to me that this costume looked great. I did the best I could and truthfully, I couldn't be happier.

Styling Notes

This is the part that everyone always asks "how did you do that?!" The base wig is an enchantment with a row of wefted bangs sewn to the front. The base for each chunk curl is hand carved from slabs of styrofoam. I covered each ringlet (there are six total) with 2-3 packs of loose extension hair by means of styrofoam spray glue, which is possibly the best thing I could have hoped to discover for the project. With the help of ribbon and heavy duty thread, I sewed each curl to the elastic of the wig and secured them with a row of craft foam so they wouldn't bobble all over the place. I then proceeded to wrap the curls with sections of hair from the wig with the help of spray glue and got2Bglued hairspray. (Have you tried that stuff? It's amazing.) Clear caulk and got2B hairgel were rubbed into the ends to keep flyaways down. The whole wig is heavily doused in spray to keep its form. It probably weighs about 7 pounds and yes--it does give me a headache but it is SO WORTH IT.

Wig Review

After making this work, I think I can handle just about anything.

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