Construction Details:

The costume itself wasn't that difficult, the devil was in the details. The robe is the same form as the robe I made for Queen Himiko. The collar is navy satin, the robe itself (and the under pj-like clothes) are made from a crepe material. It's lightweight and takes both paint and heat and bond/applique like no body's business. The hat is faux fur over a plastic canvas form. The bow is stuffed with polyfill (it makes a lovely pillow when you're tired of walking at cons), and the shoes are basic canvas flats I painted.

Making the robe: The only reference I could find was a profile view - no where could I find a full view of the designs on the back. I projected my side view onto a wall covered in paper, traced it, flipped it and traced again, and then improvised the center. From the paper, I traced the design onto white crepe and cut it out into 6 smaller, more manageable pieces. I then spent the next 70 or so hours hand painting it. Once it was all painted, it was ironed onto heat and bond, and then bonded to the robe (one of the scariest moments of my life). The robe is lined with more rust colour crepe, with appliqued circles ringed in 3 rings of satin stitching. The circles are also quartered by twin lines of satin stitching. The only part of the design in the lining that isn't stitched are the black dashes inside the circles - those are painted. The cuffs are twill that's been painted.

The underclothes: Oracle has a decidedly pear shape. To match and so that the robe would hang right, I also needed to be pear shaped... as unflattering as that would be. I made a pair of padonkadonk bloomers stuffed with netting to go under the pants.

This costume needs a little touching up now - I'd like to go back and add some flexible boning to the hem for better shaping if I do come back to this costume again.

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