Construction Details:

Although this costume isn't particularly grand in scale, it's the hardest one I've made to date, simply because of the strange proportions and limitless bias tape.

I drafted maybe 3-4 mockups of the under dress, which seems to be the case for many of the girls who have made this costume. XD The dress is made from a dark brown velvet with light pink dupioni satin stitched over top. I made the gold bias tape from scratch and tacked down all of the undersides by hand. The ruffles on the chest are gathered organza with a lettuce hem and the gold swirlies are outlined in seed beads. The top of the dress is made of chiffon and attaches to the vinyl collar, which closes in the back with a button.

The underskirt is made from organza and attaches to a pair of briefs to keep them in place. The shoes were just black wedges which I painted and added the trim.

The over skirt probably took the most time due to the intensive dying and applique. The fabric started off as white cotton and was dip dyed using 4 colors of RIT dye (purple, light pink, burgundy, black). I satin stitched all of the gold leaves, sacrificing 8 spools of thread. There is more bias tape and beads sewn along the edges. I sewed a short petticoat directly to the underside of the skirt and all of the layers are sandwiched in between the black velvet "belt", which closes with hook and eyes in the front. The buckle (like the headpiece) is made from craft foam, paper clay, poster board and various rhinestones and beads and was painted with spray paint and weathered with acrylics.

I dyed a gradient into the arm...things (seriously, what are they?) and attached the trim by hand. The pieces that stick off of the hand and arm are strung with wire to create the anti-gravity effect. I made the piping for the wrist, ankle and arm cuffs which close with hook and eyes and velcro.

All of the jewelry was purchased pieces from Michaels, which I painted and strung back together in various orientations to match the reference.

I cut bangs into the wig and straightened it using hot water. The loops are a wire base covered in brown felt and the wig fiber was pulled up from the top of the wig to cover the felt. I used a blown up image of the headpiece to replicate the bizarre shape and cut out the base using stiff poster board, which was later built up with paper clay and craft foam.

In the future I'll be making the whip, which I hope ot have for Katsucon.

This was definitely one of those costumes that was harder than it looked!

Personal Thoughts:

I fell in love with this design as soon as I saw it - it's just beautiful!

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