Construction Details:

This costume is based on the flapper dress Lily wears for the Art Deco Ball in book 4 of the series. Since the text description and the dress on the cover didn't match completely, I made this as a cross between the two, using the basic style of the dress on the cover and going by the text description for details and embellishments although I did take some creative liberties.

The dress is made of gold iridescent chiffon with a nude satin lining and decorated with gold beading. I estimate the beading on this took about 50-60 hours (the back is beaded too). I couched down strings of gold seed beads in vine patterns and embellished with gold leaf-shaped sequins and a few light topaz gems.

The sewing itself was relatively simple since it was just a slip-on dress without any zippers or buttons. I heavily modified Folkwear's Monte Carlo Dress pattern for this, giving it a V neckline and completely changing the bottom. The skirt is basically two squares of material joined together to form a double circle skirt with a handkerchief hem. The only sewing part that took particularly long was the sash section where I pleated and stitched down chiffon for texture.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time to style the wig according to the book description (marcel waved, in a chignon, and decorated with a beaded hairnet) before Katsucon so I just left it down to resemble Lily's regular hairstyle on the covers.

The shoes and stuffed pig were just bought.

Personal Thoughts:

So, I've been following this vintage clothes themed mystery novel series written by Juliet Blackwell for about two and a half years and thought it would be fun to cosplay the main character!

Basically, Lily is a witch who runs a vintage clothes shop in San Francisco, dresses in vintage a lot, and can magically sense things from old clothes. And even though she just wants to make friends and run her shop, she can't seem to stop getting involved in investigating murders, exorcising demons, and fighting evil witches. She also has a cute pig named Oscar as a familiar, who is really a half-goblin/half-gargoyle in disguise. (And somewhat perverted. He likes to use his pig disguise to sneak into the dressing room at the shop and peep! >_>) It's a fun series and I recommend giving it a try if you like supernatural mysteries! :-D

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