(I started working on this dress on October 2016)
So, after Lucrezia Dress and this little feeling inside me that I want to do even better, I was not sure what will be my next project. I do not even remember what was my thinking but at one moment I was sure - it is going to be Amira from Otoyomegatari.
Otoyomegatari is probably one of the only mangas I have ever read (ok, I think I have read two? And then, after watching Attack on Titan, I did read that one too). Like probably everything connected to anime and japan, the influence or the push came from my husband. He said I would love it. The costumes have so much details, they are historically accurate etc. So, yes, I did read it and I did love the costume. Actually, when I was Japan doing the research for my PhD, I actually went to manga shop and bought myself first volume of Otoyomegatari (with first volume of Gangsta manga that was a thing at that time)
Anyway.. Amira. This is really interesting project in a sense that it is almost like doing a national costume as what she is wearing there on the cover is very similar to Turkmenistan national costume. (When I started, I was not aware that author has stated that Amira is from Khazastan. I found out about it during my research when I had decided that her costume is mostly similar to Turkemenistan. I did looked very closely into Kazakhstan costumes in 19th century. Yes, the emboridery was close to that but the colors and the pattern of the coat was still very much Turkmenistan) And I think that was actually the idea - author wanted to show interesting historical costumes and settings in a way that everyone could enjoy and read about them. So, I had the manga as a source material. I had the information about the national costumes (lot of research - my inner scientist kicked out). And actually, there have been quite a few people who have done the costume before (by just googleing I found three-four really good cosplays of the same character. All had different approaches and very different results but it is good to read someone else's experience of the costume making and learn from that before making the costume myself).
As I had never used manga before as a source, I soon found out two main troubles - there is no continuity. Costume may be drawn one way on one image and totally differently on a second one. (That became huge nightmare, to be honest). The second aspect was "wearability". Some aspects of the costume that are very easy to draw are not possible on real life. That was the case especially with leaves.
Okei. I had made up my mind on the costume and I used the cover of volume 1 as my main source of reference. During the project I actually ordered volume 2 and 6 also for easier access to the source as using internet was not as convenient than having manga to switch between pages. In the end, I even actually went and photo-copied some of the pages with enlargement to see the details more freely and having the ability to lay multiply pages side by side to figure out the patterns etc.
I did not use any premade patterns for this one. The main reasoning was that at the time (19th century) the patterns used in the region are so different from the ones you get from Burda or Simplicity. So, I decided to go step further and do the patterns myself, using the same guidelines I found from internet (the magic of costume history - there are actual scientific papers on costumes, how they were made, which materials were used... and probably the scientist on me surfaced and before I even started, I spent days (I think it was more than a month in the end spent purely on research) just reading about the costumes on the area where the manga took place. I think the locations on manga and the locations on real life were little off but the general look of Turkmenistan costumes was closest to the styles I see on manga).
Then it was finding the materials. From my research I knew the fabrics that were used on the region. So, it were the common picks - cotton, wool, silk. I found really nice and strong natural white cotton fabric for the skirt. I think that was the first fabric I committed myself to. Getting this natural (not bleached white) was a problem. Also, lot of those more natural cotton fabrics were very light. I would not imagine that this kind of dress would have had very light skirt. So, it took some time before I got the perfect fabric.
The wool was easy - black for the hat and the robe that is actually called chyrpy. That chypry robe is probably the most intriguing part of the costume for me. The one in manga is way more wider and with slightly different pattern than it used to be in real life but the similarities between those two are unmistakable. I think I found perfect wool fabric on first visit to the first fabric shop when I went for hunt for a wool. It was quite lightweight (as wool tends to be heavy - I think the cotton and wool have similar weight), had nice texture and was not that expensive (considering it was wool. Usually I would have never bought so much wool with such a price).
Then was the red cotton for the shirt and trousers. And here my troubles started. The feedback for my Lucrezia was that the color of reference was off in real life (the printing - I would blame). Anyway. I took the manga cover with me when I tried to find the red. I also had to consider the background. There was a lot of red in national costumes in the area and after my research I found this "Uiran Boyau" that was the main color achieved using locally accessible dies. The die color and the manga were little different (I would say that die was more vivid). But then I saw that on other manga covers the colors were not the same. I saw someone with volume 1 cover from other print than mine - again. The color was different. I was in panic! So, I decided to compromise between the die and my volume 1 cover. And I think what I have is quite good. It is not perfect match. I think the color is slightly too saturated (more like a die) but it was the best I could find after visiting (almost all?) fabric shops in the city over one month. I just felt, at that point, that I have to start working on the blouse or I never will.
In the end, the red I got is this kind of light but still strong cotton with nice texture. And the red also looks like a natural tone that could have been achieved with techniques available at the time for fabric coloring.
The last type of fabric was the silk for lining. I bleed when I looked at those prices. The natural silk, even with 50% off was more for a meter than the wool. The artificial silk had this kind of weird texture and not the right color or had limited amount of it on sale - not enough for the project. So... I made my heard a stone (and said no to the silk) and bought this kind of common lining fabric that was not artificial silk. I went for the overall look. It looks smooth. It is soft to touch, it has the reflection you expect from the silk and it had reasonable price. I mean, it is lining. I was willing to spend a lot of money on wool and that white natural cotton but that was the limit.(specially as almost noone can see the lining ever).
So, I had my fabrics.
The next things I went to acquire before actually starting were the embroidery tools.I had not done embroidery since school.. like 15 years ago? And I was bad at it back then. (I was also bad at sewing and everything crafty. At school reunion I actually met my craft teacher and showed her some of the dresses I have done and she hardly believed that I, who was hardly able to pass her courses, was now able to do that. I think the key is motivation. Back at school, making common skirt or blouse did not sound existing at all. Doing my first ever elf dress for LARP was much more exciting).
During my research I came across different embroider styles used in the area. There were two main common stitches - the chain stitch and so called Turkmen stitch (Also called double chain)
That double chain, done very closely, almost like for filling, was often used with chyryp. Chain stich by itself was also used a lot. There were also some other stitches (satin stitch, also cross stitch..) plus some stitches that were not so easy to identify (mentioned in literature but never anywhere shown how to make them or had photos where they were used. Only mention. Google had nothing on them either. I came short of ideas how to identify them and I dropped those).
Anyway.. Chain stitches were the main ones. During my research I found that they had a specific tool for the stitching (not only this common needle we would think nowadays). I sadly did not write down the name they had for the tool but I found that something similar was also used in India for sari making, in Ireland and nowadays it is most common with people working with pearls. The tool has many names but I found a nice tool under the name "Tambour embroidery". US company named Lacis has a nice set that I ordered in the end. Took some time to arrive. Took some practicing but wow.. that was much faster and easier in the end than using the needle (I did use the needle at connection points between different pieces were getting required tambourine effect was not easy to achieve).
I used common cotton stranded thread (also known as moulinè) for most embroidery. On the blouse and on undergarments (where I did machine embroidery before switching) I used machine embroidery thread that is more silk looking (having reflective surface and feels very thin and light but strong)
What else did I get? FIMO clay and silicon mix (for the casts) for the jewelry (that was the hint I got reading other people blogs how they made the jewelry) as the idea I used with Lucrezia (ordering pieces online) did not work here for their really custom shapes.
I did actually got one piece of the internet. When I was trying to find one coin to use for cast making, I found a full bracelet of antique coins. As it actually was authentic, it was quite expensive for a set of random coins, but the temptation of using authentic real old coins was too big and I ordered it.
So, that was probably the materials/tools I started with.
Later I added pvc for jewelry, wood for the bow, leather for the boots and quiver.
I actually did some calculations of the material when I had finished my costume for local convention:
In total:
Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay
So, after Lucrezia Dress and this little feeling inside me that I want to do even better, I was not sure what will be my next project. I do not even remember what was my thinking but at one moment I was sure - it is going to be Amira from Otoyomegatari.
Otoyomegatari is probably one of the only mangas I have ever read (ok, I think I have read two? And then, after watching Attack on Titan, I did read that one too). Like probably everything connected to anime and japan, the influence or the push came from my husband. He said I would love it. The costumes have so much details, they are historically accurate etc. So, yes, I did read it and I did love the costume. Actually, when I was Japan doing the research for my PhD, I actually went to manga shop and bought myself first volume of Otoyomegatari (with first volume of Gangsta manga that was a thing at that time)
As I had never used manga before as a source, I soon found out two main troubles - there is no continuity. Costume may be drawn one way on one image and totally differently on a second one. (That became huge nightmare, to be honest). The second aspect was "wearability". Some aspects of the costume that are very easy to draw are not possible on real life. That was the case especially with leaves.
Okei. I had made up my mind on the costume and I used the cover of volume 1 as my main source of reference. During the project I actually ordered volume 2 and 6 also for easier access to the source as using internet was not as convenient than having manga to switch between pages. In the end, I even actually went and photo-copied some of the pages with enlargement to see the details more freely and having the ability to lay multiply pages side by side to figure out the patterns etc.
I did not use any premade patterns for this one. The main reasoning was that at the time (19th century) the patterns used in the region are so different from the ones you get from Burda or Simplicity. So, I decided to go step further and do the patterns myself, using the same guidelines I found from internet (the magic of costume history - there are actual scientific papers on costumes, how they were made, which materials were used... and probably the scientist on me surfaced and before I even started, I spent days (I think it was more than a month in the end spent purely on research) just reading about the costumes on the area where the manga took place. I think the locations on manga and the locations on real life were little off but the general look of Turkmenistan costumes was closest to the styles I see on manga).
Then it was finding the materials. From my research I knew the fabrics that were used on the region. So, it were the common picks - cotton, wool, silk. I found really nice and strong natural white cotton fabric for the skirt. I think that was the first fabric I committed myself to. Getting this natural (not bleached white) was a problem. Also, lot of those more natural cotton fabrics were very light. I would not imagine that this kind of dress would have had very light skirt. So, it took some time before I got the perfect fabric.
The wool was easy - black for the hat and the robe that is actually called chyrpy. That chypry robe is probably the most intriguing part of the costume for me. The one in manga is way more wider and with slightly different pattern than it used to be in real life but the similarities between those two are unmistakable. I think I found perfect wool fabric on first visit to the first fabric shop when I went for hunt for a wool. It was quite lightweight (as wool tends to be heavy - I think the cotton and wool have similar weight), had nice texture and was not that expensive (considering it was wool. Usually I would have never bought so much wool with such a price).
Then was the red cotton for the shirt and trousers. And here my troubles started. The feedback for my Lucrezia was that the color of reference was off in real life (the printing - I would blame). Anyway. I took the manga cover with me when I tried to find the red. I also had to consider the background. There was a lot of red in national costumes in the area and after my research I found this "Uiran Boyau" that was the main color achieved using locally accessible dies. The die color and the manga were little different (I would say that die was more vivid). But then I saw that on other manga covers the colors were not the same. I saw someone with volume 1 cover from other print than mine - again. The color was different. I was in panic! So, I decided to compromise between the die and my volume 1 cover. And I think what I have is quite good. It is not perfect match. I think the color is slightly too saturated (more like a die) but it was the best I could find after visiting (almost all?) fabric shops in the city over one month. I just felt, at that point, that I have to start working on the blouse or I never will.
In the end, the red I got is this kind of light but still strong cotton with nice texture. And the red also looks like a natural tone that could have been achieved with techniques available at the time for fabric coloring.
The last type of fabric was the silk for lining. I bleed when I looked at those prices. The natural silk, even with 50% off was more for a meter than the wool. The artificial silk had this kind of weird texture and not the right color or had limited amount of it on sale - not enough for the project. So... I made my heard a stone (and said no to the silk) and bought this kind of common lining fabric that was not artificial silk. I went for the overall look. It looks smooth. It is soft to touch, it has the reflection you expect from the silk and it had reasonable price. I mean, it is lining. I was willing to spend a lot of money on wool and that white natural cotton but that was the limit.(specially as almost noone can see the lining ever).
So, I had my fabrics.
The next things I went to acquire before actually starting were the embroidery tools.I had not done embroidery since school.. like 15 years ago? And I was bad at it back then. (I was also bad at sewing and everything crafty. At school reunion I actually met my craft teacher and showed her some of the dresses I have done and she hardly believed that I, who was hardly able to pass her courses, was now able to do that. I think the key is motivation. Back at school, making common skirt or blouse did not sound existing at all. Doing my first ever elf dress for LARP was much more exciting).
During my research I came across different embroider styles used in the area. There were two main common stitches - the chain stitch and so called Turkmen stitch (Also called double chain)
That double chain, done very closely, almost like for filling, was often used with chyryp. Chain stich by itself was also used a lot. There were also some other stitches (satin stitch, also cross stitch..) plus some stitches that were not so easy to identify (mentioned in literature but never anywhere shown how to make them or had photos where they were used. Only mention. Google had nothing on them either. I came short of ideas how to identify them and I dropped those).
Anyway.. Chain stitches were the main ones. During my research I found that they had a specific tool for the stitching (not only this common needle we would think nowadays). I sadly did not write down the name they had for the tool but I found that something similar was also used in India for sari making, in Ireland and nowadays it is most common with people working with pearls. The tool has many names but I found a nice tool under the name "Tambour embroidery". US company named Lacis has a nice set that I ordered in the end. Took some time to arrive. Took some practicing but wow.. that was much faster and easier in the end than using the needle (I did use the needle at connection points between different pieces were getting required tambourine effect was not easy to achieve).
What else did I get? FIMO clay and silicon mix (for the casts) for the jewelry (that was the hint I got reading other people blogs how they made the jewelry) as the idea I used with Lucrezia (ordering pieces online) did not work here for their really custom shapes.
I did actually got one piece of the internet. When I was trying to find one coin to use for cast making, I found a full bracelet of antique coins. As it actually was authentic, it was quite expensive for a set of random coins, but the temptation of using authentic real old coins was too big and I ordered it.
So, that was probably the materials/tools I started with.
Later I added pvc for jewelry, wood for the bow, leather for the boots and quiver.
I actually did some calculations of the material when I had finished my costume for local convention:
In total:
- 7 m of white cotton (skirt)
- 7 m of black wool (+10m of adhesive fabric for strengthening) (coat)
- 5 m (+2 m for redoing) of red cotton (blouse, trousers, undergarments)
- 10 m of lining
- ~1 m of artificial leather (boots)
- ~300 pieces of red cotton stranded thread (moulin?)(8m each, around 2.5km)
- ~50 pieces of natural white cotton moulin? (400m)
- ~1.5 km of natural white satin embroidery machine thread (for embroidery on blouse and undergarments)
- 3 rolls of machine embroidery stabilizer (doing embroidery on wool was nightmare. More of this later)
Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay
