Amira's skirt and trousers

After the underwear, I did the trousers as I found it to be "easier" than other prospective parts. The pattern for them was very easy as I found from the literature that very simple and wide trousers were used. I actually even found a drawing (small drawing in scientific paper) how the trousers looked. So, I did the pattern, keeping in mind that the trousers seemed to have a buff around the boots. (The thing I did not consider was how the trousers affect the boots :P I did remembered it luckily in the end when I made boots).

The sewing was very simple. I did not use waistband as there were none mentioned in the literature - only cords. The bottom was covered with embroidery inspired by the refernce:

So, the result:

The skirt was trickier as I started to realize that different images in manga have different embroidery for the skirt. My main reference had two layers of spikes and the first test I did for the skirt (that was probably way before I actually started making anything and while I was still doing the research) was done with machine:

It was way too big, not natural and did not had this feel I desired. (Plus the red was off but I mean, I hadn't found the right die from literature yet).

So, I dropped the idea of machine embroidery for skirt quite early and the underwear actually only convinced me that this was the right choice.

The reference problem remained:

 My main reference (right) had this more complex embroidery but the secondary (left) had embroidery style that was much more often used in other covers and on manga. So, I was little torn. Do everything as in one image or use the most "common" style. I went with common at this point but later (with the blouse), when I realized there is no common ground, I continued using only the main image.

Then.. it was just hand embroidery and lot of threads of red mouline. It took me around two months I think? I loved that on the volume 2 and 6 cover I could actually see the stitches and mimick them :) It was much nicer than just figuring how to fill a red line.

On reference the skirt has really nice volume so instead of just full circle I used three halfs. It had nice volume on its own but in the end, the hard coat is "taking down" the volume. (I ofcourse hated the three halfs due to the fact that it took 1/3 more time to do the embroidery. Imagine.. everything else had some variety. With skirt it was just same thing over and over again for meters. I think I actually measured the outer side of the skirt. I do not remember precisely but was it 8 meters? And three lines + those spikes.. It was very monothone).

 Again, no waistband as it was not used in the area On this image above I have horrible modern cord. In the end, I found nice cotton cord that had this kind of natural white (not bleached) look o fit perfectly with the fabric of the skirt.

(Later I actually found image from manga where Amira's skirt is visible that proved me again that cords and tunnels were used and that fact was also known by the manga's author):

(This image has different closure to the top than my version but as I said - I discovered this much later. I actually think it was in August? I was making skirt and trousers at the beginning of the year. That was one of the surprising things. I thought I covered the mangas very thoroughly before I started but during the process, I sometimes were just flipping pages and I found new details I had missed like tens of times before..) 

Here it is: trousers and skirt. Looking very nice :) I really love the volume of the skirt and I was little sad the coat pushed it down so much.


Posts:
*Getting started
*Underwear
*Skirt and trousers
*Blouse
*Coat
*Jewelry
*Boots
*Accessories
*At Animatsuri
*At Eurocosplay

Lucrezia Borgia dress - main part

So, I started the main dress with modifying the pattern. The pattern I had, had totally different frontal section that I wanted. There was another option with the pattern that had continues front so I combined both of those options and made the first version of the bodice.

The references images show that the dress has very low bodice. I was never going to go that low as I wanted to be comfortable while wearing it. Sorry, I love details and trying to copy every aspect of the original dress but that was just something I was not going to do. I wanted not to worry about the dress all the time when I am in con. So, to figure out the bodice, first I made the underdress that is visible under the bodice. I used nice fabric meant originally to make curtains. It had right color, very nice pattern with golden threads on it and it was very quick to make. All the first images have this underdress with them on the mannequin. At the later stages of the project, when I actually tried it on, I realized it was horrible fabric to wear. It was so itchy. I should have thought about it before as the fabric was meant for curtains. So, at the end, I made a new underdress with even nicer fabrics.

I have tons of strong linen that I used for lining. So, first, using the continues pattern, I made the lining, and then, with colored fabrics, I made the main part. The straps came out really nice but the first version of the bodice was too high. So, I just had to take it part again and do it again. it also had boning on the lining so that made undoing harder. It took me three tires, if I remember correctly, to figure out how to position the pattern, how to get right height. Also, first I planned to put the fastener at the back but then my sister suggested to have it on the side for convenience. More undoing but it was the right choice. I think I have not very good fastener as it is horrible when pulling it up. It comes down very easily but whenever I try to put the dress on, it is always horrible fight with lot of strength involved to close the fastener. After I discovered it, I just did not wanted to undo it all again. So, I had to live with it and so far I have managed.

First try - underdress is visible but the central fabric is off and bodice is too high

Then, the next step was the skirt. I had pattern for it but I made my own as I was going to make 12 tiles. 6 with pattern and 6 green mint. That was the easy part so far. Now I needed to start to have details. Between every tile there had to be silver bias cord with piping. I could not find right quantities from local fabric stores (I needed a lot of it!!! Almost 50 meters were used) I had to order it from ebay and it took some time to arrive. In the end, I actually had to order more of it as I ran out of it before the end. Also, I needed small silver thread to go with the bias cord. Again, for the quantities, I ordered it from ebay. I used that for more than 70m on the whole project!!!

Then, when I had the cord and silver thread, it was hours of hand sewing. I knew I would never be able to sew the cord between two tiles correctly without basting before hand. Every tile was more than a meter long. So, 12 meters of basting at least. Then, it was carefully sewing the cord in place with machine. In some cases, the basting was not done well enough, so I had to undo some parts. Lot of work and hours went into adding the cord between the tiles.

Then, when the cord was in place, the silver thread came into play. Actually, the cord gave me extra nightmares. It was very easy to unwind and started to disentangle from its shape as soon as I cut it. I tried to used candle to melt it slightly (like I usually do with ribbons) but it was not plastic but I am not even sure. The cord did not melt very well so there was not much to connect (and I ended up burning myself more than stopping disentanglement). I then tried using sewing thread to stop it and it worked better but the unwinding gave me a lot of troubles, specially when I tried to overlock the edges later.

Silver cord inserted between tiles

So, the silver cord. Every green tile had two silver threads at the sides. Again, more than 12 meters of hand sewing. The silver thread was narrow but not that narrow that I could just sew over it. I had to use the needle pierce through the thread that was not easy most of the time. Anyway, it took hours. While doing the cord and thread, I managed to ping-watch 3 seasons of "Black Sails" (so 30 hours?) (actually, more like listen - as my eyes were on the project).

Silver thread is also added to the green tiles

The silver thread had also the unwinding problem but I just made knots at the ends and it worked fine.

When all the was finished, it was overlocking the top and bottom and doing the bottom part, by hand again, so that it would be almost invincible. It was long process but the result looked really nice.

Then, I realized that I have the zip at the side and I should split one tile so that the zip could be added. Luckily it was the mint green tile as I was worried I may ran out printed fabric.

The next part was connecting the skirt to the bodice. The skirt, as you can imagine, had much wider width than the bodice. The reference shows really nice ruffles and gathering. So I did my best to mimic it. The front part of the bodice had to fit the first, central, tile so there the gathering was slightly more intense than on the rest of the dress. In the end, the zip was added and the main part of the dress was done.

• Start
• Main dress
• Sleeves
• Decorations: Wig, jewelry and pearls
• On convention 

Civil war era dress - skirt

So, the next step in the project was the skirt. Compared to the jacket, this was easy. Easy but just time consuming. Just make the pleads. It took a day.

Then, as I had those skirt and jacket separately, I needed something that would be able to hold all this massive fabric that made the skirt. I tried to make "more neat" looking waistband but it could just not hold it.. so I went with this massive ugly solution but as it will be under the jacket, it will be fine.

Then the ruffles. I first had got myself some lace as on the sleeves and I thought I could use it. I tried. Main problem: it was totally wrong color. I got myself a silk color (as it was best I could find) and I did a try with a small piece of lace. Yes, I got it to better shade that would match the lace on the sleeves better. I think I had like 9-10 meters of that lace. I just started to calculate how much silk color I would need and how much time it would take and how much would it all cost.. so, in the end, I dropped the idea of using lace and went to cheap fabric store and got really nice and really light fabric that cost like 4 euros per meter and I could get so many ruffles out of it. I was just mad that I had spent something like 40 euros on that lace :S I still have the lace.. I could use it with some other projects but.. I was just mad as I had the fabric idea at first but then I thought it would take so much time to work the edges..

Anyway.. so it took my I think at least a day to deal with the ruffles.. most of it being zik-zaking over the edges with very small step. But the result with that kind of very light fabric is always amazing. Then I added two lines of black ribbon over the ruffles and opted out of making another line of ruffles. I think the one is fine. Totally happy with the result:

Skirt done.. At least I had the dress.. now everything else was up to me how much time I can put into this costume before I have to wear it.
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