Lizards and pumpkins and things!

With Supanova and Oz Comic Con over, it's time to move on to my next project! I'm currently juggling quite a few. I'm not sure which will be completed first, as they all require a lot of time and effort! They are: Leia's formal Bespin outfit, Claire's wedding dress, Claire's season two red dress, and Cinderella's ball gown from Disney's 2015 live action film! I've also started researching a Captain America costume! I'd like to create an original design, based on the idea of Peggy Carter being given the super soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers.

(art by alexschlitz on tumblr)

Research for Cinderella's gown has been a little harder than expected. The materials used for the actual dress aren't affordable, so I've been looking at cosplay pages and forums to see what everyone else used. But they all seem rather tight lipped about it. Hardly anyone has documented their process or discussed materials in forums with other cosplayers. All the forums about Rey's costume in The Force Awakens helped me so much when making it this year, I was really hoping I would find the same thing for this MUCH more complicated costume!
But I believe I can do this on my own. I've settled on a material for the outer skirt and ordered a hoop skirt online. I'd like to try a few different options from local fabric stores, to see what works. It's a difficult dress with a difficult colour. It varies so much from the film to promotional photos to what it actually looks like when seen in person. I have a list of fabrics I'd like to use, although it may change over time.
From the bottom to the top layer: ivory organza, white silk organza, blue organza, lilac chiffon (all for the petticoats, some fabrics will only be used as ruffles), white organza, blue organza, lavender organza (all for the inner skirt, could mix the colours up a bit and use different shades of blue), and blue cationic chiffon. The cationic chiffon is the only fabric I'm really set on. I've found some cheap listings on ebay and the fabric has been used specifically by a cosplayer I admire.

Another gown I'm working on is Claire's wedding dress. We're about to head into another long "droughtlander" and I think it's the perfect opportunity to get started on this beautiful gown. Terry Dresbach is my hero. The costumes in Outlander are some of the most detailed and stunning I've ever seen. Reading her blog, you can tell how much she loves this series and what she does.
I've ordered a sample of metallic linen fabric for the main pieces of the gown. Linen was definitely used for the skirt and the bodice in the show and, although I've seen no mention of it being metallic linen on Terry's blog, I thought it would work very well! When Jamie sees Claire in that dress for the first time, he said it was as if he had stepped outside on a cloudy day and suddenly the sun came out. Metallic linen and metallic embroidery will go a long way towards recreating that unforgettable moment.

Most of Claire's costumes in the series have been woolen skirts and bodices with knitted scarves and gloves to keep her warm in the Scottish Highlands. But this season - Jamie and Claire moved to Paris to try and stop the doomed Jacobite uprising. Something I couldn't wait to see Terry Dresbach and the costume team recreate was Claire's red dress. And they did so well. I've already purchased some gorgeous red fabric for this costume but, before I do anything with it, I'd like to decide what I'm doing for the skirt!
I feel that I will need a pannier for this costume. I used something like a pannier for my original Claire costume, but it was a smaller less complicated creation called a "bum roll" which exaggerated my behind more than my hips. Panniers online are rather expensive, so I guess I'll have to make one! First, though, I would like to try draping the fabric over my Cinderella hoop skirt and the bum roll, just to see how it looks. If it works even just a little bit, I might make another larger bum roll and just stick with that. They're very easy to make and don't require expensive boning or hoops.
I actually started working on Leia's formal Bespin costume a while ago. I purchased all of my fabrics, found an embroidery pattern, and started the embroidery. The bulk of the work is on the embroidery, so I have no idea when this costume will be finished. In the coming weeks I would like to find all the remaining pieces I need, though. I still haven't found the shoes! And a lot of other cosplayers used a canvas fabric to stiffen up the belt, so I might look for that as well. I don't have any sketches for this costume, as I feel fairly confident about all of the pieces. I just hope I can get it done by the next convention, at the very least. Time to get cracking on that embroidery!