Costumes, Costumes, Costumes!

My poor dolls! They’re feeling so lonely and neglected nowadays. Why? Because summer is coming, the warm weather is here, and that means CONVENTION SEASON is nigh.

And THAT means that all my creative energy is going into costuming.

The Pieface’s Merida dress is finished!:





Okay, not quite finished. It still needs ALL THE GROMMETS ever, but you can at least get a look at the whole dress.

I used McCall's 5499, which was pretty much perfect for the body of the dress. The material is a knit velour in a dark teal. I’ve seen cosplayers in all shades of green and blue; this seemed like a good middle ground. (I would have rather gone with a nice wool-like suiting, but those tend to come in boring shades of grey and taupe. I was walkig around JoAnn with the Disney Store Merida doll, and this knit velour was by far the best match.)

The sleeves were interesting – I cut out the pattern shape, set the fabric piece on Pieface’s arm and marked where the shoulder and elbow gaps would be, then cut the sleeve into the necessary pieces. The sleeves, much like the internet, are just a series of tubes – two big tubes for the upper and lower arms, then smaller tube “straps” connecting the sleeve sections together, and to the shoulder.





The hem is…well, it’s a hot mess.



Truth is, I was remembering how quickly Pieface grew out of the Rapunzel costume I made two years ago (it’s still hanging in her closet, I can’t bear to part with it), and figured, “oh, I’ll cut a bit extra on this length, so she can grow into it!”



Oops. Let’s just say, when I held up the dress to my shoulders, it came down to my knees. I am five-foot-seven. Pieface is all of three-foot-six, the wee shrimpy thing. I tried it on her, and she looked like she was wearing a teal bridal gown.

I didn’t want to cut any of the excess – remember the “grow into” part of my plan – so I just folded the extra into the hem, and now the hem is so thick and lumpy, Pieface’s ankles will be well-armored against any six-inch-tall threats!

Now, my attention turns back to myself, and PROJECT RAPUNZEL v. 3.0.

The first thing I wanted to get done was the petticoat. Rapunzel’s skirt is a paneled circle skirt, and as the pattern was self-drafted (with the help of internet tutorials and 9th grade math), I wanted to try it out on cheap muslin instead of the satin.

Drafting the pattern:



I started out with plain computer paper. Then I realized “boy howdy, this is going to take a LOT of paper” and started grabbing scrap paper out of my sketch pile.



 The basic quarter-circle pattern drawn on (and darkened a bit in Photoshop for your viewing pleasure):



I cut out the quarter-circle pattern and folded it in half, so it was an eighth-circle, and that would serve as the pattern for an eight-paneled skirt.



The panels didn’t come out perfect (trying to fold five yards of wide muslin to make eight layers = not easy to get things perfectly aligned), but I was still able to assemble a pretty petticoat.

Then I had a realization. Eight panels = four panels on each side. Which meant that the center front of the skirt would be a seam between two panels. Which was not good, as the front of Rapunzel’s skirt is a panel of brocade, not a seam. And removing a panel would make the skirt too small.

Then, realization #2. The skirt had been measured and cut to fit me in my normal state. But I will be wearing my corset (from last GenCon) underneath, in order to better get that Disney Princess figure. (Still a long way off, lol, but the corset helps!)

So I got my husband to help me lace on the ol’ armor, and tried on the petticoat. To my delight, I could remove one panel, and the skirt would fit just fine!

Next, still working with the muslin, I started the jacket. I'm using McCall's 4107 (out of print now, sadly), with a few modifications. I had to lengthen each piece by about an inch and a half. I also altered the bustline to get a sweetheart shape instead of a squared-off one. (To alter the neckline, I used the super-scientific method of tracing the pattern piece onto another sheet of paper, standing in front of a mirror with the paper held against my chest, then sketching the altered line onto the paper.) This serves the dual purpose of making the jacket more movie-accurate, and a little more concealing. Last night, I did a test of the muslin jacket and skirt:



(Ahem. Do excuse the exercise clothing underneath, and my super-awesome mirror photography skills.)

 I did one more alteration to the jacket while in the test stage. The pattern's back goes up high, to the nape of the neck, but Rapunzel's dress has a low, squared-off back with a sheer panel going up to the nape. So, it was back to my super-scientific method: Put on muslin test jacket, stand in front of mirror, use water-soluble pencil to mark where the edge should be.

 Now, these muslin pieces are going to be the petticoat and jacket lining...and now that they're turning out okay, it's time to cut into the expensive fabric. MEEP.