So I realised that I haven't really shared a lot of costume related posts on here and I want to include it more. I spent three years at university learning the skills to create costumes and learning how to fit them to peoples bodies. I love clothes as it's obvious on here and to be able to use them to showcase a certain character fascinates me. Yes I'm a nerd when it comes to costumes.
I'm currently working part time in a supermarket and trying to find freelance work as a costume maker. Oh and job searching for full time work (failing miserably). My latest project was making a costume for a lady for a kids entertainer. I made a replica of the Anna Frozen costume.
The costume consists of a bodice, blouse, skirt and cape. It was a really challenging costume to make but I felt so proud when I had finished it. Obviously there are things I'm not happy with as I'm a bit of perfectionist. The bodice was the trickiest part by far. I chose to make it out of a stretch black velvet so it had a lot of give. At first I sewed it up at the back but quickly realised this wasn't practical so the back had to have fasteners down the back. I had some velvet and poppers lying around so had to make do with those. All the motifs on the front and back were machine embroidered freehand using my sewing machine, I love doing free machine embroidery. I did the front panel twice as the first time I did the embroidery was way too small. The most painful part was the ribbon around the edges, I need to do them better but I tired my best.
The blouse was actually relatively simple to make, I've had quite a few attempts at making shirts so this process was pretty quick. Again the pattern around the collar, cuffs and at the front was machine embroidery. The fabric frayed a lot so I had to finish it with a zig-zag stitching along the seams.
The cape and skirt took the most amount of time. All of the pattern on the cape was hand painted and took me hours and hours to do. I was so proud when finished, I painted over 4 metres of fabric. And finding the fur trim for the collar was challenging but managed to get a similar lilac shade. I also painted the pattern on the skirt and the purple at the bottom.
This is hopefully just the beginning of making more costumes in the future. Please do let me know what you think, I always want feedback.
