Second *Almost Finished* Costume: Little Queen from Tales of Graces f

 

This was my first costume where I chose the design over the character.  The Little Queen is one of the antagonists of the future arc of Tales of Graces f, and she has *very little* personality.  She hates humans because of what they did to her planet.  End of story.  That doesn't stop her from looking amazing.  I knew that I couldn't do her when I started, but I wanted to try anyways.  And I wanted to do her for Aselia Con.  Hah, I didn't know anything about making a costume for a con, starting six months before the con.  I just thought, you know, that it'd just happen.  Inspiration would strike, amazingness would happen, my pretty fabrics would be amazing.

 

This was all brought together with ribbons and sketch paper.  If I didn't have that sketch paper to make the pieces, I would have never gotten anywhere on this project.  I used a paneled dress pattern as the base, and used a Roman gladiator skirt concept for the skirt.  The hardest part of this costume was that I used ribbon to edge everything.  I appliqued it all on with decorative stitches and used No-fray to stop things from unraveling.  If I had known about bias tape, life would have been SO MUCH EASIER.  But I didn't.  Ah well.  Also, I would have just made the gloves with swimsuit fabric if I had known how textured they were going to be.  I used a fabric paint additive to make the paint pliable, but you could tell that it was painted on in the long run.  The good news is that the paint didn't rub off after it dried.

And then one week before the con, I had to make a serious decision:  do I bring what I have, or do I just not bring anything.  Since what I had made sense together, was iconic enough that you could probably tell who she was, and the fact that this was going to be a small Con.  It was painful, because I really wanted to walk there with a final product, but I just couldn't.  Being an undergraduate engineer can be a buzz-kill, especially during exam times.

But, hey, people loved my costume, and I had tons of fun!  I still aim to finish it properly by the summer time so that I can do a photoshoot again with my friend.  She is currently working on her Nausicaa costume.  I will be certain to post the final pictures once I finish!

Current progress:

I am making the feathery boot things into boot covers.  The final feathery pieces will be attached to the shoes, so I won't have to worry about stability stuff.

I am going to be using this concept to make the neck piece more fluffy.

The one thing that I have had the most difficulty with has been the arms.  I used to have pictures of them, but I can't seem to find them anymore.  I'll add them once I can get my hand on a camera...

Supplies used:
Lots of different fabrics
Flower wires
Ribbon
Tissue paper
Offerings for better success (I'm joking!)
Wig from Arda
Fake jewels

If I was to do this project properly, I think that a person would need to know how to do resin casting for the crown and green tendrils, how to use bias taping, and understand how to alternate between tight spots and very loose spots (thinking about the arms).  I've learned much about how very little I actually know.