singing sheep

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

i decided i might as well do a writeup on makeup too since i've done a few tests at this point! (tumblr's giving me a content warning but i swear there's nothing bad LOL)

so many of the things i really liked from my first run were solely out of necessity but i ended up really liking them! first off, i didn't have any grey body paint, so i used the super light yellow-toned foundation i use for goth nights and mixed it with a bit of light blue body paint and that actually worked great (and felt so much lighter compared to straight body paint!!) i've since abandoned that because i got influenced to get some airbrush body paint instead in the hopes that it doesn't rub off! (theoretically it only comes off with coconut oil LOL) but the other happy accident was shading! i didn't have a grey eyeshadow, so i used a darkish blue, a lightish maroon, and a light yellow to make a blueish greyish tone, and i actually really loved the depth it gave! in some spots it was a little splotchy but overall i thought it worked great!

(my fiance! i think he makes a handsome strahd :) )

my fiance's gonna be a bearded strahd because his beard is important to him! for this test, i just dusted some black eyeshadow on his beard, but i'm thinking about getting some beard tint to make it look more natural. i also focused on aging him up but not going too harsh with it. i think i'm the biggest fan of the nasolabial fold area!! check out the gnarly eyebrows too! :)

i'm also considering doing some hand makeup for strahd since that bitch complains about being old--might as well look it too! i definitely have to lighten my hand on the next go and also see if my fiance can wash his hands everywhere but the makeup, we'll see!

(i didn't realize i'd be posting these pics online when i took them LOL, check out the epic matching pjs!!)

this is pretty much the makeup i do for goth nights but recolored LOL! my biggest makeup philosophy is: if my eye makeup is gonna be swallowed by my hooded eyes, i'm just gonna shift it down so there's no way it stays hidden!! you can't see it normally but there's a whole ass red smoky eye in there >:/ GRANTED will you see any of this behind the mask? probably not much and DEFINITELY not onstage, but my hopes are that you can at least see a little! the changes i want to make to my next test are 1) more eyeshadow under the eyes, and more black instead of just red! and 2) i got a lot of fallout near the nose bridge from working on my eyes so i want to see if i can fix that for next time >:|

next!! i made nails for strahd! :)

(take a look at that crazy setup, i didn't want to buy a nail stand so i made a janky one out of an eva foam sheet, eva foam half dowel, and bamboo sticks LOL)

i made these guys with the same technique i went over in my gloves post, but this time i sanded them down extra well and painted them! i tried to match the details on my own nails as well as i could. total time for the nails was 4.5 hours, it was a really nice small project to work on while i was waiting for my mask to dry!

we ended up buying some airbrush body paint because that shit stays ON so i did a test to make sure everything was good!! i think the hands look sick as hell, but we'll see how long they hold up at the con LOL. i'm SUPER excited for the con but this application took 2 hours AND i have to do my own makeup on top of that, so it's gonna be quite the early morning for us!!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

okay this post is going to be a little weird, i have to build both at the same time since they depend on each other!

i started out with kamuicosplay's skull mask and epic ram horns patterns for a base which was a GODSEND!! i've never used eva foam patterns before and it was such a breeze just getting to put the pieces together and call it a day! :) i did a paper mockup before anything and just ended up snipping off maybe 1/2" near the teeth, SO EASY!!

(all that work and i didn't have to do ANY of it!! >:) )

what wasn't so easy was the beveled edges, this was def not something i encountered as a high schooler making my own eva patterns off of bullshit and a dream LOL! i cut the pieces like normal (first time having a blade sharpener too, that shit was SMOOTH!) and then manually beveled each edge with my dremel, BUT i only realized as i was gluing everything together that i did the bevels completely backwards :/ that was a real downer until i realized that just meant that my markings would be on the inside of the mask instead of the outside--crsis averted!! i was able to cut everything out and glue it all together in one day, just in time for our strahd session! ;)

(so nice to be able to crunch this out in one day!!)

next was using foam clay! i had technically used it before but it was for a show i had designed so i would say it doesn't count (ESPECIALLY because i have no clue how i made it look so smooth!!! i was graced by the hand of god for this one mask)

(okay maybe it's not THAT smooth, but much smoother than what i was able to do today!)

i was shaking in my boots so bad for the whole process because sculpting is way out of my expertise LOL. I'M PROUD THAT I GOT THE MAJOR SHAPES! i'm having some issues with it being lumpy and not being perfectly mirrored (that and i think the horns drooped as i worked with them!! >:/ ), BUT when it dries i'm gonna sand it down and give it some proper texture and see if i need to add/take away any more clay. it's so hard to not just focus on the things i wish were different, but i'm pushing myself to be proud and take it as a win!!

(it took a LOT to trust the process!!)

i would post wig pics but she and i are fighting right now >:( i ended up going mad scientist mode about it and started cooking up funky contraptions, which means things were not going well LOL. long story short is the curling mechanism i used didn't work well, and the wig i got might be too short for proper ringlets. we'll see, send me your well wishes!

total time for the mask so far is 9 hours, and total time for the wig is 1.5 hours!

first off, i started sanding/dremeling the mask which was great! i'm so thankful that i'm going for a cracked, bony texture because the sanding whittled away any chunks of clay but kept some cracks and dents! i got to carve out some details (mostly in the teeth area, they're no longer as marshmallow-y!) but accidentally took out too much around the forehead, so i decided to go back in to add some more clay before doing anything else. my biggest peeve with this project is that the clay takes 1-2 days to dry (and exposing some of the deeper clay means it gets soft), so i've just been twiddling my thumbs :/ arghhhh

(loved how smooth but cracked it got, didn't like how much i took away :/ we persist!)

while i was waiting for it to dry, i made some texture for the ram horns!! :) i'm really proud of how these turned out! i'm realizing i actually really like sculpting, i hope i can do more in the future!!

(i never explained in the past post! these pieces are all from the same mask, but it would be too difficult and bulky to have it be one piece and blend with the wig well, so the ram horns will be attached separately. the mask pieces will be attached to the wig using magnets!!)

after that, i made some texture for the horns on top of the mask too! my goal for these was to find a happy medium between the harsh texture of the ram horns and the smoother texture of the skull. at the same time, i added some extra clay to the mask to try to balance out uneven areas. i think i'm doing a pretty good job with that BUT i think the smaller horns are gonna be permanently lopsided which sucks BALLS :/ whatever, maybe the animal this thing came from had a wonky skull, WHO KNOWS

(i like where the clay is sitting now, so i'm going to focus on just sanding and redefining the indents after it dries and puffs out and then adding more cracks. not taking out the big chunky tools again!!)

on top of that, i figured out how to make volenta's ringlets! it took me a good 2.5 hours of sitting there with a curling iron and praying but i finally got something down! my tried and true method was to take a section of hair, straighten it twice, spray it with hairspray, curl it all the way to the root (BUT wrap as much as i could around the iron before closing it and curling more), use my operation board game skills to shimmy the hair off of the iron, pin it until it cools, spray it with so much hairspray that it doesn't feel like hair anymore, and then gently pull the curl from the inside until it lowers! and then more hairspray <3

(uggy as hell for now but i figured it out!! :O )

BUT you can probably see just HOW MUCH hair goes into one ringlet, so i didn't have a long enough wig >:/ i was not very excited to order a new one but HEY, this can just be a mockup wig... (i'm also realizing now that sewing in the magnet pouches into the wig would be horrible with styled hair, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise...)

(the wig before styling! i ended up ordering one that goes halfway down the back so that i'll have plenty of wiggle room!)

first was the placement of the mask and horns on the wig! i knew that i wanted them to connect via magnets, but when i tried on the wig and the mask together, i realized that the mask ended before where the wig started. i knew i needed an extension on both sides of the wig to sew some magnets in, and i decided that, since i already wanted to have a yellow ribbon in the back of the wig to kind of look like the mask was tied on, i'd make those extensions yellow as well to make it look like it connects!

(those little circles are the magnets! also god sewing into a wig was kind of a sensory nightmare!! i'd do it again but i'd have to psyche myself up to do it!)

once the main mask attachment was situated, i moved onto the horns, which, LET ME TELL YOU, took an ENTIRE weekend. AT LEAST 8 HOURS OF WORK. volenta's lucky that i like her so much--otherwise i might have chucked the wig across the room at some point >:/

(sorry the fabric square got SO GROSS!!! this pic was taken after i covered the wig in about half a bottle of hairspray LOL)

this is what i settled on! i have a 1.5"x1.5" square of fabric with 4 magnets stitched inside AND a snap! i'll spare you my entire process but it ended up moving from the inside to the outside and that helped a ton! when the horn goes on, the snap secures it to the wig, and the magnets ensure that the angle of the horn doesn't move.

(i'm not sure how to add video so take a pic of the placement instead :/ BUT i can headbang and all of the mask pieces stay completely secure! very proud of myself for that :)

NEXT UP is the painting process for the mask pieces!

WOWEE!! it turned out way cooler than i thought!! :) the painting process was actually really easy--once i got a solid layer of cream on first, i painted on some dark brown and then wiped it away, and it stuck in the crevices of all the texture i added! IMMEDIATELY gave it so much depth omg!

(isn't that crazy??? i really like how it turned out!! :) )

next up is the wig!! i should preface this by saying that i'm not 100% happy with how it turned out but it's close enough and i need to move onto the rest of the cosplay so that i can finish everything :/ perfectionism is a BITCH!!

ughhhh there are some things i would like to clean up and it's also a little bit long on me but IT'S A WIG!! i won't go into the process bc it's long and it made me mad LOL. BUT this is so crazy, there's so much hairspray that got on the ribbon that it is now CRISP!! i was planning on burning the edges during the weathering phase but maybe i'll just leave this one be...

ALL TOGETHER!! i'm tired and i'm moving onto the next thing!!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

next up is volenta's many skirts!! i used to work in opera so layers upon layers upon layers of skirts is right up my alley LOL! here's a breakdown of all the skirt layers:

1: the grand panniers!! they're a mid-18th-century undergarment, check out this post for a rundown of how i made them! this layer goes on first and it's the layer that gives the skirts its structure and shape.

2: the petticoat! this goes on top of the grand panniers and its purpose is to smooth out any bumps and ridges from the panniers and to add a little bit of volume. the petticoat will be 2" shorter than the main skirts because we want it to be hidden, but the panniers are 4" shorter than the petticoat because we REALLY don't want to see them!

3: the underskirt! this is essentially the same exact skirt as the petticoat but in yellow LOL. it just gets to look pretty!

4: the overskirt! this will be a layer that wraps around the back but is missing a panel in the front so that you can get a glimpse of the underskirt! it's also gonna have some wacky pleating!

just like the panniers, i got this from a pattern so SMOOTH SAILING!! i love not having to bullshit my own pattern for once LOL!

this is the entire width of the petticoat! if you're thinking WOW that's so wide, it was actually supposed to be 50" wider!! i had a little crash out when i realized i had run out of fabric BUT it ended up not being a problem at all >:)

the next step was to gather up the entire skirt and level the hem! this is also how i found out that i cut the length of the panels really wonky, oops LOL.

after that was pleating the waist down! each quarter of the skirt was 50 something inches and needed to be pleated down to EIGHT inches!! i redid the pleats a ton because i couldn't figure out what i liked best! i ended up doing a big pleat in the center, a smaller pleat on either side, and even smaller pleats for the rest, but i think for the underskirt i'm going to do a WAY bigger center pleat so that things sit more flat in the center.

finished petticoat YAYYYYYYY! i almost killed my machine having it stitch through all the layers of pleats but i emerged with a full petticoat LOL! here it is on the panniers, and bonus picture of a very tired me at 2:30AM wearing the petticoat without the panniers. it's crazy how important the panniers are!

next up is the underskirt! cannot wait to repeat the last 3 days of my life but be looking at yellow fabric instead this time LOL.

total time for the petticoat: 13 hours!

(check out the side openings! those are for pocket access! :) )

i'm really happy with how this turned out!! for the most part... i don't know how but i swear i added enough inches to the hem for there to be enough extra room with the petticoat but it seems to have shrunk somewhere in the process >:/ i'm leaving the hem unfinished because i'm going to go back in during the weathering/bloodying process to cut and burn it, but i need enough room to make cuts without the petticoat showing through too much! i already took up the petticoat hem up another 1.5", and i might have to do more and see if i can finagle some extra room on the panniers too... as much as i REALLY want to get to the bottom of this and do that now, i have to pump out as much of the costume as i can for my first deadline, so that'll have to wait for now >:/

up next is the overskirt! fingers crossed it's not too difficult!

(check it out!! but everyone ignore the back of my stays or else BE EVAPORTED!! younger me did not accommodate for older me's luscious, luscious hips when she made these >:| )

i'm so happy to have finished this! :) i was a little nervous going into the overskirt coming back from pre-made patterns and jumping right back into self-drafted stuff, but i'm actually really proud of how it turned out and it's a huge relief! the perfectionism still hits but it's pretty gosh darn good :)

(my mockup and a curved pleat WIP!)

SO MANY PLEATS ON THIS THING!! if i'm remembering correctly, i believe there's 37 vertical pleats and 5 curved pleats! each curved pleat took an entire 2 hours to mark and sew and press and GOD DAMN did it test my patience sometimes! doing normal pleats is one thing but those curves were gnarly!! i'm so excited that it's done though :)

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

next up is volenta's many skirts!! i used to work in opera so layers upon layers upon layers of skirts is right up my alley LOL! here's a breakdown of all the skirt layers:

1: the grand panniers!! they're a mid-18th-century undergarment, check out this post for a rundown of how i made them! this layer goes on first and it's the layer that gives the skirts its structure and shape.

2: the petticoat! this goes on top of the grand panniers and its purpose is to smooth out any bumps and ridges from the panniers and to add a little bit of volume. the petticoat will be 2" shorter than the main skirts because we want it to be hidden, but the panniers are 4" shorter than the petticoat because we REALLY don't want to see them!

3: the underskirt! this is essentially the same exact skirt as the petticoat but in yellow LOL. it just gets to look pretty!

4: the overskirt! this will be a layer that wraps around the back but is missing a panel in the front so that you can get a glimpse of the underskirt! it's also gonna have some wacky pleating!

just like the panniers, i got this from a pattern so SMOOTH SAILING!! i love not having to bullshit my own pattern for once LOL!

this is the entire width of the petticoat! if you're thinking WOW that's so wide, it was actually supposed to be 50" wider!! i had a little crash out when i realized i had run out of fabric BUT it ended up not being a problem at all >:)

the next step was to gather up the entire skirt and level the hem! this is also how i found out that i cut the length of the panels really wonky, oops LOL.

after that was pleating the waist down! each quarter of the skirt was 50 something inches and needed to be pleated down to EIGHT inches!! i redid the pleats a ton because i couldn't figure out what i liked best! i ended up doing a big pleat in the center, a smaller pleat on either side, and even smaller pleats for the rest, but i think for the underskirt i'm going to do a WAY bigger center pleat so that things sit more flat in the center.

finished petticoat YAYYYYYYY! i almost killed my machine having it stitch through all the layers of pleats but i emerged with a full petticoat LOL! here it is on the panniers, and bonus picture of a very tired me at 2:30AM wearing the petticoat without the panniers. it's crazy how important the panniers are!

next up is the underskirt! cannot wait to repeat the last 3 days of my life but be looking at yellow fabric instead this time LOL.

total time for the petticoat: 13 hours!

(check out the side openings! those are for pocket access! :) )

i'm really happy with how this turned out!! for the most part... i don't know how but i swear i added enough inches to the hem for there to be enough extra room with the petticoat but it seems to have shrunk somewhere in the process >:/ i'm leaving the hem unfinished because i'm going to go back in during the weathering/bloodying process to cut and burn it, but i need enough room to make cuts without the petticoat showing through too much! i already took up the petticoat hem up another 1.5", and i might have to do more and see if i can finagle some extra room on the panniers too... as much as i REALLY want to get to the bottom of this and do that now, i have to pump out as much of the costume as i can for my first deadline, so that'll have to wait for now >:/

up next is the overskirt! fingers crossed it's not too difficult!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

by far my favorite part of the volenta’s cosplay so far but also the biggest headache… the undergarments!! :) looking at the design my mind immediately went to mid-18th-century french court and i got so excited because 1700s undergarments are so sick!! i already have a pair of stays that i made in college and promptly wore once and never again, so i finally get to break that bad boy out! that left the lower half of the silhouette, and after i got five bajillion and one different answers from the awesome ladies on r/historicalcostuming, folks finally agreed that what i needed to do was make some grand panniers! the biggest thanks ever goes out to the woman who spent her entire night reinstalling the operating system on her old computer solely so she could dig up a pattern for me??

(my stays! this pic was taken after an all-nighter to finish it in time for finals LOL. not pictured are the grommets and lacing which i finished in class!)

i knew at some point i would have to lose my scaled pattern (instead of graded, commercial pattern) virginity and that time was now. from what i could tell (and i very well could have been wrong), the pattern was made for someone with a 24” waist (bitch, NOT ME!), so i also sized the pattern up to theoretically fit me better. do i think i accidentally made it too big? YES, we’re fixing that now though!

i cannot overstate just how insane this garment is. i fully believe that you can’t comprehend how large it is unless you’re in a room with it. the grand panniers have 12 different sections of boning channels, and each one took AN HOUR to sew on. meaning i spent TWELVE HOURS stitching straight lines onto the world’s longest roll of fabric before i could put in the boning and see how it looked. only after i added all the boning channels did i realize that the hips needed to be half as wide >:/ rahhhhhh!!

(TOO BIG! this was when i was about halfway done with the boning channels)

where they sit right now, the grand panniers are fully boned. i took in the hips and reshaped the hip boning on one side. i still have to mirror it on the other side, take in the lower rung of the panniers so they don’t jut out at the bottom, tack the boning in multiple spots so it doesn’t shift around, and hope and pray! i have dumped 35 hours into these things and expect to put in at least 10 more, and this is just the mockup!! it’s almost upsetting how long these things are taking but they are 1) ginormous and scary and 2) the garment that literally everything else has to be built on top of (including the bodice), so i need to spend the time to perfect it now.

(this is her before i started reshaping the hips! she looks so sad!!)

i’m super excited to get her to a point where i’m happy with the silhouette and can wear her! unfortunately it also means i will be WAY TOO wide to be in the vendor hall at the con >:/ it’ll be so worth it though, i drool over those paintings of madame de pompadour lounging in her big voluptuous gowns, and that could be me!!

(i'm a pretty pretty princess :) )

this update actually starts off pretty sad but turns out great!

after coming back to the panniers with a fresh mind, i realized that the amount of time/effort it would take to get the pattern where i wanted it and THEN make the final version would be way more than just buying a pattern online and going from there, so i let my ego take a hit and just decided to start from scratch. SO SAD!! but 1) i realized that i valued having self-drafted panniers way less than having finished panniers, and 2) i was starting to tell that the boning i got wasn't sturdy enough >:/ so STARTING OVER!!

i was actually so relieved to be going off of a pattern because it meant i could focus solely on making things CLEAN!! every seam was flat felled and i pressed everything with a clapper and WOW it just feels so crisp!! everything i've made for these two cosplays so far has been self-drafted or weird amalgamations of patterns so it was really nice to just go with the flow and make some good progress :)

(detail shot!! :) i was also very relieved to be sewing mostly straight lines, strahd's tunic has been a nightmare so far with all the curves!)

i think the hardest part in a way was the boning >:/ i got some hoop boning which IS WONDERFUL!! i said i wanted sturdier boning and I GOT IT--i had to upgrade from a wire cutter to aviation cutters and even then i had to put in some SERIOUS elbow grease to get anything cut at all >:( and putting caps on the ends of the boning so it wouldn't get caught in the boning channels wasn't perfect BUT it was doable (minus when i would take out the boning to adjust the length and the caps would come off IN the boning channels). AND THEN the pattern recommended boning connectors but the ones i got 100% did not work at all! actually screw this part of the construction LOL, it was magical seeing the shape come through but that was the only positive SLKJDFLKJS!!

(1) all the boning in the panniers! 2) how i sat for probably an hour putting the boning in! and 3) my shoddy attempt at holding the boning since the connectors didn't work!! i'm going to think of a better way to hold them before the con but whatever, that's a future me issue!)

now that the panniers are done (YAYYYYY!) i'm moving onto the skirts!! since the panniers pattern also included a petticoat pattern, i'm gonna ride that wave of no thought just sew so that i can knock some things out!! my 75% done deadline is in one month and i gotta see how much volenta i can crank out before then!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

i’m SO SO SO excited for strahd’s wig!! my biggest goal with the wig is to make that fucker look old as my personal FU to him <3

i started off with a long black lacefront with a very small widows peak, and my process is as follows: 1) pluck hair from the front of the hairline to match an adult male hairline (no anime boy hairline, strahd doesn’t deserve it), 2) add hair to the widow’s peak to make him look more vampire-y and exaggerate the male hairline (and also to the sideburn area to cover up my fiance’s existing hair), and 3) add grey hairs to the front of the wig and to the sideburns to add detail and show age. i feel like i’ve captured genius in a bottle–the wig itself is straight, but i bought pre-crimped grey wefts so that i can have the more wire-y texture of grey hairs too! :) i’m so proud of how it looks so far!!

(doesn't look like much progress, but this was after probably 5 hours of plucking the hairline!)

i’m currently at the point where i’m adding hair to the spots i marked (including some greys). i swear, learning how to ventilate was so difficult because almost every single video showed the process either way too quick or did so at a strange angle >:/ but i eventually found a good video on the basics and then a video on mistakes people make while ventilating. i’ve gotten a lot faster at it, but it was (and still is) definitely a challenge and now i only want to cry sometimes!

(go grey, bitch!!)

so far i’ve put in 11 hours into the wig and i’m super excited to put in more! :)

widow's peak is done!! :) it took one 6 hour craft day hangout and one 1 hour phone call but it's fully ventilated! a handful of people have told me i'm bonkers for this but it's very important to me LOL. this has become my keep my hands busy while i hang out project and i'm so happy to have something like that in my life! i've started moving onto the sideburns (which will be a gradient from black to full grey), and then after that i'll be adding greys along the rest of the hairline!

i've officially finished up the left sideburn and i'm onto the right one next! it's been SO MUCH WORK but it's been so rewarding seeing it all come together! after i finish up the right sideburn, then i'm blending everything between the widow's peak and the sideburns, cleaning up any spots i missed, and steaming that shit smooth!!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

in a wonderful turn of events, i've finally been able to work on a garment that hasn't taken billions of hours! i'm starting off with a bit of a funky look at the stockings since i'm not putting my dogs on the internet for free >:/ pay for my honeymoon and maybe i'll reconsider!

i followed a tutorial on making medieval hose since the fabric i'm working with only has a very slight stretch! i started out by pinning my mockup fabric around my leg/foot and then marking over the pins to get a rough shape of what my stockings should look like. i totally forgot to get a pic of this process, so here's a pic from 2018 of me doing the same thing for a pair of boots!

(i didn't have a kitty with me this time, what a total downgrade >:/ this is sammy, and he's coming up on his 18th birthday!)

(this is what i got after cutting and unpinning! i'm very tickled by the fact that my pattern looks very different from the tutorial's because i have wildly flat feet LOL)

no pics since there'd be too much dogs in them, but i then stitched the stockings together and tightened and loosened as i went. just like the gloves, i wish things were a little tighter, but i'd also like some room to breathe!

here's the finished mockup! the stockings will be held up by a ribbon! :)

i'm pretty proud of how these came out--especially since the fabric isn't particularly stretchy! here's some wip pics:

(this fabric is SO SLIPPERY!! like the gloves, i had to hand baste every seam before stitching it, but it was on a much bigger scale this time! thankfully, this is the last garment i have to use this fabric for, so hopefully no more hand basting!)

(i stitched in a little L and R on my stockings so i could tell which side was which! also very surprised at how clean this all looks! :O )

(this requires a bit of imagination!! pretend the extra fabric on the bottom is cut and finished and glued to the shoe ;) )

IN A PERFECT WORLD, i would dump $200 on a pair of 18th century american duchess heels to cover, but i figured some pointy pumps with a low heel would be close enough for this project LOL. (i actually got the same exact heel in white for my wedding! :) )

(here's what i'm starting with!)

from there, i put on the shoe and wrapped it with plastic wrap and then duct tape to create a pattern off of that shape! i drew on all of the stitch lines, cut them out, and then added a few darts where needed!

(the patterning process!! i never got to take a pattern drafting class in college so this makes me feel very smart LOL)

from there, i stitched together a cover and then pinched and pulled until it was tight! on top of that, i added a button closure down the front since i was adding a lot of fabric up towards the ankle. just like the ones on the gloves! :)

(pins galore!! the pins sticking out from the bottom of the shoe are to stick it to where the fabric will be glued down on the bottom of the shoe! the other pins were from alterations, and the sharpie lines are where i'm moving seams in my updated pattern!)

from there, i worked on the little shoe ruffles, my favorite part by far!! >:) i did a ton of trial and error and finally found a tutorial on making a jabot that worked great! there are two layers to the ruffles, and the bottom one is .5" longer than the top one to add depth. half of the ruffles are stitched onto the shoe cover, and the other half is attached using a snap to help get in/out of the shoe. after that, i stitched my big decorative button on, and that was that!!

(the closure! both the top of the ruffle and the top of the shoe cover will be covered by bias tape in the final version.)

(so much yellow!!)

completely honestly, when i move on from a mockup to a final version, it's usually quicker and smoother and cleaner and generally a pretty satisfying experience. not so much this time, but i am STUBBORN and love cosplay, so i pushed through LOL. a lot of the struggle came from some sizing issues which are usually not a big deal after a mockup, but a good chunk of it was also just a time dump on hand stitching. this was not the most pleasant use of my time and the shoes definitely aren't perfect, BUT they're done and they're good enough and the only people i have to impress are the judges!

some new things i didn't get to do in the mockup: gluing the covers onto the shoe! ngl it was pretty stressful trying to get everything on smooth and hoping that the fit would still be good after everything had bonded! after that, i gathered the fabric around my ankle so that it didn't gap, and thus began my crazy day of hand stitching.

once the shoes were glued on, there was no putting it back under the machine, and i needed to add bias tape to my unfinished edges, attach the ruffles, and then add some closures. THUS BEGAN my 7-hour hand-stitching marathon, and even though i think i went a little crazy, i (and the shoes) emerged!!

(some details of how everything's attached!! you can already see some of my hand stitching coming undone in the first pic after a test run, i had to reinforce it with some less delicate stitching :/ another thing: i switched out the snap for a hook and eye after realizing it would be more hardy of a closure!)

with this, i officially no longer have anything i can use to procrastinate on volenta's scary ass undergarments!! very proud of myself for that but very nervous to go back to panniers land LOL!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

in a wonderful turn of events, i've finally been able to work on a garment that hasn't taken billions of hours! i'm starting off with a bit of a funky look at the stockings since i'm not putting my dogs on the internet for free >:/ pay for my honeymoon and maybe i'll reconsider!

i followed a tutorial on making medieval hose since the fabric i'm working with only has a very slight stretch! i started out by pinning my mockup fabric around my leg/foot and then marking over the pins to get a rough shape of what my stockings should look like. i totally forgot to get a pic of this process, so here's a pic from 2018 of me doing the same thing for a pair of boots!

(i didn't have a kitty with me this time, what a total downgrade >:/ this is sammy, and he's coming up on his 18th birthday!)

(this is what i got after cutting and unpinning! i'm very tickled by the fact that my pattern looks very different from the tutorial's because i have wildly flat feet LOL)

no pics since there'd be too much dogs in them, but i then stitched the stockings together and tightened and loosened as i went. just like the gloves, i wish things were a little tighter, but i'd also like some room to breathe!

here's the finished mockup! the stockings will be held up by a ribbon! :)

i'm pretty proud of how these came out--especially since the fabric isn't particularly stretchy! here's some wip pics:

(this fabric is SO SLIPPERY!! like the gloves, i had to hand baste every seam before stitching it, but it was on a much bigger scale this time! thankfully, this is the last garment i have to use this fabric for, so hopefully no more hand basting!)

(i stitched in a little L and R on my stockings so i could tell which side was which! also very surprised at how clean this all looks! :O )

(this requires a bit of imagination!! pretend the extra fabric on the bottom is cut and finished and glued to the shoe ;) )

IN A PERFECT WORLD, i would dump $200 on a pair of 18th century american duchess heels to cover, but i figured some pointy pumps with a low heel would be close enough for this project LOL. (i actually got the same exact heel in white for my wedding! :) )

(here's what i'm starting with!)

from there, i put on the shoe and wrapped it with plastic wrap and then duct tape to create a pattern off of that shape! i drew on all of the stitch lines, cut them out, and then added a few darts where needed!

(the patterning process!! i never got to take a pattern drafting class in college so this makes me feel very smart LOL)

from there, i stitched together a cover and then pinched and pulled until it was tight! on top of that, i added a button closure down the front since i was adding a lot of fabric up towards the ankle. just like the ones on the gloves! :)

(pins galore!! the pins sticking out from the bottom of the shoe are to stick it to where the fabric will be glued down on the bottom of the shoe! the other pins were from alterations, and the sharpie lines are where i'm moving seams in my updated pattern!)

from there, i worked on the little shoe ruffles, my favorite part by far!! >:) i did a ton of trial and error and finally found a tutorial on making a jabot that worked great! there are two layers to the ruffles, and the bottom one is .5" longer than the top one to add depth. half of the ruffles are stitched onto the shoe cover, and the other half is attached using a snap to help get in/out of the shoe. after that, i stitched my big decorative button on, and that was that!!

(the closure! both the top of the ruffle and the top of the shoe cover will be covered by bias tape in the final version.)

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

okay this post is going to be a little weird, i have to build both at the same time since they depend on each other!

i started out with kamuicosplay's skull mask and epic ram horns patterns for a base which was a GODSEND!! i've never used eva foam patterns before and it was such a breeze just getting to put the pieces together and call it a day! :) i did a paper mockup before anything and just ended up snipping off maybe 1/2" near the teeth, SO EASY!!

(all that work and i didn't have to do ANY of it!! >:) )

what wasn't so easy was the beveled edges, this was def not something i encountered as a high schooler making my own eva patterns off of bullshit and a dream LOL! i cut the pieces like normal (first time having a blade sharpener too, that shit was SMOOTH!) and then manually beveled each edge with my dremel, BUT i only realized as i was gluing everything together that i did the bevels completely backwards :/ that was a real downer until i realized that just meant that my markings would be on the inside of the mask instead of the outside--crsis averted!! i was able to cut everything out and glue it all together in one day, just in time for our strahd session! ;)

(so nice to be able to crunch this out in one day!!)

next was using foam clay! i had technically used it before but it was for a show i had designed so i would say it doesn't count (ESPECIALLY because i have no clue how i made it look so smooth!!! i was graced by the hand of god for this one mask)

(okay maybe it's not THAT smooth, but much smoother than what i was able to do today!)

i was shaking in my boots so bad for the whole process because sculpting is way out of my expertise LOL. I'M PROUD THAT I GOT THE MAJOR SHAPES! i'm having some issues with it being lumpy and not being perfectly mirrored (that and i think the horns drooped as i worked with them!! >:/ ), BUT when it dries i'm gonna sand it down and give it some proper texture and see if i need to add/take away any more clay. it's so hard to not just focus on the things i wish were different, but i'm pushing myself to be proud and take it as a win!!

(it took a LOT to trust the process!!)

i would post wig pics but she and i are fighting right now >:( i ended up going mad scientist mode about it and started cooking up funky contraptions, which means things were not going well LOL. long story short is the curling mechanism i used didn't work well, and the wig i got might be too short for proper ringlets. we'll see, send me your well wishes!

total time for the mask so far is 9 hours, and total time for the wig is 1.5 hours!

first off, i started sanding/dremeling the mask which was great! i'm so thankful that i'm going for a cracked, bony texture because the sanding whittled away any chunks of clay but kept some cracks and dents! i got to carve out some details (mostly in the teeth area, they're no longer as marshmallow-y!) but accidentally took out too much around the forehead, so i decided to go back in to add some more clay before doing anything else. my biggest peeve with this project is that the clay takes 1-2 days to dry (and exposing some of the deeper clay means it gets soft), so i've just been twiddling my thumbs :/ arghhhh

(loved how smooth but cracked it got, didn't like how much i took away :/ we persist!)

while i was waiting for it to dry, i made some texture for the ram horns!! :) i'm really proud of how these turned out! i'm realizing i actually really like sculpting, i hope i can do more in the future!!

(i never explained in the past post! these pieces are all from the same mask, but it would be too difficult and bulky to have it be one piece and blend with the wig well, so the ram horns will be attached separately. the mask pieces will be attached to the wig using magnets!!)

after that, i made some texture for the horns on top of the mask too! my goal for these was to find a happy medium between the harsh texture of the ram horns and the smoother texture of the skull. at the same time, i added some extra clay to the mask to try to balance out uneven areas. i think i'm doing a pretty good job with that BUT i think the smaller horns are gonna be permanently lopsided which sucks BALLS :/ whatever, maybe the animal this thing came from had a wonky skull, WHO KNOWS

(i like where the clay is sitting now, so i'm going to focus on just sanding and redefining the indents after it dries and puffs out and then adding more cracks. not taking out the big chunky tools again!!)

on top of that, i figured out how to make volenta's ringlets! it took me a good 2.5 hours of sitting there with a curling iron and praying but i finally got something down! my tried and true method was to take a section of hair, straighten it twice, spray it with hairspray, curl it all the way to the root (BUT wrap as much as i could around the iron before closing it and curling more), use my operation board game skills to shimmy the hair off of the iron, pin it until it cools, spray it with so much hairspray that it doesn't feel like hair anymore, and then gently pull the curl from the inside until it lowers! and then more hairspray <3

(uggy as hell for now but i figured it out!! :O )

BUT you can probably see just HOW MUCH hair goes into one ringlet, so i didn't have a long enough wig >:/ i was not very excited to order a new one but HEY, this can just be a mockup wig... (i'm also realizing now that sewing in the magnet pouches into the wig would be horrible with styled hair, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise...)

(the wig before styling! i ended up ordering one that goes halfway down the back so that i'll have plenty of wiggle room!)

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

in a wonderful turn of events, i've finally been able to work on a garment that hasn't taken billions of hours! i'm starting off with a bit of a funky look at the stockings since i'm not putting my dogs on the internet for free >:/ pay for my honeymoon and maybe i'll reconsider!

i followed a tutorial on making medieval hose since the fabric i'm working with only has a very slight stretch! i started out by pinning my mockup fabric around my leg/foot and then marking over the pins to get a rough shape of what my stockings should look like. i totally forgot to get a pic of this process, so here's a pic from 2018 of me doing the same thing for a pair of boots!

(i didn't have a kitty with me this time, what a total downgrade >:/ this is sammy, and he's coming up on his 18th birthday!)

(this is what i got after cutting and unpinning! i'm very tickled by the fact that my pattern looks very different from the tutorial's because i have wildly flat feet LOL)

no pics since there'd be too much dogs in them, but i then stitched the stockings together and tightened and loosened as i went. just like the gloves, i wish things were a little tighter, but i'd also like some room to breathe!

here's the finished mockup! the stockings will be held up by a ribbon! :)

i'm pretty proud of how these came out--especially since the fabric isn't particularly stretchy! here's some wip pics:

(this fabric is SO SLIPPERY!! like the gloves, i had to hand baste every seam before stitching it, but it was on a much bigger scale this time! thankfully, this is the last garment i have to use this fabric for, so hopefully no more hand basting!)

(i stitched in a little L and R on my stockings so i could tell which side was which! also very surprised at how clean this all looks! :O )