More progress n stuff

I'm doing somewhat better now... I've been working on two wigs for people and very slowly working on my gown.  My lace came in last month so I've been able to finish the bodice!

Serenity progress 4

I've been meaning to write a blog on cheap ways to make jewelry, but I'll get around to that either later today or tomorrow once I've fixed a pair of my mother's earrings.

It may not look like much (unless you click for the full view), but I've added a ton of cream colored pearl cabochons to the edges of the circles.  It's totally optional, but I want my dress to look more realistic than "cartoony" as some may prefer.  ...Still waiting on that package to arrive with my lace.  If that package is lost, I'm seriously going to cry, man.

Serenity progress 3

This thing took a lot longer than I would have liked... I remember working on it from when the sun was up to when the sky was pitch black.  So I think I've spent almost five hours doing the gold beading and adding the first white strip?  The white strips are white textured rope braid and my sewing machine hated sewing through it.  Ugh.  There's still two more strips I have to add, but I'm not doing that until my lace eventually comes in, which'll hopefully arrive within the next few weeks.

I've made a mistake when sewing the strip on and because of that, I hate this bodice so much.  Guergh... nothing I can do about that now, sadly...

Not even done and this thing is already heavy as heck because of the white rings and glass beads.  When this part is finished, it's going to be even heavier so I may end up having to install some clear bra straps if it doesn't stay up due to the added weight.  It stays up just fine right now, but... not so sure about later.  I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to pack this thing in my luggage when it's time to go to AM2 Con and Anime Expo this summer.  The fabric for the skirt is also quite heavy since there's going to be 12 yards of fabric going into that monster... GRAAAAHHH!!!

Serenity gown progress [Part 2]

Hahaaaa... wow.  This is quite annoying.  Firefox won't let me update, so I have to do it on a browser that I hate.  Ugh.  Anyway, I've spent most of my free time today working on this bloomy dress bodice.

The rings were always a nightmare to attatch to this dress.  This is my second time making this dress and it's never any fun doing this step.  I've come up with an easier method of making the rings, but it's always a huge pain in the butt to sew them on.  Rings are made out of white pleather (that I had leftover from when I made my Crisis Core Aerith shoes), white glitter casa satin, and heavy interfacing for added stiffness.  At first, I used straight stitches to attach them, but the edges didn't lay the way I wanted them to so I went over them again with a zig-zag stitch.

The whole process was a complete nightmare and is always my least favorite task when making Serenity's dress.  Boning was added as well since the lining was starting to fray so bad that if I didn't add the lining soon, I probably wouldn't have been able to at all, so I inserted the boning into the casings and serged the fraying bottom edge of the lining.  I'm glad that part is over with at least... now I just have to reinforce the tops of the rings.  After that is done, I can start beading this thing.  I'm still waiting for my lace to come in the mail, but I'm afraid that it may take another month to arrive and I need it now. Grrr!!!

Cheap eBitch--er... eBay jewelry finds

I've received my moonstone ring for this cosplay, yey!  And best of all, it only cost me $3.49 and it's sterling silver!

This is the ring I bought.  It looks a lot nicer in person, though.  I figured I'm better off buying a cheap ring rather than using a ring my mother gave me in case it gets lost during the con (and because the one she gave me is expensive).  So I thought, "Why not get a cheap one to do the job just for insurance?"  I searched eBitch and found this ring that worked perfectly.

The seller sells a lot of pretty, cheap, sterling silver jewelry in their shop and if you're interested, here is the store.  Right now I'm bidding on a beautiful moonstone necklace from them and hopefully... I'll win it.  I want it so bad!

Serenity material dump

Last entry I mentioned buying the rest of my materials (not counting the missing 2.4 yards of chiffon required) for this gown, so... photo dump of what I have so far!

Beaded casa organza.  I use this for the cape because I wanted that fancy "magical moon princess" look (and because it was left over from another project I have since abandoned).

What the cape looks like!  It fastens up with a strand of plastic pearls.  The artbook picture didn't have anything to indicate it closes up with anything, so I used pearls.  I think it's a nice touch, though. :)

Top: white casa crepe

Bottom: white casa chiffon

The top fabric is going to be used for the "petticoat" of the gown, while the bottom will be used to go overtop.  The artbooks depict Serenity's gown as "sheer but not sheer" so I went with these materials to get that effect.

The trims and beads for the dress.  The white rope braid trim is going to be used for the three rows of bands on the bodice of the dress.  Since having three random plain bands on a bodice usually looks really stupid in real life, I bought braided rope trim so it'll look more realistic and texturized.  White and gold glass beads will be the pearls... I wanted to use plastic beads because they're light weight, but couldn't find any that didn't have a weird coating on them that'd rub off, ick!  And of course... thread, pins, and needles are what'll put everything together!

White pleather (to make the circle ring things), a whipe invisible zipper, boning, and white glitter casa satin.  Using pleather because it doesn't fray and it's stiff for the rings.  White glitter casa satin because... well... it was left over from another project, looks pretty, is thick, and matches the other fabrics perfectly. lol  And of course, a zipper to close everything up and boning to help the bodice retain its shape.  The bodice is going to have lots of heavy beads, so boning seemed like the best idea.

This is a better shot of the glitter casa satin. :)

The jewelry I made (and a hair comb for a hair comb I still need to make).  The earrings are made of Sculpey, the crystal and gold chain were something I had left over from another abandoned project, so I made them into the imperium silver crystal necklace that shows up in a grand total of one page of the manga. XD  The pearl bracelet was made from part of a skirt that had a random strand of plastic pearls on it.  I took it off, cup the pearls out, and made it into a light weight bracelet.

All of this will be made into this:

So here we are... all the materials and progress I've made on this ballgown so far.  Oh!  And I almost forgot to mention that I have completed the wig and hair clips for this project, which can be found here, here, and here.


So yeah... lots of materials going into this project. XD;;  Everything for the dress was bought at Joann's ('cept the pearls) from the casa collection.  Without coupons, the whole thing would've been astronimical in terms of price, but I bought everything for 50% off the regular price.  Coupons are a life saver!