marian, bound to pain
In the Baxar's War expansion of Dreamblade, there's a figure called "Marian, Bound to Pain". She has on a black skirt, with several layers of ruffles, and a black overbust corset, one net eighteen-button glove and one satin eighteen-button glove, and a necklace with a large purple triangular stone as the centrepiece. She also has a scaly green tail (that is probably, proportionately, eight feet long) and wings, the left one a white angel wing and the right a red dragon wing. The wings are probably proportionately a ten foot span.
This is my halloween costume for 2007. It's going to take a lot more creating of pieces than last year's, given that I'm not simply going for Victorian or Tudor but rather for a very specific look. However, particularly given that the only clothing to make is going to be the skirt, which might have the hoops in it or might have a petticoat, and the corset, both of which are well within my abilities, the main focus is going to be on the actual creative elements of the tail, wings, and necklace.
There'll be a few modifications, in order to make this wearable - one of them will be that my wings will probably have a max of a six foot wing span, all inclusive. The other, at this point, will be the tail. The booster art shown below has the tail loose, as you'd expect; the mini has the tail wrapped around the skirt. Given the length of the tail and the difficulty of controlling an eight foot tail if it's allowed to drag around loose, I'm planning to stitch it to the skirt.
I also plan to do this diary a bit differently. In the past, I've written things up after they were completed (or, in the case of the Victorian, simply discussed things that didn't work about the patterns and posted pictures, as I followed patterns almost entirely for that one). This year, I'm going to do, essentially, two diaries, documenting what I expect to do and whether there were any changes made in the process.
Canonical references for this character:
goal: completion for halloween 2007
petticoat
skirt
corset
tail
left wing
right wing
necklace
everything else
The petticoat may wind up not existing, but given that I don't like the look of the hoop steel in my farthingale, I'm thinking that it'll be a lot easier to do a triangular hoop skirt, with probably three bones, and probably the first bone will be about the diameter of my hips, but just above the knee. It's a narrow skirt that she's got on.
Doing some research to find hoop boning connectors, which I swear I've seen before (I believe Pacific Fabrics used to carry them, actually, but I can't find them any longer), I found out that I made a mistake in buying the buckram and steel hoop wire that I will try not to repeat in future. It's not as good for skirts that are going to see a lot of use (and it is quite possible that I'll use this one in future, given that it's not going to require fifty seven pounds of other clothing, a servant, and two hours to put on) because if it gets bent it has no spring. Spring steel, which I used for my bustle, and which looks exactly like white spring steel bones, the rigid ones, will retain its circular shape rather than getting a bend in it. At the same time, I believe that spring steel's not a good choice for something the weight of a Tudor/Elizabethan farthingale, as it seems to be a bit more prone to collapse, but I'm not sure about this.
This will probably be a standard four-gore skirt, with a side opening and hook closure. I don't anticipate the need for a pattern for this. I'll be doing a bit more research at Drea Leed's page on how to make a farthingale, but I think I'm going to use either twill or bias tape to make a boning channel. If I wind up using electrical or duct tape to connect the hoops, I'll make the boning channel a bit short so that the lumpy bit's not inside the channel, as that's unattractive. I'm not concerned with periodicity in this costume, but I can't imagine that an elastic waist would feel nice after being squished under a corset and into my tender flesh.
I'm also planning to make this (and the skirt) after the corset, because I found with my Tudor petticoat and farthingale that if there's a lot of compression from the corset at the waist and the skirt fits my uncorseted measurements it's a bit more prone to slipping and wrinkling. I won't make it to my corseted measurements exactly, but if I get, say, two inches of reduction off of the corset, I'll make it an inch smaller in the waist.
I'm a big fan of natural fibres. I might use cotton drill, but as I don't plan to have any other petticoats, I think cotton batiste or, possibly, kona cotton, in black, will be the material I'll use for this.
I have in my notes for this that I can get 45" black slipper satin at Display and Costume for $6.75 a yard, and I'll probably use that. It has a distinct difference from Monece satin, which I'm using for the corset, and is not the $10.00/yard of the really nice Duchesse satin I used for the Victorian overskirt. But I'm on the lookout for something suitably shiny, if only because I don't want a dull skirt like I'd get with velvet or suede, and 45" is not really delightfully wide enough, given that I'll probably need close to that for the skirt and possibly more and I don't know how much it'll shrink. But there are lots of ruffles on this skirt, so it'd be possible to have an additional length of the material at the hem and disguise it by putting a ruffle there.
Come to think of it, that's what I did with the Victorian underskirt last year.
The ruffles on both the mini and the booster art look more like a stuffed valance than an actual ruffle. The booster looks like it's supposed to show a series of lengthening skirts - one just below knee length and four more, closer together, between mid-shin and floor. This is going to be two skirts, one knee-length with the valance-style ruffles and one with four fake ruffles that might or might not be the valance-style. It'll take a lot of material, but I suppose I should do it right if I'm going to do it at all. The art is slightly dodgy, though - it looks like the lower ruffles are more normal.
This will probably be a three-gore skirt, with a wide front panel, side seams, and a back seam. I can't imagine that I actually need that back seam, but I'd rather do that to have a little more shaping. I might use a centre back closure, as well, to cut down bulk at the side seam. Since the skirt will go on before the corset, it should be easy enough to fasten.
I'm also bearing in mind that I could get a couple packets of plastic horsehair for a bit of additional stiffening at the bottom of the skirt or, more likely, the petticoat, depending on where the bottom hoop falls. Putting the bottom hoop at floor length tends to make it easy to step on and I don't like the Tudor/Elizabethan solution of putting a ruffle on the hem of the kirtle or the farthingale to give those last few inches some body.
It also looks as though there's a rounded-hem overskirt on the dress - or rather, side drapes - they're visible on her left side and on the mini and they go from just behind the point of the corset over her hip and continue around the back. I think what I'll do on that is hand-tack that into the corset rather than the waistband of the skirt, since it looks like the pleats at the top edge of the overskirt (narrow pleats) follow the edge of the corset rather than the waist. God love getting this shit from artists who go with what looks great rather than what looks real. I'm convinced this one actually did some research with pattern books to get an even-remotely-workable corset. Then I can take the skirt out after Halloween and have a) a useable bustier and b) a useable skirt (though I might not WANT to use the skirt).
The Laughing Moon pattern I used last year is a bust-height corset; what Marian wears is much more like a bustier than a corset. I purchased Simplicity pattern 5006 and plan to use view A with a few modifications.
Marian's bodice is far more pointed than the Simplicity one. Though I don't think I'll go quite as extreme as Marian - I have to be able to sit in this, after all - I'm going to draw it to include a more pronounced point. I'm also dropping the lace trim at the lower hem, though I'm keeping it at the top. I'm thinking of how much reduction I want to have, because the tighter this is, the more support I'll have for the wings, but I don't know that I want enough reduction to actually cause me to faint holding up the wings. To achieve the laced up look in the front, I'm going to make the corset exactly as the pattern calls, except with eight fronts rather than two (the pattern is unlined and includes a back facing; I'll line it fully). Four of the fronts will be sewn together as the pattern calls for, then one will be used to line the other. The other four will be made narrower - I'm expecting a two-inch gap in the lacing, so I'll cut an inch off the inside of each side - and they'll be done like a typical corset - lining and outer layer sewn together. I'll also bone them as I would the back of the corset, with a bone around the grommets that I'll add. And when I sew the center fronts to the side fronts, I'll sandwich the grommeted fronts between the outer layer pieces and sew them together so they all share a seam. I debated the back closure for a while, but finally decided that a back lace would be fine, so I'll do that as the pattern calls for, though my grommets will be closer together than the pattern calls for. I'll make the modesty panel that the pattern calls for in the back.
I'm expecting I'll probably have to make a couple mockups of this, given that it's a commercial pattern and not one for reenactment; everything I've heard about Simplicity corsets is that they run large, and I really need full body contact all over to support the wings. I think I'll have to, ultimately, take it in at bust and waist, probably leave it alone at hip (or maybe I'll be wrong, but I haven't measured the pattern yet) and lengthen it by a couple inches. I'm also going to use a waist tape, which the pattern doesn't call for.
My other significant modification will be to accomodate the wings. My current thinking is this: I'll make the back panel as recommended by the pattern, except for the grommet spacing (oh, and using better boning!), but I'll cut out six (or possibly eight) of the back. I'm not entirely sure whether I want to grommet all the layers or just two and sew the others into the back panel to the side of the grommets - that would put a lot of strain on the material, but grommeting all of them would put a lot of strain on the grommets. In any event. The outer two layers will be finished as lining and outer layer, and then a third (and perhaps a fourth) will be sewn in and finished at the top to provide a pocket for the dowels on the wings to slide into. I'll also have lacing holes on the pocket-panel, though I'm not sure whether they'll be buttonhole stitched or grommeted.
Rather than turn-and-hem on the upper and lower hem of the corset, I'll use Laughing Moon's method and bind it. Marian's corset shows an inch-wide band at the top of it, so I'll try to recreate that. I also will put in more boning than Simplicity calls for - given the weight, probably more than Laughing Moon calls for. It's not appropriate to the garment per se, but I like the look of exterior boning channels, so the channels will go all the way through.
This is going to be Monece satin and cotton twill, with spiral bones everywhere except the back openings and possibly the center front (I'll use flats there). No idea on the lacing yet; something sturdy enough to actually work and function, but preferably not the shoelace-looking corset lacing I have. Rat-tail cord might work, but I don't know. Also, I want to get a better grommet setter if I can; the one I've got for 00 grommets is the pliers-kind, and they make an uneven impression on the clamping ring.
Marian's tail is scaly. Rather than trying to stitch together loads of scales, even though they are a decent size for most of the length, I'm going to cut out rows of scales in one piece, with one straight edge and one scalloped one, the length of whatever material I get. A dullish-green pleather would probably work well, but I'd rather have dull than shiny, so I'll see what there is. But pleather (or other non-raveling non-nap fabric) would work best given the lack of need to finish the scalloped seam. My thought for that is Fray-Chek, if I have to go with something that might ravel (even if it's a curved seam).
I'll serge the long seam and lay the scallops out on the base material of the tail (already cut out, but not sewed together) in an overlapping pattern and sew them down with probably only one row of stitching, but if they don't seem to want to lay flat, I can do another row of stitching. The scales get smaller at the tip of her tail, but I don't think that'll be too much of a problem.
My plan is to cut the tail out of a base fabric, probably black, in one lengthwise piece, but I'm not buying eight feet of material to get probably eighteen inches around at the top, so I'll cut it out in sections and sew them together width-wise. When the scales are on, I'll sew the long seam, turn, stuff, hand-sew a closure to the end of the seam to keep stuffing from getting everywhere, and sew it to the skirt carefully - it won't have a foundation under the skirt. Whether the mini was cast wrong or what, it actually does show long stitches holding the tail down. Make of that what you will, but I intend to make of that something so that I can use the skirt again. I'll also sew it down at intervals along the length, wrapping the tail around the skirt as I go.
I'm trying to think of good alternatives to buying that much stuffing - it seems wasteful - but nothing's come up other than buying pillows and that wouldn't be cheaper or less wasteful. Paper would be too stiff, and so would layering it over chickenwire.
Both wings will be constructed of PVC pipe for the bone in the back and the "thumb" of the wing; I'm thinking that at least for the angel wing it'd be better to bend one long piece of pipe into the right shape. I'll drill holes through the pipe and a dowel where the pipe sockets over the dowel and string them together with pipe metal. The dowel will have a blunt point on the bottom end to keep it from tearing out of the corset (with any luck) and I'll drill small holes in the dowel to lace it into the corset with.
The left wing is the angel wing, so the only thing needed, after the shape of the thumb and supporting bone are created, is to sandwich white batiste between two layers of white nylon net. The shape will be roughly triangular (it'll be easier to do by draping) and I'll hand-sew it into place, with the material coming around the back (ie, closer to my body) to wrap over the pipe. I'll use a combination of types of feathers to fill in the net, with a combination of poking them into the net and sewing them down with invisible thread, depending on what works best. I might line the bone with marabou, but I doubt it. I've already found strung schlappen feathers that might be very useful for filling in the wing, but I'd like to get a better plume than the ones I've found so far for the flight feathers.
The wing needs to have feathers on both sides.
I'm not entirely sure what to do with the end of the PVC. I'm thinking I'll use more of the net to make a little "hat" for it so that the empty tube isn't visible. The PVC will probably need to be painted prior to sewing the material on, to cover the black letters.
The right wing is the dragon wing. I'm planning to start with the same idea as the angel wing, though the PVC needs to be in a different shape. It might be in many pieces, depending on how I figure out to connect the fingers to the bones.
One option is to look at the connectors available that would form a T-junction, possibly with an angle on either end, and string three of them together to create the fingers of the wing. Another is to cut red pleather so that it wraps around the bone at the back and the "thumb", then fans out into a triangle to sew in the three finger bones, relying on the connection of the material, and probably small holes in the PVC that I could thread a string through, to keep them from sliding out.
Between the fingers, Display and Costume sells something called sparkle nylon crepe that would be tacked between the fingers, as close to the centre of each bone as possible. For the ends of the pipe, I think it would work to use some kind of plaster to model claws, then either cover them in the red leather as well or paint them a similar shade, and plug them into the ends, with some kind of glue or a drilled hole and a thread.
The wing would attach to the back the same way as the other one.
I haven't evaluated the necklace yet. The best I've come up with is that I'll get sculpey or something similar and make the pieces that I can't buy, but it should be easy enough to come up with something similar. It looks like a largeish purple triangle pendant with a gold wire arched across the top to hang it from a necklace of large purple beads and gold connections - easy enough.
Wig: Sadly, I have the right wig and the right colour of wig...and I have two wigs. So I need to get the black showgirl wig from Display and Costume. I think this will mean that I can get rid of the cheap one I got for Halloween last year (an eight dollar wig, compared to a $27.00 one).
Gloves: The left is an over-the-elbow satin (actually, it looks like leather, but I'm damned if I'm doing that, though I suppose it'd be possible) and the right is holed mesh; that one looks like it doesn't come over the hand. Either way, depending on what I can find or have to make. If I have to make the right, I'll just go to the wrist.
Knives: No idea how to do these yet. I'll look at toy shops closer to Halloween.