So, one of the things I’ve been doing with my time staying inside is teaching myself how to sew! I’m going to do several posts talking about this process and showing off the resulting costumes. Cosplay is the main reason I wanted to step up my sewing skills. Also, I wanted to be able to hem my own pants. 🙂
I bought a sewing machine on Amazon a couple of years ago pretty cheap, and it sat here unused in the box for a long time. Then, one of my new local cosplay friends organized a little sewing session, so I got it out and brought it to her house in a cute little sewing machine tote. We sewed little bags. I learned that I had made the grave error of not buying a machine with a drop-in bobbin.
I brought it home, and it sat unused again for quite some time. Last summer (I think), I ordered a very cheap Belle costume on eBay. Belle has long been my favorite Disney princess, and I’ve wanted to cosplay her for a while now! While we’re in lockdown, the cosplay group I belong to has been recording video “shout-outs” for birthdays and other occasions. And this may surprise you, but there aren’t a lot of children who are interested in my main cosplay character, Peggy Carter!
I didn’t take a “before” photo, so here’s a collage of some of the early steps in the process. (The first thing I did was cut a ridiculous amount of fabric off the bottom of the dress. It was literally touching the floor!)
I also had to hem the apron and take in the blouse. I wasn’t at all happy with the design of the blouse, which I felt was more “I saw Goody Proctor with the devil” than “I want much more than this provincial life,” so I tore the collar off an old blouse and fashioned a new one with some white fabric my mom had given me at some point. I also did some additional alteration on the bodice of the dress, which improved it, but I still wasn’t entirely happy with it. That’s when I thought, “I bet I could make a new one…”
So, I found and purchased a pattern. I was looking for fabric, and my mom happened to have this large piece of blue fabric lying around, so she mailed it to me. I bought a wig and made a new bow to match the new dress. It took me the better part of a weekend to make the dress, with some finishing bits done over the next few days. The dress was designed with a zipper up the back, but it turned out that I was able to leave enough room to slip it on and off without a zipper, so I left it out. I will save learning how to put in a zipper for another day!
And here’s the completed costume:
I’m very pleased with how it turned out! (of course, if you look really closely, you’d be able to see all the little mistakes I made. I actually bought some fabric glue so I can repair a couple of small things before they cause large problems!)
I hope you enjoyed this peek inside my process.
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