Costume College - What I Wore Saturday Gala: Cersei Blue Birds

Finally, more than a year after I started it, I finished my Cersei birds gown.  I had a LOT of photos taken of this gown, but I think I may have to have more done.  I hadn't been very happy with my Cersei hair at Wondercon, so I bought a new wig and while I liked it at first, after seeing the photos I actually like the old one better.  And I think I need more shots of the details of the embroidery on the gown.

This was a much more difficult dress to make than the mourning one.  Embroidery and fabric painting aside, the fabric was stiffer with less give and less drape and my shape has become more hour-glassy than it was when I made the first gown so the princess seams really gave me hell.  Nevertheless I got it done and by and large I am happy with it.

I felt like a princess, or at least an evil queen and that was my goal!

This is my favorite photo

A shot of the back of the gown

A close up of the left sleeve embroidery, yes, those are real feathers!

 And my silly "I heart Jaime" and "Hear Me Roar" garters!

Market Hat Pattern is totally rad!

Totally rad!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Costume College post to bring you news of my actually having made something new!

So I brought a few hand-sewing projects with me on our little family beach vacation, in the hopes of getting a little something done in between making sand castles and boogie boarding.

A while back I participated in the Indiegogo for Undressing the Historical Lady and got PDFs of her early 19th century caps and her 18th century Market Hat pattern.  So before we left I grabbed a black silk remnant, some notions and the pattern and was good to go.  It's a great little pattern, easy to follow and simple to make,  and as you can see - it makes an awesome hat!  If you click the pattern link above you can get your very own copy on Etsy.

Now to see if I can some more done on the embroidered stomacher I brought...

Costume College - What I Wore Saturday day: Dangerous Liaisons Yellow Traveling Suit

I'd really wanted ALL my costumes to fit this year's literary theme for Costume College: "Plucked from the Pages." So I thought this was a good opportunity to trot out another old costume I hadn't worn (or been able to fit into) for some time now - the Yellow Traveling outfit that Glenn Close wears in Dangerous Liaisons.

In fact, looking back, the first time I wore this costume was the my very first Costume College in 2006!   I'm pretty psyched I can fit into such an old costume and that it really actually looks pretty nice and not all janky.

I didn't actually take any photos of this outfit myself, I had the Costume College professional photographer take some, but they aren't online yet.  But Jen Thompson took this shot of me in it that I just love.

More Costume College to come...

I'm a bit chagrinned that all my coco posts so far have been only of my own costumes.  But I'm having some technical difficulties - I'd downloaded all my iphone photos to my computer before I left for a vacation with my family, and had thought I'd done the same with the photos from my good camera.  But it appears I didn't, and I'm on vacation now so I can't access them until I get home.  Sigh.

Anyway, I've got many more photos and coco posts of costumes other than my own to come!

Costume College - What I Wore Friday Night - Cersei Mourning

I knew there was a big Game of Thrones group coming to the Friday Night social and I really wanted to join in, but my birds gown was kind of my magnum opus this year, and I wanted to wear it to the Gala.  What to do?  Trot out my Cersei mourning gown from last year!

I already blogged about this dress at last year's ice cream social, so I won't go into too much detail but I did enjoy wearing it again, it's very comfortable (modern undies for the win!) and drapey and flattering.  And a lot of people hadn't see my lion embroidery so it was fun to show that off again.

I only took a few iphone pics but as you can see I had a great time posing and hamming it up with the other GoT folks.

Costume College - What I Wore Friday daytime: Rita Skeeter

When I heard Jen Thompson was wearing her Harry Potter Grey Lady gown on Friday I thought I'd reprise my old Rita Skeeter costume.  I didn't want to do the same green suit everyone has done, so I tried to repro her outfit from the Goblet of Fire.  The skirt is just a leather skirt from by closet, as are the boots.  The jacket is a thrifted suede jacket I dyed, altered and added the snakeskin details too.   And the wig is just a basic long curly wig with the curls pinned up.  It was really easy and cheap to put together as a result, but I really like this costume.  Rita is fun to cosplay, it's comfy and I can wear my glasses!!  

You don't see it in these pics but the best part of this costume is the accessory my husband made for me- a moving quick quotes quill!  Here's a little video I made of it in action.