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friends i could get into a groove every night where all i had to do was listen to podcasts or watch netflix costube and focus on selecting and placing the next random bead in order to get a casual oh i just sprinkled some star dust over this old thing sort of look i also added some layers of batting on the inside to pad out the bust a bit since i originally finalized this pattern back when i was still breastfeeding and had not yet deflated then it was just a matter of basting the outer and inner layers together and then binding the top and bottom since i didn t know how much the circumference would change with the addition of all the layers and boning i finished the back edge by folding in the edges and then topstitching after i held the bodice up to my body to figure out how much space i needed even so i still misjudged because the finished corset laces almost closed when i had been planning for a two inch lacing gap setting in the grommets was made easy and painless with the help of aj s tabletop grommet setter reminding me once again how grateful i am for the help and generosity of my costuming community you can see all the stitching on the back from the beading plus my little batting bust pads at this point the magpies were only pinned on i don t love all the wrinkles that are especially visible on the satin but this is what comes from only learning about roll pinning after finishing up this piece facepalm to make the feathered bottom edge i toyed with the idea of sewing them directly to the corset but ultimately decided that i wanted to be able to remove them if i wanted a slightly cleaner look when wearing this corset in the future to that end i sewed them to a bias strip then hand stitched a series of snaps to the strip and the inside of the corset i could even theoretically attach this to something else in the future for the skirt i knew i wanted lots of layers but also didn t want to buy lots of extra fabric i took the elastic waistband off of a skirt i had made for the postapocalypticantigone production since i liked the look of the gauzy net curtain over the white sheet skirt plus reuse is always a plus it already featured a long train since it was supposed to be part of a wedding outfit so to continue the lines i decided to layer this textured polyester fabric in a high lo circle skirt over it the resulting cascading waves of fabric pleased me greatly and made for really dramatic photos poorly lit shots but you get the idea to make the bolero feather cloak i wanted more black fabrics but they had to be both complementary and different i still had some pieces of this embossed velvet tablecloth already used for this justaucorps pair of breeches and collar and was just able to eke out two tiny fronts and backs and a collar just don t look too closely at all the directions that the nap is going for the cape and sleeves i caved and purchased three yards of black netting so that i could keep a visual tie in with the underskirt and also not totally obscure the back of the corset i draped one yard across the back until i was happy with how it hung and then cut two full sleeves roughly following this diagram then it was several nights of cutting out experimentally pinning and hand sewing individual fabric feathers until my hands were blistered and cramping worth it though for how cool the cape looks like the feathers are just flowing off this is also one of the only times i can think of where i was close to running out of pins as i had to do so much fussing around with the feather layout because of the sheer nature of the fabric figuring out how to finish everything was a little tricky i sewed the shoulder seams and side seams for both layers and attached the collar leaving the armholes and bottom edges open then i basted the sleeves and netting to the lining of the bolero folded in the seam allowances for both the lining and the velvet and hand felled everything shut going through the netting for each stitch at this point i put all the pieces on cecily for the first time in the whole process and was horrified to see that with the corset underneath the accidental asymmetry of my bolero thanks for nothing stretching of the bias edge was very evident that led to some panicked picking and resewing then the horrified realization that i hadn t left enough seam allowance to fix it and finally the idea to camouflage the worst of it by attaching more bling thankfully i had just picked up a dark silver necklace from my school s free pile where people can leave items they re trying to get rid of in case other people want them usually it s just a bunch of tchotchkes and old magazines but occasionally there s costume jewelry i strategically deconstructed and reassembled the chain and beads to cover the wonky neck seam and front opening and like my loki evening gown this ended up being a happy accident since i love the finished look and don t think i would have arrived at this design otherwise i love how the dark silver chain and beads look against the embossed velvet the front closes with a single hook and eye at the base of the collar i already talked a little bit about my milk jug hair accessories but here s an ig reel showing a bit of what the process of heating and shaping them looked like the comb was vaguely inspired by the atla fire nation crown the flowers are glued to an old chopstick painted silver and varnished and some of shb 2 s least favorite hair clips unfortunately the hair pins ended up being too heavy to really hold in my hair so at aj s suggestion i used a hair piece to help anchor it there are actual pre styled hanfu hair pieces you can buy but i ended up using the hairpiece i got for my princess jasmine cosplay and using some careful placement of hair ties and bobby pins to fake the giant blob of hair on top that seems to be so popular among ancient chinese women the rest of my hair i just tied and twisted up and pinned but there are wispy bits galore escaping oh well overall it gets the idea across and it s not like this was ever going to be a historically accurate cosplay anyway see that giant blob of hair on my head that s a fake ponytail that s had the ends looped under and sewn to the clip best thing is i can still clip the threads and take out the pins to return it to its ponytail state for other cosplays i really do love the dangly bits best these last two photos are from my shoot with captured by shirelle at the last minute i considered trying to add some iridescent beads to the skirt because it seemed a little plain but when that occurred to me it was about half an hour before i was supposed to start getting ready for the photoshoot oops oh well if i ever wear this to i m not even sure where i would ever wear this i ll consider adding some beads i also thought about making some milk jug feather pauldrons but we could not drink milk fast enough for me to amass enough raw material for that i m still pretty satisfied with what i have to turn in even if the imposter syndrome struggle is real looking through the foundationsrevealedcontest2021 hashtag is dangerous on one hand it s super inspirational and exciting to see how others are interpreting the brief but on the other hand since others may not specify the skill level they re entering at i don t know if i m expected to have the same level of design and fit i know comparison is the thief of joy and all that but another consequence of the introspection i ve been doing about my childhood and upbringing is realizing that i have been ingrained with a scarcity mindset because of all the comparing that my parents did of my achievements with those of their friends kids and the general immigrant background i get inordinately anxious when i feel like other people are doing well i ve needed to work on consciously putting aside thoughts of resentment and fear and jealousy and replacing those with an attitude of celebration of others also creating beautiful things at different levels than me as the contest organizers wrote this is less of a competition and more of an exhibition that happens to have prizes next up the professional photos of all of it together posted by cation designs at 2 55 pm 8 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels foundations revealed contest monday february 1 2021 foundations revealed contest 2021 the inspiration i ve been lurking on foundations revealed your wardrobe unlock d for years since way before i had a sewing machine i remember being a bone tired overworked teacher looking through all the helpful articles and inspirational costumes that were posted and thinking wow someday i want to be able to make and wear beautiful things like that even after i taught myself to sew and discovered historical costuming and cosplay i always felt like the fr ywu yearly competition was beyond my skill level and then when i finally felt like i could maybe enter i had kids a side gig doing theater costuming and had started taking classes at canada college which meant i had no time to think about making something to enter this past year with older more self sufficient kids no theater costuming work because no theater productions and more experience in designing my own costumes i finally felt like i could maybe do this the theme this year once upon a time designing an outfit for a character from literature was the push i needed to enter reading and imagining fantastic costumes for literary characters was so important to me as a child and here was the perfect excuse to indulge myself and actually bring to life one of my imagined designs so many classics of children s lit have evocative descriptions of outfits how could i choose one i have a soft spot in my heart for the little house series as liw s little details probably played a huge part in my love for historical dress come on who doesn t remember aunt docia s dress with the buttons that look just like juicy blackberries or the lovely triangular fichu that laura s friend gives her as a wedding present or is that just me and of course tolkien is a quintessential fantasy inspiration i ve always wanted to do goldberry or luthien and if you re into villains like i am there s always jadis or the lady of the green kirtle from the chronicles of narnia then there s my middle school comfort read the song of the lioness featuring the first canonically asian character i ever encountered in a fantasy book thayet jian wilima whom i already cosplayed when i met author tamora pierce at a con but ultimately what helped me decide was looking at the pinterest board posted by the competition organizers almost all of the inspirational literature they included comes from the western literary tradition the west does not have a monopoly on great literature and considering the relative age of some ancient chinese poetry it could be considered even more historical i understand of course that fr is based in england and run by europeans but in 2021 i would hope that there would at least be a bit more diversity in their mood board to that end i decided to design a costume for a character from chinese mythology the weaver girl because how fitting is it that i choose a heroine characterized by her association with textile creation for a fabric based competition it s also perfect for this year as we all hold off on seeing our loved ones and learn to wait for a hopefully joyous reunion the legend of the cowherd and weaver girl is all about waiting for a year to see a loved one as we come up on ten months of purposeful distancing to keep our community safe this story seems especially apt image source which also tells one version of the story as i wrote in my inspiration description for my entry the cowherd and the weaver girl is an ancient chinese story poem of a celestial maiden who fell in love with a mortal man the queen of heaven forbade their union and used her silver hairpin to carve a rift between heaven and earth the milky way once a year on chinese valentine s day magpies form a bridge to allow the lovers to meet again i ve always loved this version of the literally star crossed lovers and wanted to capture the beautiful poignancy of the weaver girl zhinü waiting to be reunited with her husband the image of a flock of kind hearted magpies bridging the milky way is so evocative of the importance of community support i kept the color palette limited to mostly black and white in homage to the yin yang concept as a reflection of duality and balance in both the patience and the passion of waiting especially in this pandemic year as we wait to hug our loved ones again the silver and iridescent accents echo the sparkle of the stars and the feathers are magpie mementos that zhinü might have saved and woven into her outfit for the next year s meeting the shorter overskirt trailing gown and gauzy fabrics are modernized versions of style elements typical in chinese paintings of celestial maidens the traditionally styled hair accessories and the qipao esque collar and bolero shape bring to mind both historical and more recent chinese fashion emphasizing the timelessness of the story to give you an idea of what celestial maidens like zhinü usually look like in traditional chinese art lots of wispy fabric drifting about image source so i definitely wanted to incorporate light flowy ethereal fabrics and i wanted to have lots of starry sparkle and i wanted magpies i toyed with the idea of having a magpie leaving a trail of feathers across the dress but it didn t feel right one of my best friend s husband who is a photographer posted his photo of the milky way and the design inspiration just clicked i would do a milky way esque sprinkling of beads on a bed of velvety black night sky and the magpies would be holding this bridge between their beaks while i didn t want to make a historic chinese hanfu i did want some nods to chinese fashion elements in my costume so i decided on a little bolero with a qipao style mandarin collar and lines that echoed the double sided round ba front that s seen on some qipao especially ones worn by famous chinese politician and fashion icon madam soong mei ling aka madam chiang kai shek the qipao while seen in many westerner s eyes as a classic chinese style is actually a fairly recent fashion relatively speaking it originated in the 1920s which is practically modern in light of china s thousands of years of history i wrote a whole paper about this for my history of fashion class so i wanted to incorporate some more traditional historic elements in the costume i went with a mid length overskirt to mimic the look of a qiyao ruqun 齐腰襦裙 and full sleeves similar to the look seen here impractically full sleeves and a shorter overskirt that even has a vague hi lo thing going on image source while historic chinese clothing did not include corsets per se there are periods where very wide belts sashes kind of give a vague underbust corset look i was also inspired by the f...
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