Tiger Lily's Threads

As mentioned before in my last post I'm getting started on my Perona cosplay early for Anime USA. For the dress's construction, I made the bodice out of a corset pattern, and added a zipper in the back and a large ruffle on the bottom to act as the top skirt tier for the dress. For the next couple of tiers I had to do some brainstorming, because if I continued to sew all 4 tiers to the bodice, the weight alone would cause it to slide down. Now there is the option of sewing clear bra straps to the bodice, but at the same time they're not really something that I'm fond of. With that being said, I grabbed the next color, the orchid/lavender, and used an elastic waistband and made a skirt. This would relieve the extra gravity off of the bodice, and focus on the hips. As I worked my way down each tier, I did have a few mishaps such as making the ruffles; with all of the fabric being seriously heavy on my little sewing machine, it would unravel and I'd have...

I know this is a little early, but Anime USA 15 is coming up in the last weekend of October- which means HALLOWEEN! And just for that perfect spooky theme, I picked my favorite Gothic Lolita/Pirate, Perona the Ghost Princess. To get started, I got all of the reference photos I could get my hands on via Internet and did some research. Such as whether or not it should be one huge piece or in just two pieces, what type of fabric would work best, etc. Eventually, I came to the decision of making it into two pieces so that way the weight of the dress won't pull down on me when I wear it. As far as what type of fabrics to use, it turned out that cotton quilting fabric was perfect. Another thing that I had to consider, was the pattern. Initially, I don't have a pattern for this type of dress so I had to get creative. I pulled out some old corset patterns I had laying around and played around with some ideas such as adding a small skirt to the bodice itself and probably use a zippe...