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| the only photo I took while wearing the costume, but missing the pointy ears (I wore Lum's ears), and the hoop earrings |
I'm writing a final post, to talk about some smaller details I took photos of, I didn't want to include in the other posts, since I adopted this costume piece by piece post format now.
First, the leg ribbons. I initially didn't order enough ribbon for the braid bows, and the legs, so I went to my local Chinese bazar and got extra grosgrain ribbon, and, for Festa do Japão em Lisboa, I wore the alternative grosgrain. I ordered an extra length of velvet ribbon, which I then wore for Fórum Fantástico. The stick glue held on very well both times, even in the swealteing heat. Great! Just the velvet ribbon left a bit of residue on my legs, and I haven't checked if it's damaged yet. I hope not. Need to wash them.
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| the pendant's inside |
I wasn't planning on making the inside of the pendant just yet, but I had all the materials and, when I needed to wind down a bit, I made it in short stages.
I first traced the opening on a piece of paper, cut it, and adjusted it to fit the inside. Then I traced it onto a piece of cereal box cardboard, and cut it. Tested the fit, and when it was OK, I painted it with acrylic paint. As I don't have a pink, directly from the tube, I mixed a bit of crimson with white, and it was fine. I really didn't want to go downtown to buy a paint tube, to paint 4cm² of cardboard. Then, also because I temporarily didn't have Affinity Design installed, and wasn't in the mood to walk 30 mins to have a small design printed, I traced the gold design from an anime image of the pendant, and adapted it to the heart pattern I had traced before.
I chose a red ruby heart from my stash, to make the inside heart, and used some of the transparent crystals I bought for this (and many future crafts), to finalise the design. I traced the outer heart shape and the swirls, to a separate piece of paper, and carbon copied them to the back of a scrap of gold mirror vinyl (from Mimikyu's eyes). I patiently cut the swirls and the heart. I glued the ruby heart and the small crystals with superglue to the gold vinyl heart, but it didn't look convincing enough. There is a visible line around the gold heart shape in the anime design, so I cut a small length of thin gold wire from my stash, and shaped and glued it to the heart shape. I calculated the position by eye, took the backing off the gold vinyl, and glued it to the pink heart. Finally, with thin tweezers, I took the backing off the gold swirls, and postioned them in the pink heart, pressing to glue them on. The final step, before gluing the heart inside the pendant, with UHU glue, was to add a layer of glossy varnish, to set everything. Now my chocolat can catch her hearts!
As I said in a previous post, the hat doesn't fit properly on top of the wig. While my own hair is longer, I need to find another way to pin it to my head, so it doesn't add more bulk to my head, at least around the rim of the hat crown. I also think I will add a very thin wire to the hat's brim, so it stays in place, as it's quite floppy right now. Maybe, maaaaybe, if I find a similar cheap hat, in plain straw colour, I'll buy it for Chocolat. The same for the basket, if I ever find one of that style basket bags, which is a very 70's design and quite hard to find nowadays, for a good price, then I'll think more seriously about getting a new hat.
Since I first styled the wig, I changed how I pin the bangs, pinning them to the top, not to the sides, more like Chocolat herself usually wears. When I first wore this costume, I didn't wear the pointy ears, as I thought they wouldn't be visible, under the hat and wig. But I already have Lum's ears, so I wore them the second time around, and will wear them in the future. It's more fun! The ear hoops are comfortable and stay secure, but I need to take them off after some hours, I have sensitive ear lobes.
I think I will try to widen the sandal front straps a bit with the heat gun, they're comfortable, but I'd like for them not to be so snug.
Overall, I loved making and wearing this costume, it's probably one of those where I fell most comfortable wearing. Need to stop being antisocial, and have some decent photos taken.
I hereby declare the Chocolat - Picnic Dress FINISHED!
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