Crinoline Construction, Let’s make Simplicity 9764

I’ve been planing to start on this costume for how long now? I’m hoping to make and shoot a 1860’s ballgown all before university starts, is it ambitious? Yes but I’ve made a start!

The pattern we’re using is Simplicity 9764 which is apart of the fashion historian collection. It’s an eleven hoop crinoline making it perfect for historical dress and cosplay!

I believe this pattern is currently out of print (no worries as it’s frequently rebranded and sold under new names) so the best place to get one is online. Places like EBay and Amazon are great places to look. I got mine on EBay for £15, unopened. I highly suggest you try and find unopened ones as you can never fully trust how well others look after their used patterns!

Materials you’ll need.

All of this is stated on the packet but here’s a quick run down.

•4m of a medium/heavy weight material. I used bleached Calico.

•24 of twill tape. This is what will be used to create the boning channels.

•27m of 12mm wide plastic covered steel boning. (I used 10mm because I couldn’t find 12mm where the shipping wasn’t insane, it makes no difference)

•Hooks and Eyes.

•Disappearing ink pen (Also know as friction/fabric pens)

•Thread (lots of it!)

•Fabric scissors

•Top stitching thread in contrasting colour

•Top stitching thread in white

•Tape measure

•Heavy duty Duct Tape

•Wire cutters

And of course a trusty sewing machine.The crinoline is made up of five pattern pieces. The waistband and the skirt panels.

The pattern pieces are quite large so give yourself some room and cut them out.
I like to iron my pattern after cutting them out, this makes sure they’re flat with no creases.

Then pin your patterns to the fabric and cut them out!

MAKE SURE YOU TRANSFER THE BONING CHANNEL LINES OVER TO YOUR FABRIC BEFORE CUTTING!!!
I cut my fabric out before transferring the lines over and it was a pain to re-pin them and then trace the lines out. Make sure to use your disappearing ink pen for this!

Also check out my sweet purple fabric scissors. My last pair of scissors died cutting adhesive velcro, RIP.

Once all of the pieces are cut out sew them together making sure to take notice of the seam that’s finished with a narrow hem.
It makes a hella nice cloak when all the seams are sewn.

Back to the narrow hem! This my first time sewing one and although the sewing pattern does explain how to sew one it confused me. I decided to look up a tutorial and found This Tutorialwhich is super helpful and simplifies it down with lots of pictures!

They’re pretty simple, once you know what you’re doing!

This will become the opening for the crinoline.
Next up is the waistband and gathering the top edge. Straight away I’m going to say cut the waistband pattern from the petticoat (apart of the same pattern pack) and double the fabric. The waistband intended for the crinoline is tiny and and just a genuine pain in the ass. I tried following the pattern using the original waistband and it was too small, came apart and didn’t even look like a waistband. I just didn’t work for me, I probably did something wrong but I found the petticoat pattern to be a great alternative.

///Note: I changed the waistbands over after completing the crinoline///

The next step is to gather the skirt up. Now the instructions say to use a long machine stitch with a heavy thread.
Basically two lines of basting stitches using top stitching thread. Make sure to use a contrasting coloured thread.
Now when I did this and stated gathering it all up and the top stitching thread snapped. And I’d used both a bobbin and a spool of top stitching thread so it should have been secure as hell. I brushed it off and thought it just twisted it accidentally which made the thread more brittle. So I sewed the lines of stitching again and it snapped again…
So I decided it would be easier and more reliable to hand sew the gathers myself. This surprisingly wasn’t as time consuming as I thought it would be!

Once all of the gathering is in place and it’s gathered to your waist band size. Sew the waist band on!

The bottom edge is hemmed and this creates the bottom two boning channels.

The others are created with the twill tape.
This is the time consuming part! Yay!
On the WRONG side starting from the back seam pin the twill tape centred over the lines you drew to indicate the boning channel all the way round the crinoline leaving at least an inch over lap when you get back to where you started. Make sure to leave a three inch opening so you can insert the boning later!

I highly recommend doing one at a time it’s a lot easier to manage and if you’re like me you won’t have enough (good🙃straight🙃long) pins to do more than one at a time!
Once the twill tape is pinned in place sew it on either side of the tape as close to the edge as possible.

Then repeat that nine times and try not to lose your mind.
But if you do, that’s okay.
We have a weekly sessions you can attended. This week we have a box of kittens to cheer everyone up after we talk about our feelings.

It took me around 11 hours to sew the boning channels in (with breaks).

It looks so pretty and drapy ahhh. The next day I started on inserting the boning into the channels. I got my boning from Sew Curvy Sew Curvy is run by a really lovely team and I recommend buying from them!

Onto the hoops!You’ll need your wire cutters now!
Steel boning is pretty sharp even with the plastic covering. The sharp edges are sharp enough to pierce the twill tape and your base fabric so it’s best to cover them up! This also makes inserting it a lot easier as it won’t snag on anything. You can get caps to put on the end of boning but heavy duty duct tape works just as well!

The instructions does have a chart to indicate how long each hoop should be,
But I wanted quite a full crinoline so I just inserted the bonging while still on the roll and cut it to size once it made the full circle. Do what ever you feel most comfortable with🤷🏼‍♀

Before inserting the boning I covered the end with the duct tape. I’d cut of a section wider then the boning and tape half of it to the boning.
Then fold it over and press the sides where the tape meets. And then cut the excess off the sides. And it’s ready to be inserted into a channel!

It’s pretty simple to guide the boning around the channel just be carful where any seams are. When the end meets itself again leave about an inch of overlap. Then tape the end you just cut and bind the two ends together using the tape. You should have some overlapping twill tape as well so pin that over the hole you left for the boning and hand sew in place.

Repeat this eleven times!
Once you’re finished inserting the boning and sewing the channels closed there are just a few things left to do.

You’ll need to sew sets of hook and eyes down the opening and to the waistband to create the closure.

And three laces needed to be sewn on the inside to each of the top three hoops. This will pull the front of the crinoline towards you more and push the back outwards for the 1860’s silhouette. This is of course optional if that’s not the look you’re going for!

Here’s a picture from the instructions to explain the process better!

And with that you’re done! You have your very own eleven hoop crinoline perfect for any princess occasion!!

I’m making the petticoat and corset to go along with the crinoline so look out for future posts on those patterns!

This was a lot of fun to make and was very different from the regular store bought patterns I usually follow. I’m super happy with the outcome of this and I’m so excited to get a dress over it. I’ve just got this costume and my Nightingale Armour to make before I leave for University I really don’t want to be stressing myself too much before then because I’m sure I have a lot to make when course starts. I think my worst nightmare at this point will be my dress form not fitting in my room!

Thank you for reading,
-Nivera

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Ana (Overwatch) Work-log 3 FINAL

Hi everyone! I’m back with the final construction post for my Ana Amari cosplay from Overwatch!! If you follow me on social media or read my last post you’ll know I finished this cosplay over three weeks ago but I’m only getting round to completing my work logs now.. Whoops!

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I started on the Biotic grenades, at first I wasn’t sure how I’d make the the middle sphere but remember we had a bunch of old Christmas decoration left over in a box to be binned and after rummaging through there I found two baubles which were the perfect size. They had some sort of silk covering on them but this was super easy to remove with the help of my craft knife.

Next I made four tubes which were capped at the top. This was my first time using contact cement and I was still getting used to waiting for it to ‘dry’ before adhering it to its self. This made things difficult as I kept trying to adhere the glue to itself while it was still wet, failing miserably. I did get there in the end!

They looked a little something like this when done!

Next I started on Ana’s shoes

WHAT ARE THOSE ?!?!
I decided to simplify the design down a bit because at this point I had a week to make this costume and time was running out!
I bought a pair of skuffs from Primark for £3.

Which I painted black all over, not including the soles.

I then painted the sides of them brown.
I then patterned the top grey piece and glued that on with contact cement and my feet were good to to! The shoe pattern was really simple and curved over the band perfectly, the inner curves of the dremeled inwards to give a slanted look to them. You can see that in the following pictures.

The below pic was taken after con so they look a little battle worn..!

Next was Ana’s knee pads. When I first looked at these I thought I was going to mess them up so bad.

I started by wrapping my knee in plastic wrap and duct tape and drawing the design/shape on. I cut this out and made a few adjustments like evening things out and making things smoother. As I had only patterned half the kneee pad I put the plastic wrap/tape pattern on a piece of paper folded and cut the pattern out.

I tested it as a mock up and the size and shape was great so I went ahead and cut it from 5mm foam and dremeled the tops of each piece at and angle. I then glued the two pieces together cut some smaller detail pieces out from 2mm foam and glued those on and it was done! After painting of course.

I really love how these came out! They look very accurate when worn and the shape and size is just perfect!

The shoulder armour was a pain to make, I tried to make them twice before I was successful on the third time.
The first time I was using a yoga mat as a base, this was before I switched over to the dense foam from CosplayShop. The yoga mat was just too thin and was damaged easily because there was nothing to it. I literally found I couldn’t firmly hold it or my fingerprints would imprint on the foam…

They looked terrible!!! But to be fair my pattern wasn’t the best.
The second Attempt was made from CosplayShop foam with a slightly altered previous pattern. I mostly made them larger but kept the split (fold) the same.

I did end up painting them but I just hated them, they were too big and the shape was all wrong again. These got binned and I started on my third and final attempt.

I don’t have progress photos of the third build I think at this point I had three days before con so it was rushed! I have included a photo of what the foam shapes look like as it can be a little difficult to see with paint covering seams.

I made a stencil to help with painting the Overwatch logo on by printing out a picture scaled to size. I then cut the interior of the OW log out, pinned it to the foam in the position I wanted it and used a paint pen to trace the design onto the foam. From there I painted it a light grey.

I used industrial velcro on the underside of the shoulder piece just at the top and then along the top seam line connecting the sleeve to the coat.

The Nano Boost was pretty simple to make.

I decided the easiest way to build it would be starting with the vial and the building up around it. The ‘vial’ is another broom handle the same featured in my Biotic Rifle construction log from B&Q.
Again this was a week before con crunch going on so I only have worn photos and a finished photo.

Nothing was dremeled for this prop just glued directly onto the broom handle. I did shape the black pieces to be curved before gluing them on but I ended up gluing elastic to each end which curved them anyway. the darker blue piece was clipped to curve the way it does which you can totally see! No gap filler at all… And the silver piece was slapped on top of that. What about the needle I hear you asking? That was made with the end of a paint brush

It was hot glued into place, contact cement didn’t like it for some reason. Its not in the above picture because it slowly became extremely loose during the con (ITS ACTUALLY SO IMPRACTICAL THOUGH, I HAD TO BE SUPER CARFUL MOVING MY HAND NOT TO KNOCK IT). It did stay on all day, I honestly expected it to come off without me realising and I’d loose it but that didn’t happen. I ended up taking it off on the tube home for safe keeping.
It looked good in photos though!

That was my first official full test I was so happy!

The shoulder bag was really simple too!
I drew up a simple rectangular box pattern Similar to this one! I didn’t use the tabs instead going for pinched seams. Tabs are for wussies.

I cut the pattern out of my dark brown cotton fabric and pinch seam sewed it together with whip stitches. I found immediately that it wouldn’t hold its shape and collapsed. Using the template again I cut interfacing for it and send it together using the same technique. I then sewed this into the bag with whip stitches and it finally held its own shape. The interfacing it used was quite think and more on the ‘heavy’ scale of interfacing but if I did it again I’d use curtain interfacing, its like the industrial velcro of interfacing. Amazing.

I then sewed two tabs onto the lip of the bag these snapped down with domed creating a closure. But I was going to be keeping my phone and money in here so for extra security measures I sewed some velcro onto the inside of the lip as well. But I only had the adhesive kind of velcro left over so THAT was a pain in the ass to sew by hand. (I hand sewed it because it wasn’t adhering that well to the cotton) I know you not suppose to sew adhesive velcro but damn the glue they use it thick. If you are in this position and have to use that velcro make sure the needle your using isn’t a nice one. because I had to throw mine out it was covered in that much gunk…

The strap for the bag was also super easy to make and you’ll notice the Biotic grenades attach onto it as well, seamlessly.
Time of poor MS Paint drawings!

I feel like I have to make a key for this one its not one of my regular masterpieces. The blue lines at the end mean thats where one end is sewn to another so thats the bag being sewn to the other end of the strap which creates a loop to go over you body and will hold in place. For the main strap (light brown) I cut two pieces of fabric out in that shape, I then sewed these pieces together along the top and bottom leaving the ends open. This was so I could flip it inside out and poke the middle chunk out. I then ironed it flat. The four red dots represent where I sewed domes onto the fabric the dome pair was then glued onto the Biotic Grenades which allowed them to to be attached and un attached. This was super helpful for trading as I didn’t want them getting squished.
Heres a close up of the domes I did post this earlier but this will make it a little bit more understandable.

The eye patch was another really simple part of the costume.

The light grey is 2mm foam with a large hole cut from the centre of it but leaving enough space for the top black piece to be glued on top. The black piece was made from 5mm foam and had holes dreamed into it, they’re not that well aligned I know! This was mostly covered by her fringe so its okay! One corner was painted blue. The strap is 1cm faux leather vinyl which was painted black and contact cemented into place. It actually stayed on really well, I did plan on using spirt gum to glue it to my face but as it was really hot and from a short distance the slight gap between my eye and the eye patch wasn’t noticeable. For my shoot with this costume I will use spirt gum.

 

Also while you can see it in the above photos, I remade the collar. I used the same pattern I jut made it a little wider in places and put curtain interfacing in it. I also sewed down the top of it to make it curve over and it worked out pretty well. I’m not 100% satisfied with it but its such an improvement on the last tiny, flat one.

And while we’re looking at this photo lets talk about the little ‘armour’? pieces on her coat.
What are they? What purpose do they serve? We will never know.
The smaller ones (shape like fat squished coffins) were just 2mm foam layered. The centre back on was made from two layers of 5mm foam the top layer had the centre cut out where a smaller shape was glue in place. These were held in place with you guessed it industrial velcro.

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Wig and makeup

The wig I used is Amber Classic Pure White (Arda Wigs). Which does have waves though it. I would have bought Buttercup Silky Pure White (Arda Wigs) but it was out of stock at the time and the restock wouldn’t happen in time. Buttercup is a straight wig.

For her Eye of Horus tattoo I used FM Anime Ana Temporary Tattoo I ordered five of these and I was sent six! If you do buy from FM Anime please order in advance, these took three weeks to get to me causing some stress! They are fantastic and are a perfect size, I can’t fault them at all!

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And thats everything, I think! If I have missed anything I’ll edit it in later. I was planning a pattern post but as I’ve already found people have taken photos from my blog and re posted them without credit I’m not too keen now 😦 Also the amount of questions/comments I get sent asking about or for something when its clearly stated in either the post they comment on or a related post is getting on my nerves. I don’t spend hours typing this all up just to repeat myself in the comments, if I haven’t explained something as best I could or somethings missing them I’m more than happy to help and answer questions and update my post with that info.
Please read my posts 🙂

I will have another blog post up with photos from MCM at some point so look out for those! I have another convention coming up this month with a new costume for that as for other costumes this we’ll just see what gets done! I’m moving to London in September and starting my course at the end of the month so making things in between then could get hectic. I am slowly making the undergarments for my 1860’s ballgown but I don’t think that will get done before I move… Sorry mum! And because its mid year I’m starting to think about next years projects which doesn’t help with this years projects motivation!

Weekly posts have failed again this year but maybe next year I will complete my dream of running a consistent blog.
I’ll see you guys in the next one~

Thank you for reading
-Nivera