Everybody who knows me knows I’ve been wanting to do this costume for some time LOL
I went into this thinking, oh, it’ll be quick! Haha, yeah right.
Started out with just a basic white robe first. Lined the sleeves with white satin. Then it was time to stamp.
I never did figure out *exactly* what the pattern was on the real thing – I ended up going with a square of 16 gold dots. Originally I was going to make a stamp of each square, but couldn’t get it to look right – so I ended up doing each dot individually.
I have no idea how much time I spent stamping. I know I went through every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus twice – though occasionally I was working on other things. I did end up taking it to work with me a few times and stamping during lunch and when I wasnt doing anything else.
You can barely see them in photos but I’m so glad I did them all. It was tedious, but I like tedious work LOL
I went through about 8 gold stamp pads. The black diamond between each square I did by finding a real stamp that was a square and cutting it down. That part was easy!
I didn’t get the shape of the black appliques exact, ah well. That was towards the end of finishing everything and I was just trying to get everything done as quickly as possible by that point, so I could focus on Beast.
I lucked out with the under dress. In 2004 when I was making version 2 Leia, I got started on it and made a dress far enough to the point that all it was missing was a closure at the back and sleeves. Then I decided I didn’t like the fabric or the pattern I’d used, so I scrapped it and started over. I still had that first robe – all I had to do was add the sleeves, put some velcro in the back and raise the hem a bit. Yay, under dress.
Shoes were just those old black flats… I have trouble keeping them on my feet. When I fell down on stage, one of them actually came off. LOL I should have kicked it a little and sent it flying.
The bracelets were just black beads strung together. The neck piece was actually something my grandmother gave me years ago (just in case I ever needed it for a costume) – it came in handy! I just tied it up differently and ta-da. The long pieces hanging down under the outer robe were black beads strung together, again.
I really kinda chickened out with the weathering, though. I did several layers of brown, with some black, dye. Some paint. Some gold rub-n-buff LOL. I really needed to get some BLACK on there, but my dots were starting to disappear, and I didn’t want that, so I stopped. I may go back and get some good black in there before Celebration next year (which ever one I go to..)
Chase helped with my makeup 😉
The wig was so much fun… because I totally ruined that wig. I got to do everything to that poor thing that would have been BAD on a “normal” wig… but with this one, the more damage the better! I had gotten a brown wig with my mannequin that I didnt need, so that was the base. I made two pieces out of foam, covered them in hair, and wired them in. The round piece in the center was a heavy cardboard tube I had, spray painted bronze (my bronze spray paint is messed up, too, so it came out really chunky and bad, which just Idelighted/I me) – and I found some thin rope-like gold trim that I added onto it for some texture. Then more hair on top of that, including some brown curly-cue doll hair leftover from hobbit feet on top. Then the real wig hair was wrapped around it… lots of hair spray, lots of heat, lots of glue… it was so fun. And the best part, every bit of this wig was stuff I already had laying around. No extra cost 🙂
I really had wanted Chase to carry me onstage at the MOTF contest, but with his back he couldn’t do that. I thought that would be hilarious.
I wish I could have stuck around afterwards, but as soon as it was over I bolted because I hadn’t had anything but half a reese’s all day, and I was starving!
See? I died of starvation while waiting.