Hippolyta build

I fell in love with this costume back in October I think it was, and told Chase I wanted to do it for MidSouthCon. I started working on stuff back in January, and when I needed a break from Enchantress I’d go back to work on Hippolyta.

Beginning work on Hippolyta! I made a halter top out of some red chiffon. This will be worn underneath everything else. Also got the cape hemmed and put together at the neck!Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

I started out with a halter top made of the chiffon, and a fairly simple cape.

The armor piece for Hippolyta are really specific, so we are sculpting a lot of it. Here's a start of the chestpiece.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

Chase sculpted the chest armor, shoulder pieces and gauntlets. Here’s the chest armor sculpt on my bodyform.

The skirt I'm making out of cut strips of leather. Here they are after a first round of leather dye.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

I cut the skirt pieces out of leather and dyed them blue. This was after the first round of dye.

For the bodice, I've made this basic black cotton piece that everything else will build off of.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

I made a simple bodice out of cotton to serve as the base for everything. I like the jaunty tied-on cape in this picture.

I made a waist-wrap out of the rest of the red chiffon I used for the halter top, and added some gold trim I bought online to the edge. For the bodice, I've made an outer layer out of silver leather. I'm experimenting with ways to do the design on it.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

The silver leather I bought online, and the piece was much smaller than I anticipated, so I had to be creative to get all of my bodice panels cut out of it. I ended up making it as an underbust to save space, since the chestpiece will be covering the top section anyway. I was initially going to cut the design into the leather and let the black under-bodice show through, but it presented too many problems. Then I started to embroider it, but it looked too harsh, so I undid it and just drew the design on. I may go back and embroider it again later with a lighter shade than what I was using – I hand-sewed it to the base so it’s fairly easy to cut off and rework later. The pieces are just pinned onto the bodice at this point.
The waist wrap was more red chiffon, with some trim on the bottom.

Mold of the Hippolyta chestpiece.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

Mold of the Hippolyta eagle shoulder pieces.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

Molds!! Chestpiece & shoulder eagles. I didn’t take a pic of the gauntlet mold.

I'm doing the detailing on the skirt pieces! The lower pieces are leftover leather from the bodice, with some gold leather edging around the sides. I painted the designs on the silver segments. The stars are all wooden stars, painted and glued in place.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

Skirt pieces. Finished! I’m not totally happy with the stars I ended up, but for some reason there were not many “star” options at Hobby Lobby. What’s up with that? Anyway, they’re easy to pop off at a later date if I find something to replace them with. These are what have given me the most frustration, because I started doing the detail at the bottom one way – then another way – then another way, and none of them worked (they all looked crappy, actually.) This is what I ended up with that I’m at least not embarrassed of.

Jewelry!The necklace is made of some blank gold charms I attached red "jewels" to, strung onto a piece of leather. The brooch is a found piece I painted gold, and also attached a jewel and a pinback.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

I freaking hate making jewelry pieces. But the brooch ended up really nice – I’m really pleased with it. The necklace pieces are ok, I got some of the jewels off center, but I can live with it.

Sandals. I bought these online and added the "lacing" detail to the front.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

Shoes. They’re about 75% done here.

Cape is done, jewelry is done, bodice is done except putting some velcro on to hold the chestpiece in place.For now I've painted the designs onto the silver part of the corset. I'd like to go back and do it a different way soon.The belt is a strip of gold belting, and I cut squares off and glued them on to create the segmented look.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr  | Instagram

silver leather is now attached. It sits much less-wrinkly on me. Belt is finished, and the edging on the bottom of the corset is finished.

Tonight, I’ve got to make a hairband, put a back on the brooch, make the support system for the shoulder pieces, put velcro on the bodice for the chestpiece, make a piece to put on the knot of the waist wrap, hem the white arm wrap thing, finish shoes. Chase is casting all of my pieces and painting them, and making the tiara. I’m going to make a list and just start knocking it out. If I have one or two little things left, I can knock them out tomorrow, since I’m off work tomorrow – but I’m hoping to spend the day getting other costumes together, since I haven’t had time to do that yet.