
Edith Cushing – Crimson Peak
Made for: Megacon 2016
Background: After we saw the movie I promised my husband I didn’t want to make any of the costumes from it… until I changed my mind, haha.
Journal Entries: Read more at my Edith tag
Related Costumes: Tinkerbell
- White Backdrop
- White Backdrop
- White Backdrop
- 2016 Photoshoot
- 2016 Photoshoot
- 2016 Photoshoot
- Megacon 2016
- 2016 Photoshoot
Patterns Used:
Simplicity 4156 (sleeves), Butterick 5970 (yoke base)
Nightgown:
I put this project off for months; I was initially going to do it for MidSouthCon in 2016, but decided to do Disgust instead, and pushed Edith back to Megacon. I didn’t get a start on it til late April!
I decided to use a silk crepe de chine for the nightgown, with a white cotton as a base for the yoke. I started out by using the yoke/collar segment of Butterick 5970 – I used this as the base to build the rest of the costume off of. Next up, I used the sleeve pattern for Simplicity 4156 for the upper and lower sleeves. The pattern for the upper sleeve called for a second layer of netting to help the sleeve stand out, so I followed those instructions and was pretty happy with the result. I changed the lower sleeve a bit, making them longer, and I ran a gathering stitch up each seam to keep them the length they needed to be. I bought some lace at Joanns for the edging, and added the pearl buttons.
For the collar/yoke, I took 4 long segments of my fabric and cartridge pleated them. Once I had all 4 pieces made (2 back, 2 front) and fashioned into the shape I needed, I sewed them all together, then sewed them down onto the cotton base. I had made them a little long, so once it was sewn in place and gathered the way I wanted, I trimmed the edge of the excess ruffles to the right length. It closes via a hidden piece of white snap tape – the pearl buttons are just for show.
The rest of the nightgown I made using the remainder of my fabric, it is 6 panels, sewn together and cartridge pleated at the top, then sewn in place onto the edge of the cotton yoke. I left the train long when I hemmed it, and added a wrist loop so I could easily carry it when walking.
For the clay staining at the bottom of the hem, I used a mix of scarlet, brown and dark green dye. Unfortunately I did not think to ask my husband for assistance, which I usually do when dyeing something this large, and as a result, it “got away from me.” I got the fabric further down in the dye than I planned, and ended up with the “staining” coming way too far up. I tried a few different things to knock it down – dye remover, stain remover, bleach (eek), but nothing worked, except for making it look more yellow (ew). I didn’t really have time to keep messing with it, so I made the difficult decision to scrap it, and start over on that section with new fabric. (It really hurt, because I actually REALLY LIKED how the first version looked and still do. It was just too high and I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it in the end.)
So I ordered another 8 yrds of fabric, quick remade the panels, repleated, rehemmed and reattached. This time I had my husband holding the upper part of the dress up while I focused on getting the dye on the way I wanted at the hem. I was probably a little too hesitant this time around, being gun-shy from the first time around, and probably should have done a second round to get it a little darker. Oh well, I can always go back and do that later.
For the weathering, I used a mix of fabric paint and dye. I started out by dabbing the dark red/brown blood stains on the sleeves/collar using the fabric paint on a wadded up paper towel and a small paintbrush. Then I watered the paint down and did some more application with the paper towel. Finally I used some different mixes and dilutions of scarlet, brown and pearl grey dye to stain the sleeves and create some weathering on the collar and down the front. A lot of it washes out in photos, but I love the way it looks in person.
Finally, the last thing I did was to press the pleats in. That was boring and took forever and I don’t want to do it again ever.
Accessories:
I had some leftover nude spandex from another project, so I used that to make a very quick leotard (no finished edges or anything!) to wear underneath this. The nightgown can be kinda sheer when backlit or moving, and I wanted to preserve that, so a leotard seemed the best way to go.
I initially wanted to use some prosthetics to create the face wounds – I bought some basic ones, then in my test runs had a lot of trouble getting them to work well. I could not get the edges to blend with my skin and the edges kept wrinkling up when I talked. I decided to forego it and just use some FX blood instead — unfortunately I ended up buying the kind that doesn’t dry, which wouldn’t work with my wig! I ended up painting it on with some red latex, which worked fine, dried quickly and came off easily without irritating my skin. Yay!
I did not want to have to wear makeup on my hands and have to worry about it transferring to everything I touched – so I took some of the nude spandex, made a quick pair of gloves, and weathered them with fabric paint. (Although, for the location photoshoot in the pics above, I did paint my hands for that since I’d be washing them off right after we were done.)
I was going to try to make some nude shoes, but much like the wound prosthetics I got lazy and ended up just wearing my pink suede flats from Disgust. I wore some little nude shoe liners with them, so for photos I took the pink shoes off and used the shoe liners instead.
The wig is an Arda “Arwen”, it’s really lovely. It was the first thing I bought for this costume — I had some money squirreled away from some Halloween sells, so I used that to buy my wig as soon as I decided to do it. It sat in its’ original bag until I opened it to put it on for the first time at Megacon in May!
History:
I was really pleased with this, it was very very comfortable to wear. There’s a few things I’ve love to fix – I’m not super happy with how the pleating at the collar kinda collapses on itself, so I’d love to redo that one day, but honestly I think it’s more likely for me to make a new Edith costume at this point (the yellow Nancy Drew dress!) than to revisit this one again.





























Please note that none of these costumes are for sale! This is my personal portfolio.