"Portrait of a Lady" 1870's Costume | Halloween 2017

As promised in my last post, here are the photo's of my Halloween costume this year.

Yesterday I attended a Halloween gathering with my family and friends and debuted my costume. I usually tell everyone what I'm dressing up as, but this year I wanted to keep it a secret and for the first time I actually succeeded. Ha!

For lack of a better name, I'm calling this outfit "Portrait of a Lady". I'm not sure if I'm unintentionally plagiarizing something famous, or if I actually came up with an original title, but that's what kept coming to mind when I was wearing it and it seemed like an appropriate title.

 

Photo's courtesy of my sister, Sereina.

I love this concept for a costume because it can be used to turn any historical costume into a perfect Halloween costume. :D

Skirt - this is the skirt from my 1871 dress I made last year, but with the train bustled.
Blouse - cotton shirtwaist drafted by myself with a pattern from Period Costume for the Stage and Screen as a reference.
Sash - self drafted and made from an upholstery velvet.
Wig - heavily modified wig from Arda Wigs. This is my Christine Daae wig I made several years ago and I'm so glad I finally got to wear it after putting so many hours into it!
Boots - Funtasma via Amazon

This is actually a dream costume of mine. I've always loved the 1860's shirtwaists and how informal and casual it looked. The dress the skirt was original made for was less than perfect, and at one point I almost threw it out all together, but then I came up with the idea of bustling the skirt and wearing it with a shirtwaist.

I had attempted drafting a blouse several times before but it wasn't until now that I was actually able to figure it out. I'd still like to go back and make a nicer blouse and add more details to it, but I love the way this looks.

Victorian Hairstyles

As I'm getting closer to finishing my 1871 dress I've started thinking about things like accessories and hair. Earlier this year I chopped my hair off to a nice long bob, which is currently just above my shoulders. While it's technically long enough to put back in a ponytail, there's not much else I can do with it right now.

Now, it's no secret that all throughout history (but especially in the mid to late Victorian era) women used fake hair pieces. With that in mind, I've started to come up with a plan for some historically accurate hairstyles.

First off, I purchased some extra hair. It sounds kind of weird when I put it like that, but that's essentially what I did. For a while I thought about investing in some good clip in human hair extensions (the one's I was looking at were from Luxy Hair), but since it would cost between $200-300 to get a good length and thickness (I have very thick hair), I ended up with a different plan.

I purchased clip in bangs and a curly clip from Arda Wigs. Since I've purchased wigs from them before I already know that the color Spanish Brown is very, very, very close to my natural hair color. I just placed the order the other day, so I should be receiving it in about a week.

One of the limitations of using extra hair pieces, is that unless you hair is already long and you're just using it for thickness, you cannot do any sort of updo.

With that in mind, here's some of my hair inspiration. I'd like to note that some of these hairstyles are from the later 1870''s/80's (and even some 1860's). But that's okay.

Here's my plan. 

I want to do a half updo, with the hair pulled away from my face, but use the clip in bangs to do the frizzy/curly bangs (I'm not sure what that style is call or if it even has a name), and have the curly clip used in the back to create the illusion of long luscious locks.

I came across THIS tutorial while doing some Victorian hairdo research, which I think I'll use for a base and build off of. It's going take a bit of experimenting, and hair is not my strong point. So it'll be interesting to see the end result.

Mara Jade Begins

I've officially started working on my costume for May the 4th! This year I'm finally going to do Mara Jade, the one I've been posting about wanting to do for the last 2 years. I don't have a lot done of it yet, but I have got one of the most important parts for it, the wig. Mara jade isn't complete without her red hair.

Here's a picture of the wig. I opted to get one with bangs over a lace front because I didn't want to spend the time or the money on a lace front right now. Eventually I would like to get another Matilda in in red for Mara, but for now I got this wig from Epic Cosplay. It's the Hestia in Copper Red.

I want to get some better pictures soon, but that might not happen until I wear it with my Mara costume.

The particular version of Mara that I'll be doing is from the Japanese cover from the Dark Nest Trilogy. I really like this version because it's simple and just seems more like Mara's style to me than the other versions.

I started out planning on buying most of the clothing pieces with the exception of the vest, but after going shopping I realized I was doing to need pants that didn't have pockets on the back. After looking for a bit and not finding anything I decided that I'll make the pants too.

I found a tutorial with a free pattern for just plain, skinny pants HERE. I still haven't decided what kind of material to make them out of, but I'm not going to go with leather. I hate the way leather pants look, they just look cheap and tacky.

The belt and shoulder straps are going to be one of the toughest parts. Someone on the Rebel Legion forums made them with leather and polymer clay, so I'll probably end up doing something along the same lines.

Also, I'm gonna try and make her lightsaber, which will be a challenge. And I probably won't get the DL-44 blaster before May, but it's definitely something I'll be getting eventually.

So, we'll see how it goes. Right now I'm mostly focusing on my 1871 dress (which I just bought fabric for! YAY!), and then I'll work on this one more.

Also be sure to check out my wig review I did for this wig!

Things are getting hairy

I'm sorry, but most of my blog post titles relating to my wigs are probably going to have really cheesy titles.

Yesterday I got some more work done on Wiggy, my Christine Daae wig. I've been working on the hairline for a total of 3 none consecutive days so far and I'm almost half way done. When I first started ventilating I had a hard time with getting the hairs and the hook in the right positions. But I've noticed that I'm a lot better and faster now than I use to be. Practice my friends. Practice.

You may not notice it, but I traced out my hairline on the lace of my wig with a pencil one time when I had it on. I thought I was doing myself a favor, and total forgot that I had my hairline traced out on my wig head. When I tried to get rid of the pencil markings with an eraser I found that it didn't want to come out. I'm still figuring out how to take care of that, but learn from my mistake and don't use a pencil on your lace.

When I tried on the wig I noticed that the hair in the lace front didn't extent all the way down to my ears on the ends of the lace. So I have a big square inch area on both sides of the wig that I have to fill in, as you can see in this picture.

That's about it for now. My work hours are being cut back right now and I'm hoping to take that extra time to work on my sewing since I haven't had a lot of time for that lately. Hopefully I'll have some good stuff to share soon.

Let's Talk About Wigs | The Phantom Costumer

So I totally forgot to post my new video here on Friday. Oops! Well, here it is! This video is just a short one about different types of wigs. I hope it's helpful for anyone who doesn't know the difference.

Anyhoo, I also changed my YouTube name to The Phantom Costumer. My sister suggested it and I couldn't refuse. I'm still trying to decide if I should change the name of my blog to match, but I really like Adventures in Costuming. Any thoughts?

A Couple of Updates {Plus a Question for Y'all!}

Ah, where to begin. Okay, so I got a job and started on the 2nd which is great because it means I'll be making more money and will have a bigger costuming budget. The not as great part is that I work between 12 and 4, 4 days a week which takes away some of my time that I would spend on costumes.

So my costuming progress may be a little slower. Although this week I have gotten a bit done on my Christine wig! Which brings me to my next 'update'.

I took a break from working on this because I ripped out 7 wefts and replaced them with the new long wefts only to realize I stitched them in too tight making it so the wig didn't fit my head properly. So I had to rip out all 7 of the wefts and stitch them back in again.

But I got it done and that's the important part, right? I also found it's much easier to do your wefting with your wig on a wig head. Before I just held it in my hands and hair was getting all tangled and in the way. It's much easier to do it on a wig head.

The wig I got was curly and the new wefts are super straight, so when it's down it looks ridiculous! I braided it before putting it on to get a look at the length, and this is what it looks like. Sorry for the poor quality, it was dark and I didn't want to wait 'till the next day to get a picture.

The braid is almost a yard long!

I'm doing some curling tests with some left over wefts to find the best method for curling this thing, I tried putting it in foam curlers and then using the hairdryer to get it warm. But it didn't really work. So now I'm trying it with boiling water.

I also want to find out how long the curls will last. I've heard that synthetic hair will hold curls for a long time, which would be really nice! So once I find the method I like I'll be testing that.

Okay, the last thing is actually a question for all of my followers. I've been thinking for a long time about starting a costume vlog. I haven't come across anything like that before and think it would be kind of cool.

I've never done a vlog before and have thought about doing it but I don't think I would have enough to put in for my everyday life. But I would have a lot more content if it were a costume vlog because it's something I'm really passionate about.

So what do all of you think? Should I give it a go?

Rose Tyler {Mostly Completed Costume Pictures}

I promised pictures, and here they are! Whew! That was quick!

Anyways, this is my Rose Tyler Idiot's Lantern costume, which is mostly finished. I still have to sew the sequins onto the bodice, either find a new jacket or modify the one I have, finish the shoes, and make a new petticoat.

The jacket ended up being too long so I just flipped the bottom up and tucked it under. Otherwise it gave the dress a very ugly look. I also have to re-do my petticoat because when I got in the car tonight my shoe caught it and tore a decent sized hole in it. It's not a big loss though because I kinda didn't do the best job on it anyways, plus it's not expensive or anything.

Tonight when I wore it I left the hair down because I ran out of time before we had to leave. Oh, and I left my sleeves down because it was pretty cold. But the wig kept my head nice and warm. :D

Other than the shoes, I love wearing this costume!

Things I wish I knew before buying my first wig

I want to start out by saying that when I first started this post I thought I would have a lot of helpful things to say. Turns out I've only got 2 things to talk about. But I hope it's still helpful to anyone looking for their first wig.

So as you know I recently purchased my first wig for my Rose Tyler Cosplay. Before this I knew nothing about wigs. I didn't even know what a good price was. I did a bit of researching before finding Vogue Wigs which had a good selection of wigs for under $50 with good reviews, and that's where I ended up purchasing my wig from.

While the wig I got is, to me at least, a decent wig, there are a few things I've learned since that I wish I knew before. I'm going to share those things so hopefully anyone looking for their first wig can go into it with a little more knowledge than I had.

Number 1. Lace wigs, lace front wigs, and regular wigs.

While I was shopping around I heard the term "lace front wigs" and "lace wigs" a lot. I figured it meant it that the front looked nice and more realistic than plain wigs since they were more expensive. Which ended up being partially true.

Full lace wigs are basically where every stand of hair is put on by hand onto a very fine, almost tulle like material. This not only makes the wig look a lot nicer, more realistic, and easier to wear, but it also bumps the cost up a lot.

Lace front wigs are basically a normal wig where for all except for the front of the wig is just wefts of hair sewn onto the cap. The front, which usually tends to be a couple of inches wide, has the hair put on one strand at a time. Lace front wigs are cheaper than full lace wigs because they only have to do the individual strands for a much smaller portion of the wig. Which makes them a lot cheaper than full lace wigs but still on the more expensive side.

The inside of my wig. You can see the wefts sewn onto the elastic.

A regular wig, like mine pictured up above, is basically just an elastic cap with wefts of hair sewn over the hole thing. If I knew about lace front wigs before I would have liked to of gotten one instead of a wig with no lace because it would make the front hair line look a bit more realistic. Depending on the style you need your wig to be a none lace wig could work just fine. It all just depends on the style of the hair and what you want to do.

Number 2. Arda Wigs

As I mentioned before I spend a lot of time looking around for places to buy wigs. A lot of people recommended buying wigs off of e-bay, but I looked and either couldn't find a wig that looked right or was the right price. Besides, buying a wig off e-bay felt kinda weird to me.

I did end up purchasing from Vogue Wigs, but if I could do it again I would go with Arda Wigs. Not only do they have a good selection of both regular wigs and lace front wigs, but they're affordable! The company is run by Cosplayers so they know what other Cosplayers are looking for. I've read a lot of reviews and I have yet to find anyone with anything bad to say about them.

As soon as I have the money I'm going to buy their Matilda lace front wig for my Christine Daae Wishing Dress. The wig is approximately 25" long and is supposed to be nice and thick and it's heat resistant. Plus it's only $65, which is an awesome price for any lace front wig.

Arda's Matilda in Spanish Brown (050)

But because it's not quite long enough I'm also going to buy some of their long wefts which $15 for a 8 foot strip of 35 inch long strip of hair to add to it.

Arda has everything you need for wigs. They have wefts, they have lace front needles for adding more hair to your lace front wig, they have wig heads, and wefting thread. So it's basically a one stop shop for wiggery. 

I know this isn't a tone of information, but I know I would have liked to know this before purchasing my wig. Hopefully someone will benefit from this.

Custom Wig Head Tutorial!

A few weeks ago I attempted to style my wig for my Rose costume, and while it looked alright on my styrofoam wig head, it looked pretty bad once I put it one my head. It was because the wig head was so much smaller than my actual head. When I had it on you could see the wefts and in area's where it wasn't so thick you could see the brown of my actual hair.

I decided I needed to get a wig head that fit my head so I could style my wigs on it. I started watching lot's of video's on YouTube on wigs. My main focus has been on Broadway wigs, just because they're very high end and look amazing! I was surprised by how many video's I've been able to find about Broadway wigs.

I found a backstage video about the wigs from Wicked, which showed how they make the wigs for the show. You can view the video HERE. Anyways, I went and used the technique they showed in the video to customize my cheap wig head.

And thus, I present to you, the Custom Wig Head Tutorial!

This is my styrofoam head I started out with. I purchased it at Jo-Ann's for around $5.

First things first, put your hair up how you wear it when your wig is on. I just put my hair in 2 braids then cross them and pin them to my head. I also like to pin my bangs back flat on top of my head before putting my wig cap on.

For the next part you're going to need cellophane, packing tape, and scissors (if you need them).

Next I had my mom cover my head with a few layers of cellophane making sure that it went over my hair line a bit.

 After that she put a few layers of tape over top of the cellophane to get the shape of my head. Then she took a marker and traced my hairline before removing the whole thing from my head.

When that was done I placed the casting on my Styrofoam head and taped it on with more packing tape. Then I cut a slit in the back and began stuffing it with poly fill. I ended up cutting a few different slits to make sure I stuffed the entire head and tapped them up again when I was done.

 I took a few measurements of my head with the wig cap still on and measured my head as I was stuffing it to make sure the measurements were the same.

And that's it! A custom wig head that cost practically nothing! Below is the finished wig head with my wig on it.

Costume Analysis {Christine Daae}

This post is going to be a costume analysis of Christine Daae's "Wishing Dress" from the stage versions of Phantom of the Opera. I want to do a second post sharing my favorite reproductions of this dress, becuase I've found so many amazing and helpful links! But because this post contains a huge amount of photo's already, I'll save that for another day.

First off there have been so many different productions of Phantom of the Opera (which from now on I will reference as POTO) since the Original Long Cast back in 1986. Even though each production's dress is different, they are all very similar. For the most part they're all identical except for things like trims and slight differences in material.

I came across this website which has reference pictures from all the different stage versions of POTO. I went and actually printed out almost 100 pages of reference photo's at the library via this site. I've gone through all the different version to try and pick a version I like best and reproduce that one. But beucase they were all so similar I decided on just basing it on the newer US version and taking pieces from the other versions that I liked better and add them.

My research book.

Original UK version.

When I was looking through my photos I found something interesting in this photo. Along the bottom of the skirt are seven lines going around the skirt. At first I couldn't figure out what it was, but I have a theory. I believe this photo was taken during a dress rehearsal and the skirt wasn't finished yet and I believe this may may be the underskirt.

Original UK Version.

You can see there's a bit of a difference on the detail of the vest part of the bodice between the original UK and the newer UK versions.

Newer UK version.

There's a more tassels/fringe on the German version, which I personally don't care for.

Germany.

Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina.

I love the bustle on the newer US version! Isn't it gorgeous?!

Newer US Version.

Newer US version.

If you look at the center of the apron part of the dress you'll see a seam and how the fabric is angled in so the pattern creates a "V".

25th Anniversary Special

 In this one it goes straight. No seam in the center. I think this is the only version that they did that with. I think it looks better in the other versions myself.

I believe this is from the newer US version, but I'm not sure.

Australian version.

 This is a great view of the skirt without the train. To save fabric they used their lining fabric on the part of the skirt that's covered by the over skirt/apron. Definitely a good thing to know!

Not sure which production.

Here's my list of the things that are difference in the various productions and which versions I will be using as a reference.

Collar and Cuffs Details - Newer UK

Neckline - Newer US

Apron - Original UK or 25th Anniversary version.

Bustle - Newer US

Wig - Newer US, Germany, or 25th Anniversary

Now lets talk patterns. I've searched high and low for decent patterns for dresses from around the period. Here's what I found.

For the corset I'm planning on using Truly Victorian 1880's Corset. For the petticoat I'll be using either Truly Victorian's 1870's Petticoat, or their Victorian Petticoat. I'm still undecided. And I still haven't figured out what I'm going to use for the bustle, but I'll probably keep it simple and just use a bustle pillow pad. I'll figure that out once I made the mock up.

For the bodice I decided to go with Truly Victorian's Ladies 1880's Dinner Bodice, which I purchased on Ebay since I couldn't find it on the Truly Victorian website. It'll need a bit of modification on the front, but it's the closest pattern I've found.

I still haven't found anything for the skirt. If I have to I'll draft my own pattern. And for the over skirt/apron I think I'm just going to draft it myself.

And the bustle. I've heard the style of bustle/train called a waterfall bustle, but I haven't been able to find any patterns or tutorials on how to make it. If anyone knows of anything even remotely similar, I would love to hear from you!

Shoes. I would love to purchase American Duchess's Tavistock boots. I've wanted a pair of these since she first announced she was working on them! But I doubt I'll be able to afford them so I'm going to be keeping an eye out in stores and places like Ebay for something suitable.

The hair. Oh gosh. To get a wig that long is going to be hard! I haven't done much shopping around yet, so I can't say what I'm going to do yet.