Daphne - 70s Style!

So my much-loved Scooby Gang was one of my most popular costumes of last year. Considering Shaggy & Velma put their kit together for a drunken night out, Daphne was put together in 2 hours by me on the morning of our first event as a group and Fred bought his kit on eBay, it goes to show that time spent does not equal popularity in the cosplay game!

So having said all that, this year Fred and I decided that since we were Fred & Daphne-ing during the day at the SciFi Weekender that we'd have a night out as well, and of course that means new outfits. 70s outfits!

I loved the dance scene at the end of the second live action movie and wanted to do something along those lines, with a classic Daphne look to it. 

I decided to go with a flared sleeve, a draped bodice and short skirt. I really like Gellar's sash, so decided to incorporate that into the dress as a belt and sash, in an accent colour. The belt was also shaped in an assymmetric curve. There are certain things I favour in design, skirts that are longer in the back for example, and that is one of those things.

 

This was my colour palette - The purple was found on a shopping trip in London. It was a two-tone glittery fabric with a pink shine to it that was completely perfect for what I was going for! I lined the bodice with purple dress lining.

The sequin fabric was a pink/lilac found on eBay.

  

Daphne is always very fashion-y, if that's even a word! I wanted this outfit to be well accessorised but practical for dancing. For the life of me, I can't remember what bra I wore underneath this, but I'm fairly certain the dress was fixed to it. I wore pink hold ups, which had a really nice weight and colour to them. The shoes were purple/pink paisley Irregular Choice Cortesan shoes and were goddamned perfect!! The heel was low enough to dance in and the flowers were a beautiful little detail. I found a pink sequinned clutch as well.

I knew I was going to use my regular Daphne wig. I am absurdly proud of it, as it was one of the first that I'd really gone to town on, and I love it. So I sparkled it up with a headband in the belt fabric.

I had two options for a necklace. It needed something, as the dress is cut so low, and my original thought was a beaded choker. When the thing arrived though it was massive, it could actually lap my neck twice! So I bought a chiffon scarf in the same green as Daphne's, wrapped it with the choker so the large beaded chunk looked like a pin, and went with that. It created a really nice line, in keeping with Classic Daphne.

The makeup for this was done by my gorgeous friend Heidi! It was quite a clean look for my skin, then heavy metallic green eyes and lips in a vaguely Studio 54 style. When I redo this outfit (and I will!) I'll get a better shot of the style.

I also bought a cheap faux fur cape in purple that turned out to be the best idea ever. It was really easy to throw on and set everything off really well! Here you can also see my big, chunky ring, a birthday present from my friend Jessica that turned out to be perfect for this -

 

Freddles wore mostly the same kit as regular Fred, with an amazing blue paisley shirt. In classic Posh Twat style the white jumper was draped over his shoulders when he wasn't wearing it.

And finally - 

Buttercup - Final!

First worn at the SciFi Weekender 2015, we grabbed a few shots but will undoubtedly get a few more soon enough! The wig was styled and the crown attached to it for security. Then I added the flowers around the base, which is what gives Buttercup's crown a busier feel in the movie as opposed to the way it looks in the exhibit.

My sweet Westley played by Leo Chell.

 

"Mawwige."

"As you wish....."

"We can go live in the fireswamp!"

"Wtf?"

 

And finally... To the pain!

Buttercup - The Jewellery

The crown begins! First I created the shape, using a heavy duty plastic interfacing. I covered it with silver lame fabric and sized the gaps against one of the large, padded flowers I bought for the dips.

Then I acquired narrow Russian braid to edge the crown. This was applied top and bottom to emphasise the points and creates a 3d effect to the crown. On the original the braided edge and base piece were probably metal, so I'm trying to recreate that effect with fabrics.

This, when it had all dried, formed the base crown. Then it was time to embellish! Buttercup's crown has large flowers between the points, smaller flowers underneath the points, and three spikes above the points.

These padded flowers were chosen because of their raised edges. I painted the back of them silver as they would be visible above the base crown, then flattened some bead caps to create the gold centre pieces and finished it with a large Swarovski crystal.

Side point - I am a Swarovski snob. I love them. They capture and reflect light just beautifully, and far more effectively than other crystals or cheap diamante. If you don't believe me, go watch the live action version of Cinderella.

These were the smaller flowers that would go in on the centre of the spikes. These are metal flower bases. I threaded a pearl on a ball-end pin and secured it with a dot of superglue. This was then threaded through the crown and the pin at the back was used to secure the triple spikes.

Above - All flowers installed, next up is the spikes! The centre spikes are larger than the side ones but are basically the same pattern with slightly smaller beads. 

 

Compared to the crown, the necklace was simple -

 

Flat oval pearls and a fake pearl drop piece to start, then a flat base piece to attach everything to. The final moonstone centrepiece was glued in place and all finished!

Then the wig arrived... Couldn't resist trying it all on! This hair and makeup test was taken before the crown and dress were completed. It was actually a challenge, as my usual makeup style is quite contoured and Buttercup has virtually no makeup.

Really pleased with the result! Now to put it all together....

Buttercup - Beading Begins!

Previously on All My Sparkles: The base dress is done and the first round of applique has been glued in place. I'm happy with the fit, and have slowly been gathering pieces required for the crown and jewelry. What needs to happen next is the beading on the dress though. There's a lot of it!

I decided to go with ivory pearls rather than optic white and have stuck with this throughout.

Once I'd got this far with the beading, the giant white space over my chest was becoming really obvious. It definitely needed filling. I found some decent silver applique pieces, though when they arrived they were really bright in comparison to the rest of the costume, so I put a layer of paint over them.

Above - Before and after reshaping to better fit the dress. Below - After painting it blends in much better with the other pieces.

Each bead is placed on a white translucent cup sequin and then stitched in place. I used the same sequins on the shoulder pieces to blend them in where there were very obvious silver sequins originally, and added more pearls.

The top of the oversleeve splits also have small pearls on each side.

The underdress Buttercup wears is a scrunchy affair. To do this I bought silk chiffon, soaked it, scrunched it and left it to dry. I heat-set the pleats, created narrow piping from ivory satin and attached it to the overdress at the front and back.

Below - Close up of the piping - I embellished this with a ric-rac ribbon and small pearls.

Quick trying on session to show the fit and size of the skirt! This was before I embellished the underdress.

 

Next up - The crown. All my pieces have finally arrived! 

Buttercup - Sleeves and Silver

So last time I jumped in on this outfit it was basically a top with some stuff pinned onto it. Since then it has fortunately progressed to the point where it's actually look pretty damn sweet! This horrendous photo of myself is the only one I got after the skirt had gone on, but does show that it's in roughly the right position on me bust wise. More when my chest is actually hoiked up where nature (alright, Gossard) intended it to be. 

I've also had a breakthrough on colour! As previously mentioned, this thing looks anything from blue to shiny white to silver in photographs. Fortunately for me I have a friend in Seattle, and this dress is on display at the Seattle EMP in their Worlds Of Myths & Magic exhibit. She said this thing glows shiny white. It's like Galadriel appearing in Lothlorien. So bowing to her eyes-on opinion I'm going to forget about attempting to dye it.

The sleeves are medieval/fantasy style, split oversleeves that hang to impractical lengths and are once again embellished around the edges, and undersleeves that are tightly fitted. The fabric I have is slightly more opaque than the original, and the underfinished side doesn't look quite as nice. I did toy with the idea of lining them with the same fabric, but decided to forget about that idea as it would remove all ability for light to shine through. It also wouldn't flow as nicely, so I machine hemmed them and put them in.

This is the back drape of the dress as it stands, with sleeves. It's pinned to overlap at the top just to keep the bugger on the dummy as the sleeves are quite heavy.

The dummy is slightly shorter than I am so it won't be dragging on the floor quite as much as it is here.

Finally I can start putting all of the applique pieces on this monster! First up is this silver edging. It is actually far more matte finish than I thought originally so I may go over it with a bit of paint to highlight it and bring it up to the shoulder pieces earlier pictured.

For the early stages I glued the trim in place with a fast-grab, washable fabric glue. The applique needed to be cut and shaped accordingly, with bits added or removed where necessary to move it around the corners. There will also be much sewing on of pearls and sequins with this, so the later stitching will also give it that added security.
I have also started work on the crown so check back soon for some babbling about that! Mostly there will be swearing as making jewellry is always a challenge for me.

The Back - To be laced or zipped.