Soooo the faire that I go to added a Midsummer Fantasy weekend this year and I knew right away that's the weekend we'd go.
I went to town crafting up all the fun things I could think of, all the nifty bits and pieces I always want to wear but can never find an outlet for. I wanted horns, pointy ears, wings, sparkley makeup, a corset and yeah.
I made just about everything I wore - the blouse, skirt, corset, wings and pouches. I had made a set of polymer clay horns but I dropped one and it broke and I couldn't get it glued back together properly
and of course ran out of time to make new ones.
So here's the photos, you can see more at my Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/parallax/sets/72157621772418320/Close up where you can see some of my makeup. I glue bits of feathers to my eyelashes and used shimmery copper and gold eyeshadow, glitter and stick on gems. You can't really see the sparkle in still photos, though. Also, check out the adorable little kitty face buttons I found! I cut that pouch out of an old fake leather backpack and used the button and a hair rubber band to make the closure.
Full body with my husband prior to entering:
My wings
A good shot of the corset
Fooling around with my friend who dressed as a plague doctor. Yes, he made his mask himself! He cut out the leather, wet-formed it and then stitched the pieces together. The lenses are soldered in and from an cheap pair of sunglasses. He used a light white wash over it and sealed it with wax to withstand any moisture. And yes, he stuck a bag of period-appropriate herbs in the beak to fend of the miasma. In this picture he is checking for buboes. Little does he know that impy little fae don't get the plague, we CAUSE the plague
So the corset is made from the TV 110. I used black polyester shantung from Joann's and I used WonderUnder to attach it to coutil, with the duller side out (the shiny side was just too shiny for me). I used black twill for the inner layer. It's boned mostly with industrial zip ties, although I put metal in the channels beside the grommets. I did one mock-up and then went to town with it. It's the first time I remembered to short it at the waist (I'm very short and short-waisted) so it's also the first time I've achieved a nice hourglass reduction.
The wings are made from 14g wire I bought at Walmart and their .33 cent white knee highs. I played around with the wire until I got a shape I liked, then I stretched the pantyhose over the frame and secured it with clear electric tape. Then I took a stick of incense and used that to poke all the holes. I used basic acrylic craft paints to paint the designs. I watered down Elmer's glue and painted that where I wanted glitter and just dumped a ton on
I took each set of three pieces and twisted them together and then sealed them with more tape and then used the stems (I left at least a foot and half of wire on each piece) to make the bracket. It's a squared-off "U" shape with a figure eight twist below. I wrapped ribbon around it to cover up the tape and wire and that just got stuck down my back and supported by the corset.
The skirt was super-duper easy - four panels of fabric that I made a 1" tube on and threaded waistband elastic through. I will be sewing up some of the panels, though, because having four super high slits made it hard to stop from showing a little too much skin (even though I wore striped pantyhose). That was the only uncomfortable part about the costume.
The blouse is a peasant-shirt that I didn't add sleeves to.
Aaaand that's pretty much it! I hope you like it, I'm really proud of it and got many compliments from the actors and people working there. Most of the patrons were less impressed, though
I think many people prefer typical looking fairies and not so much with the dark fairy/imp look. Oh well, I think it's awesome!
