I made this costume for a client last spring as part of my 2nd year of a bachelor degree in Costume making. I've been holding off posting it, because I wanted a photo of the entire costume on the model. Unfortunally, the client still hasn't given me one after almost 6 months, so I'm posting photos of the individual pieces.
The costume consists of a pair of brown velvet leggings, a 19th century corset, a feathered cape, handless lace gloves and an owl headpiece. Part of the assignment was to use recycled materials as much as possible and work within a budget of £100.
The corset - It's mostly made out of old dresses, blouses and skirts. I had to change the corset slightly after hand in and before handing it over to my client, but hopefully I'll get an updated photo soon.
UPDATE! Modelled photos!
A friend of my modelling the corset:
The cape - I made most of the feathers out of old blouses and skirts. I've also added in proper fake feathers to create an interesting texture and look.
My friend modelling the corset and cape:
The headpiece - Again I've used scraps of various old clothes and a lot of old jewellery. The beak is made from real leather.
Me modelling the head piece:
The gloves are made from a lace blouse and decorated with feathers. I don't have a good photo of them or the leggings. Here's a photo of the costume laid out on a table for hand in (minus the head piece):
I'm super-happy with it, what do you think? I'll post a photo of the complete costume on a model as soon as I get it.
FEATHER-MAKING TUTORIAL
First of all, it's important to choose the right fabrics. The fabrics needs to fray easily, so satin and other fabrics with a more complicated weave, are not appropriate to use. I did use one satin fabric, but had to slash into it, cause it wouldn't fray.
Select the fabrics you want in you feather. Different colours and patterns can give a very interesting result. Cut out rectangles of each fabric (the length and width of your feather). You can also cut out strips in one fabric to sit over rectangles in other fabric to get a stripy effect. It's not important for all the pieces are the same size, but layer them up as aligned as possible..
Now set your sewing machine to a zig zag (not too wide and not too open). Zig zag down the centre of the rectangle, down the length of it. Try to keep the seam on the straight grain.
Now you can cut out the feather shape as you want it. This was my first try and it took me a while and a few feathers before I managed to get a decent shape, so please don't judge..
Now starts the fraying. I recommend fraying one layer at the time. You can use a
steel brush (recommended for larger feathers) or your finger nails if they're long enough. Fray all the layers down to the zig zag, but try to avoid pulling out the threads running along the width of the feather. Although, if you have different colours, you can reveal the colours underneath by pulling out some of the top colour threads.
Once you're happy with the feather you need to stiffen it up, cause it's very floppy. I used
rigiline boning and pulled out the seperate plastic threads inside. I cut them to the length of the feathers and then melted the edges, so they're not sharp or scratchy. I then placed them over the zig zag on the wrong side of the feather and zig zagged it on over the first zig zag. This can easily be done before fraying the feather, but I only realised the flopping-problem afterwards...
This is how my cape looked before I added "real" fake feathers:
Please let me know if anything in the tutorial is unclear
