Red Riding Hood from Once Upon a Time (Season 2)

Here is the costume I made this year for Halloween, for my wife. The request was for a costume with a cloak so we settled on Red Riding Hood from Once Upon a Time ,specifically Season 2. Here is the finished product. I will put the build up over the next couple weeks as I get time.

The Skirts:
When making this costume you have to first decide which season to go with. The second season costume is a lot more layer, hence it looks better and is more complicated. The first part that highlights this is the skirt layers. The best way to describe this is as a gypsy/pirate type skirt combination. The bottom petticoat was made out of a synthetic chiffon/organza with some lining fabric used at the top. I followed this pattern that is available online
http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/the-50s-petticoat
This is quite a lot of fabric but instead of turning the seams to the inside I turned the petticoat so it would be on the outside. I also left the bottom edge unfinished.

After I was finished with this I dyed it red but washed out most of the colour so that I ended up with a dark pink. The colours throughout this project were difficult to match as the pictures are quite dark but the costume is actually quite bright. The bright red comes off as a dark burgundy in some reference pictures. Remember that you must get hte appropriate dye for the type of fabric that you are using.
The next layer up was a little bit more of an issue finding the fabric. I was looking for a crushed/ruffled silk in red. I ended up finding the correct fabric online labeled Crushed Taffeta Red (doesn't seem to be available anymore).
https://www.fabric.com/buy/0342378/crushed-taffeta-red
Folloing McCALL's M7097 Pattern D
https://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m7097
I ended up with the middle skirt.

At this point I was quite happy with the progress and now I only needed the outer skirt/wrap. This red/burgundy with a large crucifix style brocade/silk just couldn't be found. I ended up finding a substitute with this fabric "BROCADE FABRIC RED & BLACK COLOR 44" on ebay.
This was made into a simple skirt with an slit down one side and elastic at the top. I knew this would work because the corset would hide the top edge additionally my wife was 4 months pregnant for Halloween so comfort was the primary concern.
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The Blouse:
For the top part of the costume I purchased a white blouse from Macy's. The description for the blouse was "BCX Juniors' Roll-Tab-Sleeve Crocheted-Trim Peasant Blouse" it is no longer available but a search for peasant/pirate blouse will give a lot of options.
The Corset:
This is where we deviated from the costume the greatest. Being my wife's nature and the fact we were planning for her to be pregnant during Halloween we decided on an over-bust corset which is different to the one in the show. I also chose a green brocade instead of a striped fabric. This brocade looked nice and contrasted well with the red, however the issue I ran into was too many patterns and so I needed a plainer patterned skirt. If i had stuck with the reference closer I wouldn't have run into this issue. The pattern I ended up using was Butterick B5662. As this was my first Corset these instructions were surprisingly simple. And if anyone asks how my wife coped in teh corset while being pregnant, it actually worked out pretty well because we could simply loosen the ribbon at the back until she was comfortable.
The Gloves:
Cheapest red leather/vinyl gloves that I could find on Amazon.
The Cloak:
This I am happy to report is very close to the original, the fabric used is an exact match. The best instruction available on the net are from
http://seamstressconfessions.blogspot.com/2015/01/rubyreds-cloak-from-once-upon-time.html
where she explains both the simple and complex version of the cloak
http://seamstressconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/03/reds-cloak-ruffle-variation.html
I purchased a cloak pattern but ended up just using the head part and customized the rest.

costume looks great, nice work on the cloak

gothic said:

costume looks great, nice work on the cloak

Click to expand...

Thanks gothic, the cloak was by far the hardest part. That much fabric is just a pain to handle, I had to push all my couches back in the living room just to lay it out. I would prefer to remake the corset rather then make the cloak again. However I am totally glad I made the effort.