I've now seen Alice in Wonderland 3 times. I'm addicted to the costumes in that movie! Ultimately I'll be making at least 4 of them. But the one that I thought was unattainable has turned out to be anything but!
Approximately 2 weeks ago I contacted the same company that made the armor for Underworld Evolution and Sonia's armor in Underworld Rise of the Lycans. I asked if they were responsible for creating Alice's armor from the movie.
Mitch of Valentine Armories told me that he wasn't but that he could replicate it. I was THRILLED. I knew it wouldn't be exact but that it would be a pretty close rendition. I suddenly had a new costume for DCon. Then he told me he'd have it ready in 5 days. Now panic sets it. I have a Con coming up this weekend which is the last one I'll go to before DCon so I'm scrambling like mad to get the rest of the costume put together.
First for the pretty stuff:
Mitch also made the forearms and handplates and then attached them to gauntlet gloves. I just don't have a picture of them yet. I pick up everything on Friday.
The undersuit fabric was a little tricky to find and still requires some work. I found this:
It's close in design but the backing fabric on the real deal is silver as well....so I've got some playing to do to try to replicate that.
Next up is the underskirt. It's just simply leather cut in to approx. 1 inch strips with the bottom couple of inches split in the middle. However, it is woven through a mesh made by chain - which isn't complicated at all to create BUT time consumming. I've purchased 42 feet of chain and jumprings to made the connections, however it is likely the one thing that won't get done before this con. I may go with spray painting cording to give it the same feel for this con AND to help measure how long each piece of chain needs to be so I don't waste any. The skirt itself will be silver leather which thankfully Tandy had.
The overskirt is scale maille. Mitch could have done it but needed more time AND a lot more money. I may eventually get him to do this, but for now I've gone with leather. I've cut out a leather "base", marked off all the lines for where the scales need to go and have cut out around 200 of them. Tandy had 3 packages (total of 75 pieces) of project fish which saved a bunch of time. I simply cut off their little tails. Then I spray painted them. Tonight the hole punching and gluing begin. I'll go back in and sew them on so they are good and sturdy (thus the holes) but for now the glue will be fine.
Apparently Deuce figured they were real fish and good enough to eat. I'm sure I'll be finding de-tailed fish bodies all over the basement for awhile.
The leather overskirt base will be sewn at the top edge to the underskirt and then a casing made for a belt to slide through. This will all be hidden under the armor. The front part of the underskirt sits a little more forward and over laps the back of the underskirt slightly. I think I've resolved how to make that work.
The guy at Tandy was SO helpful. Alice has odd looking leather strips hanging down from the rondelles. He immediately knew what technique it was and showed me how to do it. They also had 4 foot strips of leather that are the correct width and have evenly spaced holes in them for the strips Alice has on her shoulders. Unfortunately they aren't scalloped as they should be but he also showed me the perfect, allbeit time consumming, way to resolve that. It will also be done after this Con.
The gloves I used were simple black motorcycle gauntlet gloves. Mitch painted them for me. For the boots, I went with the standard go -go boot in silver.
Wish me luck in getting this dang thing finished in a couple of days!!
Approximately 2 weeks ago I contacted the same company that made the armor for Underworld Evolution and Sonia's armor in Underworld Rise of the Lycans. I asked if they were responsible for creating Alice's armor from the movie.
Mitch of Valentine Armories told me that he wasn't but that he could replicate it. I was THRILLED. I knew it wouldn't be exact but that it would be a pretty close rendition. I suddenly had a new costume for DCon. Then he told me he'd have it ready in 5 days. Now panic sets it. I have a Con coming up this weekend which is the last one I'll go to before DCon so I'm scrambling like mad to get the rest of the costume put together.
First for the pretty stuff:
Mitch also made the forearms and handplates and then attached them to gauntlet gloves. I just don't have a picture of them yet. I pick up everything on Friday.
The undersuit fabric was a little tricky to find and still requires some work. I found this:
It's close in design but the backing fabric on the real deal is silver as well....so I've got some playing to do to try to replicate that.
Next up is the underskirt. It's just simply leather cut in to approx. 1 inch strips with the bottom couple of inches split in the middle. However, it is woven through a mesh made by chain - which isn't complicated at all to create BUT time consumming. I've purchased 42 feet of chain and jumprings to made the connections, however it is likely the one thing that won't get done before this con. I may go with spray painting cording to give it the same feel for this con AND to help measure how long each piece of chain needs to be so I don't waste any. The skirt itself will be silver leather which thankfully Tandy had.
The overskirt is scale maille. Mitch could have done it but needed more time AND a lot more money. I may eventually get him to do this, but for now I've gone with leather. I've cut out a leather "base", marked off all the lines for where the scales need to go and have cut out around 200 of them. Tandy had 3 packages (total of 75 pieces) of project fish which saved a bunch of time. I simply cut off their little tails. Then I spray painted them. Tonight the hole punching and gluing begin. I'll go back in and sew them on so they are good and sturdy (thus the holes) but for now the glue will be fine.
Apparently Deuce figured they were real fish and good enough to eat. I'm sure I'll be finding de-tailed fish bodies all over the basement for awhile.
The leather overskirt base will be sewn at the top edge to the underskirt and then a casing made for a belt to slide through. This will all be hidden under the armor. The front part of the underskirt sits a little more forward and over laps the back of the underskirt slightly. I think I've resolved how to make that work.
The guy at Tandy was SO helpful. Alice has odd looking leather strips hanging down from the rondelles. He immediately knew what technique it was and showed me how to do it. They also had 4 foot strips of leather that are the correct width and have evenly spaced holes in them for the strips Alice has on her shoulders. Unfortunately they aren't scalloped as they should be but he also showed me the perfect, allbeit time consumming, way to resolve that. It will also be done after this Con.
The gloves I used were simple black motorcycle gauntlet gloves. Mitch painted them for me. For the boots, I went with the standard go -go boot in silver.
Wish me luck in getting this dang thing finished in a couple of days!!
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