Ingrid (the Snow Queen - Elsa's aunt) from Once Upon A Time

[Guri]

I've costumed Juliet from Lost, so when my niece got me hooked on Once Upon A Time and I saw Elizabeth Mitchell in such a gorgeous dress... I started looking for an excuse. I found a convention close to us to go to, so my deadline is April 24th to get both this and a Snow White/Huntsman costume done for her.

But now that we just reserved a room for Dcon, I have another place to wear it! (Looking for other OUaT costumers!) I think for my husband, I'll make him be a grown up version of Jack Frost... gotta do the couple thing! haha!

So this is my build thread.

To take this on I realized quickly the fabric already beaded either wasn't going to look similar enough or was going to cost me $200 a yard. EEK!
http://bandjfabrics.com/fabric/hand-beaded-chantilly-lace (They had it in white, but it was sold out)

So then I found this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITP4S4W/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
And This:
http://www.target.com/p/threshold-f.../-/A-14951508?lnk=Rec|pdp|viewed_viewed|pdpv1

And figured I could make it work, and just, you know, bead it myself. HA!



So I also bought this pattern to help me with the basic structure:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KKT54M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The wave pattern curtain lace was very stiff when I bought it and I wasn't sure it would work, but then I washed it in hot water and conditioner and it softened up really beautifully. So - hit to those who want to soften stiff lace.

I have some transparent glass seed beads left over from Galadriel and then, remembering how difficult it is to string bead by bead, I bought these sequins and seed pearl beads pre strung - thinking it will help me do this faster:


Ugh, what a mistake:



The silver sequins are much too big and... too silver... so, now I have $15 worth of strung silver sequins, if anyone is in the market.

I asked Mdb and friends on a LOTR and Hobbit costuming group for advice and was put in the knowledge of mini-sequins and while I didn't get them prestrung, I found what I think looks much better:



And right now, this is how far I am - I should note that I am adjusting the neckline up:



I do have the pattern made for everything but the neckpiece and cape - going to tackle that in a week or so. Right now I'm enjoying the slow process of beading and sequin-ing. It feels like such an 'elvish' passtime... though I have to admit, the first few hours I felt extremely awkward with my thread getting all knotted up all the time. haha!

I have no idea how much interest there is going to be on this board for this costume, but figured, hey, I'm getting back in the game, I might as well create a build thread.

I do have a few other costumes planned for Dcon that I think will be of interest here, but we'll see if I can come up with the funding to get the materials in time.

 

[Twananas]

I'm very interested seeing in the whole process! Good luck, because it's not going to be an easy one I guess

 

[Guri]

Thanks! Knowing others are paying attention will inspire me to get myself in gear more regularly instead of in sudden 'oh know I have to get this done" bursts. haha!

 

[Talisen]

Is it done yet?? DCon less than 7 months away!!!!!

 

[katmurz]

Look's awesome so far! Love once upon a time, so glad to see someone doing this outfit! I'm also going to D*con, bring Regina cosplay with me; her Shattered Sight evil queen outfit (got the screen accurate necklace, currently bugging Mood fabrics to get back to me already on if they still have the accurate fabric), so hopefully I'll see you there!!

Can't wait to see your finished dress!

 

[Guri]

Talisen - ha! I'm almost getting this beading down to a point where I MIGHT be able to take a guess at how many hours I have left... but my speed is still increasing, so I don't want to discourage myself just yet.

Katmurz, Ooo! I would love to see that Regina, she is such a great villain and then became a great X-villain. Wonderful actress. (Also from Lost!)

Here is a bit of the arm I worked on for an hour and a half last night and about two hours today:



There should probably be 3 more rows in between every row I've beaded/sequined. My plan is to do the front of the top, the top of the sleeves and the front of the dress like this and the collar to see how long it takes me. Then I'll do the bottom back of the dress, the bottom of the inner sleeves and if it looks like I'll have time, I'll add some rows in between on the top, the sleeves and then the front of the dress. The last thing I will bead is the back because that will be covered by the cape.

That's the plan, anyway.

I'm also starting to wonder if the lace pattern of the curtain is going to overwhelm the delicate pattern rather than help to disguise that I have not beaded it completely.

 

[Guri]

Not bad for a week of beading... the top of both sleeves. I may fill it in more once I finish the front of the dress.


This is how I'm doing it... the lace on top has a lot of holes in it so I am backing it with sheer fabric. (More curtains I bought at the Thrift Store - something like an 8 yards swag for 5 dollars, not bad and all I had to do is take off yards and yards of white fringe...) I lay it all out on my sewing cardboard, pin it in place, cut it, baste it and then sew the two pieces together. It's a tricky process that leaves me often with a mismatched edge, as you can see above on the sleeve. I'm leaving myself some room with both of them and not beading all the way to the edges. It's much easier to bead in pieces than it would be if it was an entire dress already.



I have the entire dress cut out now, just need to bead the front of it.

I'm going to take a small break from beading to construct a mock up collar so I can figure out how to cut those pieces of lace.



My first shot is going to be using a cheap hair band and some boning from a bustier I took apart to use the rest of it in other projects. (This kind of reuse is not good for my hording issues)



ps - I have no idea how that attached thumbnail made it on here. But I can't get rid of it so...

 

[Guri]

The arms are sewn together, but one of them came out a bit wonky - so I have to figure that out... no photos of it yet.


I've cut out the front and back and sewn the lace and sheer together.

I have also started to bead and sequin the front. I measured out the pattern of the beads and I'm using safety pins as place holders for each 'eye' in the pattern.



I did start working on a collar - not easy! I may need to have a friend come over and sit for me while I work on it because the head I usually use to make crowns has a neck but no shoulders so it's just not working and my dress form has a neck and shoulders but no head and I can't visualize how tall - trying to create the pattern while wearing it is impossible.

I spent about 4-5 hours today and got about a foot down the top of the dress done.

EDIT - sat down tonight to work on it and realized it was only 6inches, not a foot. Yikes, this is slow...

 

[Guri]

I've been working on the front this week and just tonight sewed together the bottom part of the under dress. I'm not quite ready to sew the bodice and lace together, but pinned it all up on my dressform to get an idea of how it's coming together and what more I have to do.

 

[Guri]

The photo is from my first try on - after that I did some alterations and I have the sleeves sewn on now - no photos yet because I've been so busy... it fits better but still not as sleek as the original... and I need to bead more.

Meanwhile, I'm posting to ask if anyone knows how to make a collar like this? I've done quite a few searches and haven't been happy with the methods I found and in my own trials I have more error than anything... it's really not coming to me how to do it, so I thought I'd ask...

Thanks for any help at all! I'll work on getting a more recent photo up soon.

 

[tjbro13]

Without having seen the piece in motion, the collar looks to me like it may be a stiffer material--something closer to resin or foam than fabric--with a lace overlay.

 

[Guri]

Thanks for the input, tjbro13.

I asked some friends on facebook and they gave me a lot of similar feedback and ultimately I just decided to try it quickly with something I had on hand - fabric and iron on interfacing.



Yay!


Now that I have an idea of how to do it I'm going to try to get the shape closer and work on the lace overlay.

 

[Guri]

Decided to try it all on to get a better idea of the changes I need to make to the collar pattern.

 

[Guri]

Perfection is the enemy of Good Enough. After trying for weeks on that collar and giving up, I finally just whipped it up today. And then the cape...

Gotta bead the collar a bit and hem the dress, but it's wearable for Dcon now. Woot!

 

[Guri]

In case you're going to Dcon and want to see me in something... I hope to see as many RPF people as I can, so please come up and introduce yourself, I'm terrible with names, though.

 

[Guri]

So - getting ready to pack for Dcon today and I dropped the crystal that drops from the collar and it breaks... I guess I could have superglued it together, but since I needed 2 anyway and I had the sculpty and mold I decided to go ahead and see what I could do. 11 hours later and I have 3 in hot glue because the epoxy would take 72 hours to dry EACH.

Not the best because they're cloudy, but the size is more accurate.

Now I have to pack in one day... eek.

 

[Guri]

A few finished costume photos:

 

[Rivka]

Hi Guri !
I comment just today because I'm new on the RPF and it's the first post I'm reading !
You really did a good job ! And you're really nice with this character ! I 'd like to prepare the Evil Queen dress, could you explain more on the collar ? Thank you !

 

[Guri]

Thanks, Rivka! Welcome to the board.

I made the collar pattern first in paper but really couldn't get it right - I then made it in fabric and just had to hold it in place to make sure it was the right shape.

The part on my shoulders has 3 layers: a cotton fabric for the bottom and then the sheer and lace combo and is beaded and sequined.

The part that stands up is lined with buckram... which is a stiff, starched fabric used to make hats. (Isys from this board suggested that) and has the sheer and lace on both sides.

The collar actually needs the weight of the snowflakes to stand up and doesn't always stand up well so I have to remember to adjust it before a photo.

Definitely the most challenging part of the costume!