Completed costume - Tessa Gray (Clockwork Angel)

For my first few posts, I'll cover some of my most recently completed projects, so without further ado, here's my most recent costume:

On December 14, 2011, I had the opportunity to see a special screening of Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows with the Toronto Steampunk Society for free.  The only condition?  Come dressed in a Victorian/neo-Victorian outfit.  A free movie and an excuse to dress up was an offer too good to pass up, plus it was the perfect excuse to get my butt into gear and tackle one of my long-unfinished projects.

Several months ago my best friend introduced me to Cassandra Clare's novel, Clockwork Angel, and emailed me the character designs, drawn by Val Freire. I quickly zeroed in on the 'American cut' outfit created for Tessa, the main character.

Tessa Gray, American cut (far right).  Illustration by Val Freire

With my choice made, I started working on the costume, hoping to have it ready for a convention in early April. Unfortunately, I ran into a few problems – I'd used the wrong set of patterns, so version 1.0 of the blouse and jacket ended up too small. I then tried to have it done for a convention in late May, but then I got really sick. I was determined for the third time to be the charm.

Overall, things went better than my previous attempts, but it still wasn't 100% smooth sailing. Initially I planned to self-line the blouse, but when I completed both layers and was ready to join them, somehow only one layer fit. Thankfully, I ended up being able to make due with only one layer.

The cuffs were another challenge. Looking at the picture, I knew they had to be pleated, but I kept balking at the prospect of doing such small pleats on that much fabric.

Enter the pleater board.

I made this out of poster board several months ago to assist with the pleating and boy did it come in handy! It took a little practice to figure out how to properly shove the fabric into each slat, but once I figured it out it made a world of difference (especially after dealing such fray-happy fabric!).

Caplet edging (top strip) and half of one cuff (bottom strips), before...

...and after pleating

 After these were pleated, they were hand-sewn to the jacket, one layer at a time, and overlaid with some custom trim I made from yellow and navy bias strips and lace.

The finished cuff

The biggest challenge was the caplet. I'm assuming that the fabric must have stretched between the time when I cut it and when I sewed it, because the self lining and the main body fabric did not match up. At all. Moral of the story: sew your pieces as soon as possible after cutting.

Thankfully I was able to do some MacGuyvering with some creative seam finishing and some fusible web to sorta-kinda join the two layers. After I finished that, I sewed the pleated edging to the yellow/navy trim to finish it off.

Custom trim for caplet (top) and jacket cuffs (bottom). 

Made from yellow and navy bias fabric and lace  

The completed caplet (I bought the pin at a convention a couple of years ago)

Closeup of the front edge of the caplet

Fortunately, everything from the waist down was super easy. The under skirt was just a long, gored skirt and the over skirt was made from a simple pattern I drafted based on the illustration. It was trimmed in yellow and blue bias fabric and lace.

Tip of the front part of the over skirt

From that point on, it was a matter of hammering out a few last details (including sewing on fabric-covered buttons and hooks & eyes – my machine's buttonholer is insane, so no real, functional buttonholes for me!) and I finally was able to declare it done!

There are still a few little things I want to fix (like adding a few more hooks to the jacket to prevent the front from gapping), but overall I'm reasonably happy with it, especially since it's done.

The lighting in the theatre wasn't the greatest, so I'm hoping to eventually get some nice, clear shots of me in the costume. In the mean time, here are some pics of it on my paper tape dress form: