Well, while I am definitely procrastinating, I have not been idle! I have been planning my two big costumes (that's right - I SAID TWO) for Dragon Con for months now. In June, I decide to take the plunge and commit to my most complicated costume, Dolores from Westworld.
If you haven't seen Westworld and you like robots in cowboy hats, you need to get on the bandwagon. It does contain a fair amount of gore and naked people though, so you may want to watch it through your fingers scrunched up over your eyes.
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| "Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty." - Dolores |
I was drawn to make this costume for a few reasons.
- I love the character and the actress. She puts on a great performance.
- I love the Old West and would love to have a Western costume.
- When you look closely at the costume, you can see it's obviously not a dress, but a shirt and a skirt. How hard could that be, right?
- ....right?
However, I could already identify some challenges:
- I've never sewn buttonholes before.
- I've never sewn ribbon on a neckline (or, well, anything) before.
- Is that a bustle??
- I'm definitely going to have to wear a wig. More on that later.
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| Definitely a bustle. And a corset. |
I could see that this costume was going to require some sleuthing to gather the materials while hopefully not spending a fortune. Below are the sleuthing processes for each piece.
Patterns
The hardest part for this costume was deciding on patterns. After doing a bit of pattern sleuthing (by which I mean scrolling through the catalogs of EVERY. MAJOR. PATTERN COMPANY. for hours) I realized that this costume is completely historically inaccurate (gee, you don't say). Most Victorian-era or Old West dresses would have had a high neckline for non-boudoir attire. So I was going to have to alter an existing pattern for a button up shirt, then pair it with a more Victorian-looking skirt.
Top
Since I've never sewn a button-up shirt before, I went with an easy pattern. I used McCall's 6750 as the basis. I have had good luck with sewing McCall's beginner patterns before, so I thought this would be a safe choice.I chose View C and removed the cuffs and cut out a scoop neck. I also decided to fully line the front to give it more structure and help make the neckline (I am SO bad at using bias tape or a strip of fabric for necklines). More on the experiments with this pattern later.
Skirt
I'm pretty sure I chose the wrong pattern for the skirt. I still haven't started work on the skirt yet, so I guess there's time to change it. Mostly I wanted to buy a pattern for a full, long skirt that was longer in the back than in the front (to accommodate the bustle I was supposedly going to make/buy) so I could determine how much fabric it would need. I ended up buying another McCall's pattern because they were having their "Everything is $2.50 So Go Ahead and Impulse Buy A Lot" sale.
This is McCall's 7355 and it's a big, gathered skirt with a waistband meant to be worn with a petticoat. Not the right shape pleats/darts AT ALL, but we'll see how I do with it when I get to the skirt.
I'm going with View E, which has the longer back. I'm thinking I can just flatten the pleats in the front with darts and add a few big box pleats in the back to shape the bustle area.
Fabric
I was lucky to have a Fabric.com gift card remaining and so I was able to order a boatload of fabric samples before settling on the correct one. From the source pictures and watching the show, the fabric seemed to be a swiss dot chambray. I found several swiss dot chambrays, but none in the right color. It is SO difficult to pick out fabric online! |
| I chose the top sample square |
Trimmings
If you take a close look at the neckline and cuffs of the top, you'll see three distinct ribbons trimming them. A ruffly light blue one, a cream colored lace one, and a dark blue one.
This was kind of challenging for me. I'd never used ribbons in sewing before, so I had to do some research on what the heck these ribbons were even CALLED before I could look for them to buy. JoAnn's Fabrics was absolutely useless for this. They didn't have anything that even remotely resembled the ribbons I was looking for. I ended up finding some smaller sewing supply stores online that had vintage ribbons and trimmings and really hit a home run. I found out that the ruffly ribbon was "box-pleated bias fabric". The lace was possibly a "lace beading". The dark blue ribbon was a velvet ribbon. Here are the ribbons I went with:
- 1" light blue polka dot box-pleated bias fabric from Farmhouse Fabrics (currently sold out in blue, but here it is in pink) for $5.00 a yard
- 3/8" Lace Beading in Champagne from Farmhouse Fabrics for $5.50 a yard
- 3/8" Velvet Ribbon in French Blue from M&J Trimming for $1.29 a yard
In retrospect, I probably should have gone with 1/2" ribbon instead of 3/8", but you'll see when I post about constructing the bodice that it looks fine. I also should have gotten a slightly darker blue velvet ribbon, but ah well.
As for the buttons, I got a few that I'm not crazy about from JoAnn's Fabrics. They aren't sold online, so I can't link to them here. They are 1/2" brassy antiquey buttons.
Accessories
Wig
This was my very first time buying a wig! And it will be my first time wearing one as well. I did some research into reasonably priced wigs that work well, and I settled on EpicCosplay wigs. They really stress how their wigs can be heat-styled, aren't shiny in pictures, fit comfortably, etc. They also had the perfect dark ash blond hair color for Dolores.
I picked the Daphne wig in Ash Blonde for $44.99. I thought that was a really, really good price on the wig and when it arrived it was so soft! It's a little too long for Dolores, but that's alright. It would probably make a good wig for a Sleeping Beauty cosplay down the line, too!
Belt
This was a tough one. I could see from the pictures that her belt had a floral embossed design on it and an iconic, large square belt buckle. I even found out through some online forums that the actual belt used was from a Western outfitter where you bought a raw leather belt, dyed it, and added a buckle. That seemed a little beyond my current capabilities, so I sought out to find a decent look-alike.
I found this Lauren by Ralph Lauren Patterned Leather Belt on Amazon. For only $19.64, it seemed worth the risk to me. It doesn't look exactly right, but close enough that you instantly know what I was going for!
Pouch
Err, stay tuned on this one. It may or may not happen, depending on how much time I have. I think the costume is recognizable without the pouch, so we shall see.
Boots
I found a few shots of Dolores running where you could see her boots. They appeared to be lace-up, leather boots without a heel.
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| Biggest pic I could find |
That's a coincidence, because another one of my costumes (not yet blogged about...) also requires lace-up leather boots without a heel....(vague post is vague).
I decided to invest in a pair of actual leather boots because these kinds of things come in handy for costuming historical or fantasy characters.
I went with the Troopa Combat Boot by Steve Madden in brown.
They are gorgeous, but still need to break them in before Dragon Con!
That's it for the planning post. I've already been working on the top part of the costume, so look for its post next week!
Your planning is fantastic. The more planning the better the product.
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