First of all I will finish up my cloak construction. After I added the gussets to the bottom of the cloak, I trimmed the hem and narrow hemmed it. At this point all of the snowflake designs are complete, though not without trouble.
The main problem I ran into was my applique material, the EZ-Steam I mentioned in my last few Elsa posts. The stuff, manufactured by Pellon, quite honestly sucks. My appliques keep peeling off the cloak fabric. Right now it seems that EZ-Steam's popular competitor, Steam-A-Seam, is out of production while the company finds a new parchment paper supplier. You can only get the double-sticky-sided Steam-A-Seam on the black market right now, though I did manage to score some single-sided Steam-A-Seam on fabric.com. Take this to heart and run over there RIGHT NOW if you want some.
Okay.
By the point I was doing the larger snowflakes along the cloak hem, I had realized the EZ-Steam problem and switched products. Everything after this point should adhere pretty well. That basically means that my small snowflakes are going to have peeling problems, as well as part of the huge designs, but the rest should be secure.
For interest, here is the cloak patterning before I gathered it to the yoke.
The yoke is meant to tie onto the corset bodice (through eyelets that haven't yet been applied when I took this photo). It's made of the same gold/blue brocade that I used for the bodice, though without the blue netting overlay. The gold may stand out a little more than I want. I decorated the hem with tiny three-cut seed beads and Preciosa crystals.
Gathered and stitched to the yoke.
There's a ton of embroidery on this cosplay, using goldwork passing, check purl, glass pearls, crystal beads, and cut crystal seed beads.
Goldwork passing embroidery on the front of Elsa's undershirt:
Though the technique is called 'goldwork,' the supplies also are sold in silver! I have some gold-colored passing and other materials as well for another project. Unlike their predecessors that have been around for centuries, modern goldwork materials do no generally have any gold or silver content, although they are metal.
Undershirt shoulder and cuff embroidery. I've replaced the finger loops with clear elastic straps that look so much better than the white elastic ever did.
The large crystals on both cuffs and the front of the shirt are from an old chandelier x3
The shoulder decorations are supposed to look like pearl strands draped off the shoulder. It is all very sparkly!
Now, I mentioned earlier that I was having trouble with loosening the pleats in my underskirt. Fortunately I was able to take it to the costume shop, hang it on a clothing rack, and loosen them with a garment steamer. Afterwards, I unceremoniously cut the train off this skirt. It was pretty, but I already have to deal with the train on my cloak! The material can be used for something else.
Back home I found these beautiful brooches to finish off my wig. I'd already found a pair of clip-on rhinestone earrings that I hooked into the braid. The larger of the two above brooches is hooked into the wig netting at the top of the braid, while the other I stitched to the end of the braid.
Selfies thus far, with and without the underskirt (which is not present in the original design):
I really like the longer bangs on my wig. Elsa doesn't have them, but I may see what I can do to incorporate them.
Since these photos I have added the finishing touches, including invisible straps on the shoulders, and bodice hem decoration. Look forward to the photoshoot in about a week!
