mostflogged cosplay

Character | Roxy Lalonde
Series | Homestuck/MSPA

Construction Notes // Petticoat was 20 yards of 2 different types of tulle cut up and then gathered. There were two big layers made of medium weight pink tulle and 3 small layers gathered and sewn to the bottom pink layer. There is also horse hair in the bottom of the pink layers, and one piece of hoop skirt boning. This whole process sucked balls and took a million itchy years because each layer of white tulle i gathered was 25 yards, so i gathered over 100 stupid yards making the petti it was terrible fuck petticoats fuck them hard. Once the base petti was made it was sewn to a heavy canvas yolk. My nails were fake nails with a really cute glitter called pixie dust on them and i’m super happy with what a cute color pink they were. My dirk patterned our neck ruff pillow thing, which is made of matte satin sewn on the bias so it would stretch a little and accommodate the stuffing better. It’s stuffed with regular old batting and the smaller lace closer to the neck is sewn into the seam. Mine closes with a small hook and eye in the front and snaps down on either side to the pink strap of my bodice to keep it in place. The bigger lace was hand sewed on as were the pearls. The Skirt is made from 4 layers of dupioni silk and one big layer of brocade, which me and my dirk lovejoker dyed in my tiny nyc bathroom and IT SUCKED DICK HOWEVER after seriously looking in every single store in the garment district and not being able to find a brocade we liked we settled on this stupid pink one that we had to dye darker if we were gonna use. Once the brocade was dyed and dried I gathered it and pinned it in place over the petti coat and trimmed it to my liking. It was then hemmed with seam binding, although for the parts that are folded over near the front of the dress i made my own seam binding out of the brocade so it would be less noticeable. once the brocade part of the skirt was hemmed I hand sewed pearls on the edge which took for fuckin ever. The light pink top layer of dupioni was super easy, it’s just a very short circle skirt with a horsehair hem. The other 3 layers were just layed on top of the petti and trimmed into the basic shape but then I had to interface the bottom of them and sew a scalloped trim onto the edge of each one - my sewing machine has several scalloped stitches, which i tested out and took a picture of, so you can see what it looks like. Then i made a little tear drop shaped embroidery pattern I liked and after scalloping the edges of all 3 skirt layers, embroidered each large scallop 3 times so it was around 45-60 little embroidery pieces overall. I fucked up cause i’m an idiot and had to redo the middle layer TWO TIMES which was both infuriating and expensive - i wasn’t paying attention and the fabric slipped underneath itself while it was machine embroidering and bc dupioni is so lightweight once the embroidery is in there there’s no way you’re getting it out without totally wrecking that fabric. Once all 5 layers of the skirt were done I gathered them and measured them around my hips, machine sewed them together then hand tacked the 5 skirt layers to the yolk which the petti coat was attached too. (the petti was also hand sewn on, it was just TOO MUCH for my machine to handle. The lining is just 3/4 yards of asitate lining, gathered and hand sewn to the bottom of the yolk and tacked down in a few place to keep it from just looking poofy and terrible (which to be honest it did in sometimes anyway whoops) The lining attached with snaps at the front so i can take it off, where I put some ribbon loops, which i made these long wire L’s to go through to help support the front of the dress more and keep it as open as possible The whole concept of an open hoop skirt is literally impossible and i hate it, like really short of building a fucking cage there aren’t too many ways to make it work and there sure as hell isn’t an easy way to make it work if you wanna keep a bell silhouette to your gown. Once the skirt was done I fabric glued half pearls one each of the scallops between the embroidery.

ANYWAY The bodice was a 5 piece corset pattern my friend carly gave my for Christmas!!!! I did a quick mock up, and I guess it was kinda sloppy because I really could have made it tighter but whatever this costume was uncomfortable enough without not being able to breathe properly. The front pinstriped are fabric painted on which i did with my dirk so our paints matched (he had pin striped on his pants), and the striped on the back were sewn in. In retrospect I should have had the striped on the back come over one more panel than they did, to be more visible from the front, but by the time i realized this i would have had to take the whole bodice apart and I was on a time crunch so whelp i fucked up. I had never used this pattern before and didn’t realize how long it was, or how much the length effected the way it sat with the skirt (this was my first time making something like this so it was a major learning experience for me). But yeah, dupioni was flat-lined to canvas, canvas middle layer with steel boning and stays attached, and a really cheesy pink lining cause i had it laying around! I used seam boning for my boning channels, and hid my zipper the best i could under the lace in the side front so that my back wouldn’t have a visible zip. I handsewed on an absurd amount of lace and pearls and dupioni bias tape I made, heat n bonded the moon and sewed the pearls around it. Interfaced the white belt piece and appliqued around it, then heat n bonded it on. There’s also a pearl hemmed gathered light pink piece of dupioni hand sewn at the bottom of the bodice to cover up the separation between my panties and the bodice. There are 4 pieces of elastic on the yolk of the skirt that hook onto buttons on the inside of the bodice to keep everything secure. The pink piece of fabric and pearls around my neck are simply hand sewed in place to the inside of the bodice.

My panties are made out of and self lined in dupioni which BLOWS because getting them on requires a serious wiggle dance since dupioni has like 0 stretch. There’s 3 layers of pink ruffles and one layer of light pink ruffles at the top, the bottom 3 are roll hemmed and the top layer is pearl hemmed. The garters are satin elastic which I dyed myself, hand sewn into the panties. The gems I bought from a trim store and glued to craft foam, then glued glittery trim around that using F-6000 lol, then once it was dry glued that on top of two suspender pieces i bought then sewed the suspender pieces to the satin elastic I dyed. My tights were THE WORST i tried so hard to avoid just making them but in the end i made them. I tried dying some tights but i mentioned them to jasmine and she asked me why they weren’t white (THERE ARE ONLY TWO REFERENCES FOR THIS COSTUME AND IN ONE OF THEM THE TIGHTS ARE NUDE/PINK IN THE OTHER THEY’RE WHITE/PINK) and i couldn’t find the tights i needed online so i just caved and made them. But since I hate myself I made them out of white mesh and pink poly jersey, so i had to hand sew the seam allowance on every stripe to itself to keep it from showing since the white is mesh/see through, so when you flip the dumb things inside out you can see all the seam allowances hidden behind the pink part of the tights. I bought some really cute pink lace with scallops, cut and fray checked it, glued gems to the points, then hand sewed it to the tights, then using elastic thread sewed pink pears on the tights too. I actually ended up making 3 tights in total because I wasn’t happy with my first once so this one part of the costume took me a whole day and a half of work.

The arm bands are dupioni on the bias for as much extra stretch as possible, which isn’t a lot bc lol dupioni, with a small strip of jersey up the back so i can bend my arms without the things exploding off of my body. The lace is hand sewed on, the pearls are hand sewed on, the point is hand sewed around a little ring that slips onto my middle finger. There’s elastic at the top to keep it up. The pearl bracelets are threaded on elastic thread. The arm puffs are ADORABLE I LOVE THEM in the refs her sleeves are supposed to be attached to her dress but I really wanted to be able to lift my arms over my head so I just had to sacrifice accuracy, although I do wonder if I could have done it if I had used the pink jersey i put in the arm band in that one panel???? it’s too late to apologize it’s too late. So mine are just backed with pink tulle (the same stuff i used in my petticoat), gathered, with an elastic band on the bottom, and horsehair in the top to keep them open. I also sewed a fwe extra vertical pieces of horse hair in the inside to keep them happy puffs so they wouldn’t sink down (which they did anyway, but i would jut pull em back up) The lace, dupioni bias tape and pearls ere the hand sewed onto the puffs. I bought my shoes on etsy and leather painted them with angelus leather paint, and sewed the black buttons on! the shape of the top of the shoes isn’t exactly right but I was having a really difficult time finding shoes, I’m just happy that I like the heel/base of it so much!

Personal Notes // I've always wanted to really challenge myself and see what I can do sewing wise, but I'm usually more drawn to series that don't have elegant beautiful designs. This costume is a testament to how much I love my friend Tara and me overcoming my own creative block with sewing. And of course, I adore Roxy!