The Granado Espada Elementalist- Skirt Progress Update

I mentioned in an earlier post that I decided to make the Granado Espada Elementalist dress. Here’s a picture of the costume to remind everyone what I’m talking about…

I knew this costume would be difficult to make, but I desperately need a vacation from making Doctor Who costumes and this was the perfect project for me. Also, although I knew this dress would required a lot of fabric and the money to buy said fabric, I decided not to attend any more conventions until January 2015. That is subject to change, but that is the main idea. Since I had money to use for things other than conventions, I decided to spend the money on the fabric for this costume. It also helped that when I began to gather the fabric Joann’s had a $2.99 satin sale. I bought a lot of satin and chiffon, which was also on sale, to use for the costume. I think I still need more, but eh. It’s a start!

The first part of the costume I focused making was the main skirt. I found a picture of the costume from the video game that shows the back of the skirt. It looked to be the shape of the skirt from 1869 or so, just when the bustle was showing up in Victorian fashion. I already had a pattern for that time period (It’s a Truly Victorian’s 1869 grand parlor skirt) so I just used it for the skirt of this dress.

Here’s what it looks like…

Please note: The type of hoop skirt that should go under the skirt isn’t used in these photos. Also, I changed the back part so it will have an elastic waist band in case of future growth spurts or changes to the width of my torso. That’s why the skirt doesn’t fit the dress form very well. It does fit me well on the other hand, but I’ll probably add darts in the future for a better fit.

The skirt is made from pink satin and light pink chiffon. The original art shows the main skirt under all the layers of fabric isn’t solid colored. In order to mimic this look, I layered the light pink chiffon on top the darker, brighter pink satin. There are still some colors in the original artwork that are not in my skirt, but the only way I could think of getting all the colors at least represented in my skirt is by dying fabric. Dying fabric is something I do NOT want to do and, no matter the project, I’ve avoided like crazy. This is no different so I must work with the fabric color I can buy at the store.

I’m still happy with the say the skirt turned out! It’s so pink, pretty, and princess-like I can’t wait for the day when I’ll get to wear it with the rest of the costume.

I’m currently working on other parts of the costume, but since they’re not done yet I’ll make separate posts for them.

That’s all for now!