Ivy Valentine (concept art) - Soul Calibur 3
Worn March 2010 - started work in December 09!Ivy is awesome. And so severely underdressed. I have seen some incredible Ivy cosplayers, but I have neither the nerve nor the boobs to carry off most of her looks - so I just about wet myself in delight when I found some concept art in which she was ACTUALLY WEARING CLOTHES! Here on in, i've just copied the construction details from the registration form I submitted for the Christchurch comp - in which I won Best Solo :) The dress was one of the easier parts of the costume. I pieced together the panelling on the front with a bit of luck and careful measuring, and ended up making it twice – for some reason I had it fixed in my head that I had to use bridal satin...this was a big mistake. The lack of stretch made it impossible to fit properly and I couldn't move in the dress at ALL. In the interests of keeping the seams stitched and me comfortable (and able to raise my arms high than the elbow) I re-made it in cotton sateen, which is much more comfortable and still has the slightly luxe feel to it. The dress is half-lined to the waist with a mechanical stretch in dove grey. The collar lacework was pre-bought and added by me. The roses at the neckline were ordered from a wedding favours company in Auckland, and were removed from their stems and sewn on individually to a length of snap tape. Beads were also sewn in to pick out some flashes of colour amongst the black. The other side of the tape was stitched to the dress, so the roses can be removed for laundering the dress or transporting it more easily. The tape is slashed at the shoulder seam front and back – as it's non stretch, it restricted my movement quite badly. The roses conceal the gaps very nicely, though, which is nice! I considered bridging the gaps with elastic, but decided it was unnecessary. The lacing at the front of the dress was a bit of an afterthought – there is the suggestion of some kind of detail in the art, although it's a rough sketch only. Lacing is a design motif that features heavily in Ivy's character designs, and has the added advantage of breaking up the roses a bit! I attempted on three separate occasions to make my own gloves, and ended up throwing my hands up in despair and frustration and just buying a pair. I have suffered some loss of accuracy, but given I (remarkably!) still have all my hair after this experience, I consider it a fair trade. The white arm-bands are the same polycotton, embellished with venice lace appliques. The stockings are a nylon stretch, fitted to my legs and held up with WILLPOWER – and also spirit gum. The tops of the stockings are the polycotton featured elsewhere, with yet more lace appliques to detail. The appliques, as with those on the train, were cut and reassembled by hand to make new patterns, and hand-beaded. The train of the dress is where I got to be really creative! Ivy's character background is very noble, and there are several pieces of in-game artwork showing her in huge gowns and looking every bit the Lady of the Manor, so to speak. To reflect this, I took several pieces of rayon lace applique and pieced together the design on the tails, cutting and sealing larger pieces of lace where needed. Once I had the design, I hand-dyed each piece before stitching them to the dress and adding beading and MORE lace! Each piece of individual applique was chosen with “noble” in mind; the peacocks in particular, though they also allude to Ivy's vanity and solid role as “hot chick” in the game. The appliques were dyed three times, to my horror. The first time I made up a dye solution based on trying to avoid buying urea or sodium alginate as used in a proper direct transfer method, and barely changed the colour of the lace at all. The second time, I failed to mix in the soda ash fixer when mixing my colours, and consequently the dyeing was uneven and splotchy, and not nearly as intense as I was aiming for (despite leaving the dye for over 48 hours!). Round three was FINALLY successful – my chemical water (water, urea and sodium alginate thickener) was cut with a slightly stronger soda ash mix, properly dissolved this time, and a little more dye pigment; and was much more successful. UNFORTUNATELY – I then decided I didn't like it, and ended up simply painting on a completely different design. The new design is based on an image of a plaster ceiling I found, and was re-drawn with a few more flourishes. I incorporated some snakes into the design to reflect the serpentine nature of Ivy's sword. The paint is white fabric paint with a touch of gold and silver mixed in to give it a slightly metallic sheen, and edged with silver. The snake-sword is my first serious effort at prop-making, and was a bit of a mission! Ivy's sword is a sword that segments out into a bladed whip, and in the game is a living entity. With those wooden snake toys in mind that seem to move on their own, I chose to use a slightly stiff, “sinewy” material for the core of the whip. I ended up using PVC tubing intended for shower heads, using two full 1.5m lengths and joining them with a brass connector inside one of the blade segments. The flexibility of the PVC when weighted by the sword segments is not as fluid as chain or rope, but allows a different sort of movement. The sword segments and hilt were cut from illustration board and glued to the tubing at 25cm (ish) intervals. With three sides attached, small screws were inserted to stop the segments from sliding up and down the tube, and the gaps filled with insulation foam. This is light enough to not affect the movement of the sword too much, but solid enough that the segments are in no danger of collapsing on themselves. The segments were then paper-mached, covered with polyfilla, sanded, primed, sanded, sealed, painted and sealed again. The hilt was embellished with jewels and a lattice made of craft foam. The snake belt detail and pieces of foot armour were treated the same way – base shapes made from a combination of wire, masking tape, newspaper and illustration board before being slathered in PVA and newspaper. The fascinator is based on a pre-bought base from spotlight, and covered with matching purple sateen and bound with satin bias binding, embellished with a black veil and rose to match the neckline. All photos by Jp, thiefed from the Vault of Souls Again, I do plan on a proper shoot at some point, hopefully not in the too-distant future :) 
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