Satine's Black Diamonds Costume
10.25.04
After having my muslin complete for several weeks, I started on the corset part last night. The outside is duck cloth, and the lining is cotton. Next time I'm at the fabric store I'll buy some black velveteen for the tail flaps and lapels. I also ordered some spiral steel boning from Alter Years, which should be here in about a week. I have a lot of bugle beads for the fringe, but I'm going to need more. They're easily obtainable at Joann's. I found a source for sequins (CheepTrims.com). I still need to find a good place to buy rhinestones.
11.1.04
The boning that I ordered from Alter Years arrived today! Something happened with my order, and the company sent me more boning than I ordered, but only charged me for what I asked for! Yay! I asked for 1/4" spiral steel, 2 14", 2 8.5", and 4 10". I ended up receiving 3 14", 2 8.5", and 8(!) 10". In the next few days I'll make casings for the boning and sew it in. I need to get some black velveteen from the fabric store before I can finish sewing in the lining, so that might be another week...but at least it's coming along!
11.14.04
Yesterday I bought the black velveteen for the lapels tails of the corset, and some rhinestones in two different sizes. I'm lining the velveteen pieces with black cotton. Last night and this morning I did the decoration with rhinestones and bugle beads on the lapels. The only thing I haven't done on them is edge them with rhinestones. I'm not sure whether I'll end up gluing individual rhinestones or buying a trim for the edges.
11.28.04
I made some good progress this past weekend. I bought black cotton to line the velveteen with and attached the two tails. All the sewing is done - the rest of this project is putting on decoration (sequins, rhinestones, beads, etc.). I started on the front panel of beaded fringe and got halfway done this weekend. Each string of beads on the fringe is ten inches long. In the actual movie costume there are two layers, one shorter than the other. I'll probably end up only having one layer. Here's the progress I have made so far:
12.27.04
I finished the fringe drape in front a few days ago. My fringe is different from the movie - the bottom edge isn't jagged. I like mine better, and in this I am deviating from being movie-accurate. I also did some sketches of what decorations/beading I want to do on the two tails. I'm going to New York in January, and while I'm there and shopping in the fabric district, I'll look for some rhinestone trim for the straps. I haven't decided yet whether or not I want to trim the lapels and tails in trim or just glue down individual rhinestones. I also decided that I'll probably take the masochistic approach and sew down each strand of sequins instead of gluing them. Here's a picture I took of my progress so far:
1.22.05
I finally got and attached a double row of rhinestone trim for the straps. Woohoo, now it'll actually stay up. I ended up ordering my sequins from Baer Fabrics, because the Cheeptrims website had a minimum order of $65.00. I got about fifty-four yards, because that's all they had in stock. I also started on the fringe on the tails. I've done a few sketches of possible decoration for the "border" around the tails. I've done one that I think I might use. We'll see...
1.30.05
I made a lot of progress this past weekend. I finished one row of the fringe on the tails, started sewing down the sequins, and beading the tails. I have a few pictures of what I've done so far.
The front:
Tail fringe/beading:
Beading detail:
2.5.05
I spent a while working on the tails of my Black Diamonds. I got a good amount of the fringe on one row done and I'm almost finished beading the decoration bit on the outside of the tails. Next month I'm going to order the rhinestones for the bodice so I can start forming the "scale" shapes. I'm also running low on beads, so I might have to get some more of those. The Ebay seller I originally bought them from still has a few bags left, which should be sufficient.
2.20.05
At long last, I took some pictures of the progress on my Black Diamonds costume. The first two are of the fringe and edge decoration on the right tail - I've started on the second row. The third is the row of fringe on the left tail (and you can see how I started putting on the stars on the edge the other day), and the fourth is a picture of the sequins sewn onto the bodice. I'm not doing as much on the bodice right now; I'm going to wait to do more until I buy the rhinestones for the "scales," which will probably be sometime next month.
3.26.05
I finished a scallop of tail fringe on my black diamonds, and did another few scallops with the rhinestones on the bodice after I sewed more sequins down. I now have three and a about 1/3 rows out of eight. I need to replace the lacing rings that I have on there now, because the metal is too thin to hold up under the stress of having it laced tightly. It only looks to be about 18 gauge. I made some 16 gauge steel rings from some of my chain maille wire yesterday, and I might try those to see if they work a bit better. It might be best if I bought some commercially made D rings or something. I'll check for some next time I go to the fabric store.
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