Clara (Skies of Arcadia)
creation: June 2002worn at: AX 2002, Otakon 2002, Nekocon 2002
why clara?: Shortly after Akon, I decided I must do Clara. She is the character in Arcadia that I most want to BE. Plus, I happened across a Gilder who said he'd be going to one of these conventions, so how could I pass up that opportunity?? Everything about Clara is perfect. She's a pirate. She has a pink ship called the Primrose. She has a pink dress. She has a crew of super cute little pirate girls. She is chasing after the coolest character ever. She is soooo cool! I really cannot express my love for Clara & Gilder in one brief paragraph. Trust me, they are awesome.
con notes: My cute little sister decided to go as Belle at AX (and Otakon), and the beautiful Ramirez was there as well. I didn't have the wig on Thursday when I wore it for the group shot, so you can see my hideous brown hair. eww! I wore this in the AX masquerade. A small video of it (low-quality) can be seen here. I did a simple walkon which lasted all of 23 seconds, with the main Arcadia theme playing. It was great! At Otakon, I found a GILDER. YES. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!! At Nekocon, we had perhaps the largest Arcadia group photo shoot ever. And I won first place in the hall costume contest.
construction: This was my most challenging project yet! The majority of the dress is constructed from pink velvet (my first time ever using velvet!). I used several patterns for victorian dresses and mixed and matched to get as close as possible. I spent countless hours sewing trims and lace onto the dress. There are five layers of various trims and fabric on the bodice alone! I put red heart buttons on the bodice because they were super cute. The braid on the skirt is an upholstery braid, with the ends fastened so that they would not fray. I hemmed the skirt by hand because I could not get it straight any other way, and attached more lace, also by hand. The collar was frustrating, but ended up looking fine in the end. There is small lace sewed around the top of the collar as well as at the cuffs of the sleeves, but you cannot see it in pictures. The white part of the dress forming the center panel up the front is tafetta with a few layers of lining to make it a pure white. There are a lot of darts in the main part of the bodice as well as the lining, with boning sewn in to make it more fitted. All of the bows are made with floral ribbon, because I liked the color and wanted a wire in the sides. I handsewed pearls to the borders of the bow in front and in back. I purchased the gloves from a vintage store, but had to add a panel since they were too tight on me. I used a scrap of brown for the pieces on the arms, with glossy black buttons. I wore some knee-high brown boots under this. I had a hoop skirt and petticoat that I bought worn under this to give it more lift. I made the symbols on the belt and hairpiece out of sculpey painted silver, which made them quite heavy. I bought the wig during AX, and styled it there. Since the hairpiece was so heavy, I had to use four additional hairclips to make it stay balanced. I actually remembered to wear brown contacts and put on a beauty mark (though, with eyeshadow, because I suck and didn't have a pencil). I made the heart earrings myself. I bought some plastic flowers from JoAnns on sale and carried those to complete the outfit.
photo credits: Eurobeat King, Maboroshi Studios