Riven Cosplay - Shirt Upgrade

I like to make costumes I can wear over and over again. Sometimes I have to do a rush job to get the costume done on time, but then I have the opportunity to go back and redo something, give it an upgrade.

It looks a little droopy in front because my dress form is rather flat-chested...

I made a new shirt for my Riven costume. The first shirt was literally three pieces of cotton gauze fabric sewn together at the shoulders and sides. It was really rough, not wearable in public.

This shirt took four (4) hours to make, a nice after-work evening project. The fabric is super-soft, stretchy, and also breathable!

I didn't use a pattern, but I did have a store-bought shirt of a similar fabric, so I traced it to get a pattern for the back, then I draped the rest. If I didn't have a serger, this stretchy fabric would have been a lot more difficult to work with, I would have had to roll all of the hems, yikes! As it is, I just serged the edges every piece of fabric after I cut them out and ended up leaving the arm holes and the bottom hem rough. The bottom will be tucked into the skirt anyway!

I hope I can finish the rest of my upgrades to this costume before PAX. It's less than two weeks away!

Shimmering Mage Blouse

Sometimes fabric inspires me. I found this shimmery cotton which looked like something I thought a mage should wear. Flaming gold, icy blue...

I started making this peasant blouse using a Simplicity pattern. This was back in 2003 I think... and I never finished the project! Nine years later I pulled the half-finished shirt out of my closet and attacked it with my new serger.

When I finished the blouse I decided it really needed something more, like a necklace. I had this charm I had taken off of locket necklace (from Pier 1) and it went with the dress so beautifully that I decided to figure out a way to attach it.

I added an extra ring to the top of the pendant and then sewed a button onto the shirt so the ring could hang from the button. This really worked well! But you know what would make this even better? If I could somehow rig an LED behind that magical orb in the center of the pendant...

The sleeves have a nice opening -- because mages need flowing sleeves that automatically pull back when you raise your hands to cast Ice Bolts and Fireballs.

I hand-stitched gold thread around the sleeve opening for an added touch of magic.

Here's a better shot of the fabric so you can see how shimmery it is! I love it.