I made Sakizo’s Garden Pansy for a Sakizo Alice in Wonderland group at Katsucon 2016. The ensemble consists of a corset, weird separated sleeves, hoopskirt, fancy panties, fancy tights, ballet shoes, floral head hear, and a mask (which I didn’t make).
For the corset I used a custom underbust pattern I made for myself awhile back. The outer layers, consisting of dupioni silk, satin, and sateen, are Wonderunder-ed to thick twill. The lining layer is dupioni silk. The overall corset construction I did is typical with a busk and grommeted back closure. I added most of the trim to the main part of the corset first, then added the cups (which I frankensteined out of an old bra and shoulder pads), then added the rest of the trim once those were sewn on.
I made the hoopskirt by first making a hoop the size I wanted, then adding the support strips on the sides. I didn’t use a pattern, I kind of just made it up. I used real steel hooping that I inserted into pre-made hooping tape. This made it super easy to assemble. I made a strong twill waistband for it that is covered with the fancy silk belt and trim. Each hooping channel is covered on the front and back with dupioni silk that I cut and ruffled myself. I attached thin green ribbon in the middle, which I pre-knotted first to give it that stem-like knobbly effect.
The little roses were super annoying. For some reason, I guess just because I needed them, I couldn’t find dark purple roses anywhere. I found some light purple ones, and also got a bunch of white and pink ones. I dyed all of those with iDye Poly. Because they were different colors to start with, they have a multicolored effect which is kinda of cool at least. I glued them to the hoopskirt with e6000.
I made the arm cage the same way as I did the hoopskirt. It has an elastic strap around the upper arm to help hold it on. The sleeves are made of stretch jersey and pretty straightforward, just a bunch of fancy trim I found on Etsy.
For the panties I used a base pair of white safety shorts that I dyed slightly ivory. I attached a purple panel in the middle and rows of ruffles. In order to get the fit right, I had to put them on, then pin on the trim, then take them off and sew. The tights were the hardest part of the whole outfit. I put them on, drew on the stripes (and messed up of course, went through 2 pairs), then did the rest of the details as separate attachments. I’d like to redo these some day as the diamond stripes are a bit ghetto.
I made a ton of silk pansies for the shoulder and head by just cutting out the shapes from silk and using a fabric marker to color them. I do wish I’d used thicker silk or backed them, as they were super floppy. The wig was the same one I used for Marie Antoinette with a very similar style.
For her shoes I dyed/painted a pair of my old regular and pointe ballet shoes. I did both because I knew I’d probably get sore in the pointe shoes after awhile at the convention. I used to do ballet and my pointe shoes were professionally fitted to my feet and were comfortably worn in after a lot of use during practice. (DO NOT ever use pointe shoes for cosplay unless you have been trained to use them properly! You could really easily hurt yourself in them.)
