Over the fall I constructed a costume based off the character Asseylum Vers Allusia from the anime Aldnoah Zero. Read on for my notes on making this costume!
Whenever you convert a simplified drawing into a 3 dimensional outfit, it helps to have real world references to take construction ideas from. When I look at Asseylum's dress, I see a number of similarities to an Elizabethan gown. It has a large standing collar, a full skirt, a V shaped bodice, rose accents, and puffed sleeves. Due to that, I decided to work on this costume with historical references in the back of my mind.
The necklace is made from 2 different types of glass pearls, a crescent moon charm, a faceted bead, and a Swarovski crystal pendant.
The dress is made of a White Cotton Sateen, with the accents made of Casa Matte Satin and Matte Charm Satin.
Her collar is too modern in appearance to make it like a traditional ruff, so I decided to knife pleat it instead. The collar has an inner layer of buckram to give it structure. It snaps to the underside of the dress collar. I finished the edge of the ruff with a lace and pearl trim.
The front design was created with appliqué. The back of the costume features the same.
I like the look of very uniform ruffles so most of the ruffles on the dress were made using a ruffler foot. The exception being the wrist frills, which were gathered by hand.
The ruffles on the cuff are circle ruffles, cut and gathered from a circle of fabric to give them the right kind of drape. They were finished with a napkin hem.
To address the weight of the skirt and to make it easier to put on, this dress is made up of a separate top and skirt. There are a number of different options on how to make a full skirt, from gores to gathering. Following the example of some Elizabethan gowns, my skirt uses knife pleats to create volume. This creates extra weight, so a sturdy hoopskirt was needed to support the heavy skirt. I finished the hem with 1” wide horsehair to help give the hemline some extra lift. The trim gradually rises in the back of the dress so the ruffles were pinned on while the skirt was draped over my hoopskirt. The ruffle was then machine stitched in place.
To create the rosettes:
Sew a 60” long tube out of a fabric strip. Turn it right side out and iron it flat.
Knot one end of the fabric strip.
Starting at the knot, wrap the strip around the knot.
Continue to wrap the strip around the knot, folding the strip over as you rotate it.
Fold as much as looks good. The fold points will create the rosette ‘petals’.
Once the flower shape is formed, use fabri-tac and thread to secure the end of the strip and the petals.
The rosettes were hand stitched in place after the fabri-tac dried. For Asseylum’s wig, I styled a Venus in Fairy Blonde from Arda Wigs into her hairstyle. The Results: Pau
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If you are working on this costume or a similar one and have a question I can help answer, leave a comment below!
Post Update:
This post has been relocated in its original form to my new website hosting in January 2021. Previous comments on the post were not migrated.