Moving along...

Well, I have five days left in my quest to make a costume in time for a photo shoot. Although it doesn't seem like I'm very far along, I do believe I'm over the hump. Personally, I think the bra construction is really time consuming in order to get a good fit. Once that is done and it's covered, then the decorating can begin. I really should have starting taking pictures from the beginning, but here are a couple of shots so you can see the behind the curtain. The first one is just the back of the bra strap. This, along with the inside of the bra will be lined with felt (so you can sweat in it) at the very end. I tried to make my corner as neat as possible.

Here's the insider of the bra. I just happened to find a pink bra (maybe that was a sign) but really, it could have been any color you just need to worry about shape and fit. The original straps and elastic on the sides have been replaced by buckram and grosgrain ribbon, covered in fabric and then stitched down. Not so pretty on the inside, but very functional. I've also made numerous adjustments to the fit at this stage of the game because it's much harder to do once you've covered it.

The infamous beading? Well, here it is in this photo. The color is a little wonky on the close up but you can see the trim. This is going around the edges of the bra, belt and arm cuffs. The bra, including all edges and lines was about 120 inches of beading. The beads are in sets of six sitting on top of each other in a semi-herringbone pattern. By my calculations, I used over 5,000 seed beads to complete the bra. The belt won't take nearly as much!

Here's a shot of the trim that will be going on the costume. I'm not beading the entire thing, but I have loads of these chains. They are actually rhinestone belts that I snatched up on sale at Kohl's last year (go figure). My plan was to finish adding them to the bra tonight, but I can't seem to find my pliers so that may be tomorrow's plan.

In the meantime, I got my skirt fixed (thanks D'Anne) and received my L-Rose arm bands and belt I'll use on my base. Those should be easy to get through hopefully. Finally, in the absence of trying to bead, I worked on my technique for drawing leopard spots on myself. There's certainly a plan here (not related to the photos), and it's quite fun. In fact, this is the first time I could really imagine myself with a tattoo...hmmm...

Next posts should have some really cool bra photos and perhaps a semi-finished costume!