Halloween Costume

Darling Daughter has asked for a Xena, Warrior Princess costume this year. She has wanted this for a few years, but has lived away (at the University of Waterloo) and has been too far away for fittings. This is the year. Here is the photo that we will copy....

Here is the bodice work. I used a McCalls pattern 4109 for a corset type bodice. The fabric is a distressed dark brown fake leather. The bodice has many seams, all top stitched .25 inches from the seam, and piped at the bottom edge.

The "skirt" is made of many strips of leather, rounded at the end. I made these by bonding two layers together (right sides out) and top stitching around the edges.

There is a second layer of "riveted" half circles. I sewed these together just out of view under the next layer and the "rivets" are actually hot-fix metallic studs.

I am working out the kinks of making the metallic overlays for the wrist, knee, arm-bands. The shoulder-pads are leather with metal overlays, and the breast and back plates are more difficult and will likely need paper mache, painted metal... not sure yet. Stay tuned!