Monday, October 1, 2012

Steamcon 4- Bast skirt

I have finally- with less than three weeks to go- started on my costumes for Steamcon 4. Saturday's costume will be the Egyptian cat goddess, Bast, but with a Victorian style rather than see through, skin tight, Egyptian draping.

I found a heavy brown, ankle length skirt at a thrift store that looked like it would work. But it needed something that said "Egyptian" so I decided to put a decorative band around the bottom with hieroglyphs. So, after letting out the skirt just a little (thankfully, it didn't have a band, so a little unpicking, steaming, stitching and fusible web later, it fit), I took a narrow piece of ecru cotton and free hand drew hieroglyphs all around it.
















Next, I went over the pencil lines with a brown permanent textile marker.











Then, I took artist's acrylics and painted the heiroglyphs in two shades of brown with a few touches of gold.













I pinned it to the skirt a couple of inches above the bottom, and top stitched it down.















I used a line of dark brown and a line of gold stitching on top and bottom. Then I unpicked the edges of the band, so it's rough and old looking. I can't decide whether to wash the skirt again before wearing it, to make the edges even more frayed. I also can't decide whether to try and antique it a bit with some dye sprayed on. For now, though, this is it.

3 comments:

  1. I think a little tea-dyeing would make it look just the level of antique you are hoping for.

    Really good work!

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  2. These look fabulous!

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