Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Progress

The panel for my Zelda V3.0 gown was absurdly difficult to put together. This is because I'm A - Insane, B - A Perfectionist ... so I decided after lazily painting V1.0 and V2.0 I was going to do something extravagant with V3.0

So I did.
By which I mean I hand-embroidered the entire thing.

Cost: ~$30 for fabric, embroidery needles, paint, and all of the threads
Time: ~70hrs
First, I took blue satin and sewed it into the shape of the panel.Then, satin-stitched around the edge for about six million hours, and fifteen minutes. It took forever because everything had to be so tightly pressed together.


Continued with my method -- sketch the pattern with disappearing ink, and satin stitch over it.
Can't seem to find the rest of the in-between photos...but here is the finale. I used some gold jacquard beads to make the yellow triforce nice and shiny. Off-white thread for the rest of it except the deep purple, and then forest green paint for the ...er, green part.
A comparison between Zelda panel V1.0, V2.0 and Zelda Panel V3.0...as you can see I got better. It actually cost quite a bit more to do V1.0 and V2.0 than V3.0 (acrylic paint = more expensive than embroidery thread), but I spent a fraction of the time on V1.0 and V2.0.


The bodice for Zelda 3.0 was fairly simple to sew up...and took around quite some time to embroider since it was the first thing I did and I'd never actually embroidered before. There are some obvious mistakes that will eventually be repaired.

Cost: ~$24 for fabric and thread
Time: ~20hrs


Thus, it begins...

Close-up

The front, all spiffified.

The back -- I decided to sew the back up so it's a bit of a squeeze to get on but it fits like a glove which is something I have a hard time achieving. Usually things are a bit too large. So the laces are false, I put them through properly but they don't do anything.

Progression photos of the bodice from 2008, 2009, 2010

The white gown was insanely expensive as far as fabric, and took a while to get put together juuuust right. The embellishments on the bottom are just painfully boring, but not terribly difficult. Unlike the other stitches this is an inverted backstitch. Meaning I'm backstitching the underside instead of the top to get a thicker fill. I'm still four away from the end of the bottom of the skirt being done.
Cost: ~$60 for fabric, thread, the paper I drew the pattern on and follow
Time: ~30hrs and counting


All sewed up

Ta da!

The back laces up so I can get it on tightly. I boned where the laces are for some extra sturdiness

Obligatory puppy posing with patterns shot


The embroidery begins.



The four completed
Everything put together and pinned -- and the wagging tail of my dog.


That's as far as I've gotten so far. I still either need to shine up the armor I'm going to reuse...or start working on new armor. I also need to make new gloves, and style my wig. I usually just use my hair, so using a wig is going to be odd. I used to have waist-length blonde hair but I hacked it all off in October 2009 and just recently dyed it brown...so I have to wig it up.