singing sheep @operaticsheep - Tumblr Blog

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup :)

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

hey y’all!!

this is my old tumblr account from high school, but i’m hijacking it to do some write-ups on the cosplays i’m working on right now. i’m too much of a chatterbox to not yap on and on about what i’m sewing/crafting day to day and i would be so annoying if i documented the whole ass thing on instagram stories. follow along if you’d like, this is 99% for my own enjoyment though!

my fiance (now husband!! <3) is running curse of strahd and i can’t get enough of it in between sessions, so i’m making both strahd and volenta for the two of us :) this is my first cosplay since getting an education in theatrical costuming (and since leaving the profession), so it’s really weird coming into it with way more experience than before! we’re going to be entering the cosplays into a competition this june! baby’s first master division entry! :o

i’m basing strahd off of this official rendering and this (insanely helpful, not nearly as in the shadows) rendering by jobonito_art (doesn’t look like they’re on tumblr :/)!! and i’m basing volenta off of @calebisdrawing ‘s renderings of her! i’m taking my favs from both of these references but especially the silhouette of the second!! i could go on and on and on about that, but i’ll do that in my grand panniers post i’m putting up right after this one ;)

currently, i’m just over 60 hours into the project (not counting all of the prep work i did to buy everything during black friday, saved $215!!) and have a very long way to go! follow along if you’d like!

links to:

grand panniers (COMPLETE, 1 update)

opera gloves from hell (COMPLETE, 2 updates)

stockings and heels (COMPLETE, 3 updates)

volenta mask and wig (COMPLETE, 2 updates)

volenta's skirts (COMPLETE, 2 updates)

volenta's bodice and jabot (COMPLETE)

strahd's wig (2 updates)

strahd's tunic (COMPLETE)

strahd's armor (COMPLETE)

makeup and more (1 update, COMPLETE)

#cosplay wip #curse of strahd #curse of strahd cosplay #strahd von zarovich #volenta popofsky

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: armor!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

i'm super excited about strahd's armor bc i taught my husband how to work with eva foam and he took on about half of the workload, so this is a collaborative effort! :)

first was the pattern! i like to make a mockup out of a stronger paper to do alterations before moving onto foam. i based these patterns off of some hip/shoulder armor patterns from kamuicosplay!

my husband then cut and sanded and glued together all of the pieces! one of my gripes with these pieces which is 100% on me and not on my husband is that i used foam clay to fill in seams and i'm not a fan of how it looks >:/ my husband tried his best to sand it but in the end, i'd rather use caulk like i usually do next time smh.

NEXT UP, puffy paint! :)

if you take a good look at strahd's armor, you can tell that there's some sort of intricate detail, BUT even on the official references, all the details are just random squiggles!! therefore i took it upon myself to make cohesive squiggles! my husband collected a bunch of reference images of historical armor and i messed around with them until i found something i liked! my favorite part: i really like the raven crest on the hip pieces :) i transferred the pattern using an awl (not fun. so many little holes and lots of connect the dots) and covered it with puffy paint (which raises even more when you heat it!)

after my husband did the priming and spray painting, i still thought it looked a little flat, so i went in and drybrushed some shadows around every single lifted detail. it's such a small touch but it helps SO MUCH!!

finished pieces!! :) where it stands right now, i actually have to finish shading one more hip piece, and then i have to figure out a way to attach the armor to the tunic, BUT these are essentially close enough to done!

total hours on the armor is 36! i think it'll be closer to 40-ish once it's DONE done tho! :)

#cosplay wip #curse of strahd #curse of strahd cosplay #strahd von zarovich

operaticsheep

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: makeup and more!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

i decided i might as well do a writeup on makeup too since i've done a few tests at this point! (tumblr's giving me a content warning but i swear there's nothing bad LOL)

so many of the things i really liked from my first run were solely out of necessity but i ended up really liking them! first off, i didn't have any grey body paint, so i used the super light yellow-toned foundation i use for goth nights and mixed it with a bit of light blue body paint and that actually worked great (and felt so much lighter compared to straight body paint!!) i've since abandoned that because i got influenced to get some airbrush body paint instead in the hopes that it doesn't rub off! (theoretically it only comes off with coconut oil LOL) but the other happy accident was shading! i didn't have a grey eyeshadow, so i used a darkish blue, a lightish maroon, and a light yellow to make a blueish greyish tone, and i actually really loved the depth it gave! in some spots it was a little splotchy but overall i thought it worked great!

(my fiance! i think he makes a handsome strahd :) )

my fiance's gonna be a bearded strahd because his beard is important to him! for this test, i just dusted some black eyeshadow on his beard, but i'm thinking about getting some beard tint to make it look more natural. i also focused on aging him up but not going too harsh with it. i think i'm the biggest fan of the nasolabial fold area!! check out the gnarly eyebrows too! :)

i'm also considering doing some hand makeup for strahd since that bitch complains about being old--might as well look it too! i definitely have to lighten my hand on the next go and also see if my fiance can wash his hands everywhere but the makeup, we'll see!

(i didn't realize i'd be posting these pics online when i took them LOL, check out the epic matching pjs!!)

this is pretty much the makeup i do for goth nights but recolored LOL! my biggest makeup philosophy is: if my eye makeup is gonna be swallowed by my hooded eyes, i'm just gonna shift it down so there's no way it stays hidden!! you can't see it normally but there's a whole ass red smoky eye in there >:/ GRANTED will you see any of this behind the mask? probably not much and DEFINITELY not onstage, but my hopes are that you can at least see a little! the changes i want to make to my next test are 1) more eyeshadow under the eyes, and more black instead of just red! and 2) i got a lot of fallout near the nose bridge from working on my eyes so i want to see if i can fix that for next time >:|

next!! i made nails for strahd! :)

(take a look at that crazy setup, i didn't want to buy a nail stand so i made a janky one out of an eva foam sheet, eva foam half dowel, and bamboo sticks LOL)

i made these guys with the same technique i went over in my gloves post, but this time i sanded them down extra well and painted them! i tried to match the details on my own nails as well as i could. total time for the nails was 4.5 hours, it was a really nice small project to work on while i was waiting for my mask to dry!

(updates will be through reblogs, check out my page for more!)

operaticsheep

i did another makeup test for strahd so i figured i'd post it here! :)

we ended up buying some airbrush body paint because that shit stays ON so i did a test to make sure everything was good!! i think the hands look sick as hell, but we'll see how long they hold up at the con LOL. i'm SUPER excited for the con but this application took 2 hours AND i have to do my own makeup on top of that, so it's gonna be quite the early morning for us!!

(also omg don't mind the lace on the wig!! wig isn't done so lace is still intact LOL)

#cosplay wip #curse of strahd #strahd von zarovich #curse of strahd cosplay

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: tunic!!

(no curse of strahd spoilers please!! :o )

this is going to be a LONG post because this was a very very long process. spoilers for how long it took: 127.25 hours!! you may be thinking there's no way. don't worry, that's what i was thinking too LOL!

FIRST OFF, i had to make a pattern. i am wildly scared of flat patterning so i just took to my tried and true plastic wrap and duct tape method. i marked out side seams, shoulder seams, and princess seams at this point. i then made a mockup using that pattern and adjusted it for what felt like five billion times until i was alright with the fit. THEN, i drew on all of the crazy shapes and panels on strahd's tunic and cut that mockup up to use as pattern pieces. and i made another mockup LOL. after constructing THAT mockup, i touched it up until i was okay with it and made adjustments to my pattern, and then it was time to move on!

(some of the mockup progress pics!! i really had a LOT to adjust LOL.)

then came the proper construction which TOOK ACTUALLY FOREVER. part of it was that there were a ton of different panels in different colors with crazy curves, and part of it was that every single panel had piping and i had to make sure all the piping was connected and matched up at seams where it wasn't connected. AND it was lined. when i tell you i got so sick of working on this dang tunic that i kept abandoning it to work on other garments. i think i finished two other entire projects while putting this thing off LOL. it's easier to explain the process with a bunch of pics, so here's a dump!

the beginning of the process, putting everything together including piping. it was a very slow process but it was really satisfying seeing the big chunks come together! you can see how crazy the inside of the garment was, and it only got crazier as time went on! a fun fact: i went out to buy more cording not once but twice LOL.

then came the connecting. which i think was by far the most rage-inducing!! this is the part that made me want to take extended breaks LOL. at any seams where there was piping on both sides, i had to make sure that they matched up which meant a lot of seam ripping EVEN AFTER basting!! it was messed up!! for the rest, i had to manually connect all of the lines of piping. each time i had to do it, i had to unpick and roll up the casing, cut the cording so that the ends met, roll up and fold the casing ends so that one laid neatly over the other, and then machine or hand stitch it onto everything else depending on how busy the seam allowances on the inside got. this happened over and over and over!! i was so happy when it was over LOL.

next up was the lining! this part was kinda bs because i serged all of my edges but my serger kinda shit itself and it made the seams super ugly, so i had to cut off all the serging and that left me with little itty bitty seam allowances! it was so difficult to work with!! i ended up having to put in extra panels in a few spots (like the zipper) to make up for it but it's on the inside, so no biggie! lining was a lot of pinning and hand basting and topstitching, BUT the piping made the topstitching REALLY satisfying, so i was a-okay with that step LOL.

next up was the decorations on the front of the tunic! for this, i stitched a brooch on top of a decorative frog and then stitched that onto the tunic! strahd has 6 but i decided to only do 5 because one would be covered up by his wrap. (that and each one cost like $8 to make and i had already spent WAY more than enough money on these fits LOL)

final pics!! :) i don't have one of the final version on my husband just yet because i have been in CRUNCH mode, but it's all done! and it only took almost 130 hours... all in all, she has her issues but i'm still really proud of how she turned out! :) i'm also IN LOVE with the fabric! i tried to cut down costs where i could (which often ended up being things like getting poly taffeta for volenta instead of silk taffeta) but i decided to splurge on strahd's fabric and got some real dupioni silk and YES it was expensive but it looks GORGEOUS!! having the tunic done makes it all feel very real now!

#cosplay wip #curse of strahd #curse of strahd cosplay #strahd von zarovich

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: volenta bodice and jabot!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

unlike all of my other posts where i started with a mockup, i actually locked in so hard on these that i pushed through until i was completely finished LOL!! first, here's my bodice! :)

(i hate peplums 99% of the time but this is an exception >:) my waist is INVISIBLE!)

the process for making the bodice was surprisingly really simple! i made a pattern using the plastic wrap/duct tape method and it was easy peasy because the seams were basic and straight! i chose to pleat my ruffles instead of gathering them so that they would look more cohesive with the pleated skirt, and that took FOREVER but i think it really paid off :) i think one of the hardest parts of the bodice was the zipper because it was a separating zipper AND had to be inserted with lining AND i wanted it to be a lapped zipper so the zipper isn't visible from the back, and all three of those things were separate tutorials that i had to blend together!! my husband made me a drink the night that i installed it too, so i somehow did all that while tipsy LOL.

(here are the layers to the bodice! the top layer was the faux taffeta i used to make the gown which i added interfacing to, and it was lined with just a cheapo matching lining fabric! i would upload a pic of my mockup too, but it turned out a LOT more boobalicious than my final version, so i'm worried tumblr might flag it :/ )

(here's me pleating the fabric! when i close my eyes, all i see is yellow and all i feel is my hands pleating fabric LOL. this pic was actually from the process of making the jabot, which leads me to:)

(4am me rocking the jabot)

this one was awesome!! a lot of what i've made for this cosplay has turned out differently than how i expected it and that's been a bit of a disappointment, but this one worked out perfectly! that's actually a lie--i didn't have enough fabric in the back to have a snap closure like i had intended, so i just added some ties in the back instead. but it's so cute!! i want to wear it all the time LOL!

with that, my volenta cosplay is finished minus some weathering and bloodying! :) i really gotta lock in on making strahd wearable tho, so the finishing touches on volenta will have to wait. once i get the chance to try everything on at once, i'll post some pics!!

the total time spent on the bodice came out to 41.25 hours, and the jabot took 5 hours!

#cosplay wip #curse of strahd #volenta popofsky #curse of strahd cosplay

operaticsheep

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: volenta mask and wig!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

okay this post is going to be a little weird, i have to build both at the same time since they depend on each other!

i started out with kamuicosplay's skull mask and epic ram horns patterns for a base which was a GODSEND!! i've never used eva foam patterns before and it was such a breeze just getting to put the pieces together and call it a day! :) i did a paper mockup before anything and just ended up snipping off maybe 1/2" near the teeth, SO EASY!!

(all that work and i didn't have to do ANY of it!! >:) )

what wasn't so easy was the beveled edges, this was def not something i encountered as a high schooler making my own eva patterns off of bullshit and a dream LOL! i cut the pieces like normal (first time having a blade sharpener too, that shit was SMOOTH!) and then manually beveled each edge with my dremel, BUT i only realized as i was gluing everything together that i did the bevels completely backwards :/ that was a real downer until i realized that just meant that my markings would be on the inside of the mask instead of the outside--crsis averted!! i was able to cut everything out and glue it all together in one day, just in time for our strahd session! ;)

(so nice to be able to crunch this out in one day!!)

next was using foam clay! i had technically used it before but it was for a show i had designed so i would say it doesn't count (ESPECIALLY because i have no clue how i made it look so smooth!!! i was graced by the hand of god for this one mask)

(okay maybe it's not THAT smooth, but much smoother than what i was able to do today!)

i was shaking in my boots so bad for the whole process because sculpting is way out of my expertise LOL. I'M PROUD THAT I GOT THE MAJOR SHAPES! i'm having some issues with it being lumpy and not being perfectly mirrored (that and i think the horns drooped as i worked with them!! >:/ ), BUT when it dries i'm gonna sand it down and give it some proper texture and see if i need to add/take away any more clay. it's so hard to not just focus on the things i wish were different, but i'm pushing myself to be proud and take it as a win!!

(it took a LOT to trust the process!!)

i would post wig pics but she and i are fighting right now >:( i ended up going mad scientist mode about it and started cooking up funky contraptions, which means things were not going well LOL. long story short is the curling mechanism i used didn't work well, and the wig i got might be too short for proper ringlets. we'll see, send me your well wishes!

total time for the mask so far is 9 hours, and total time for the wig is 1.5 hours!

(updates will be through reblogs, check out my page for more!)

operaticsheep

lots of updates, but i'm still on the first phase of the project!

first off, i started sanding/dremeling the mask which was great! i'm so thankful that i'm going for a cracked, bony texture because the sanding whittled away any chunks of clay but kept some cracks and dents! i got to carve out some details (mostly in the teeth area, they're no longer as marshmallow-y!) but accidentally took out too much around the forehead, so i decided to go back in to add some more clay before doing anything else. my biggest peeve with this project is that the clay takes 1-2 days to dry (and exposing some of the deeper clay means it gets soft), so i've just been twiddling my thumbs :/ arghhhh

(loved how smooth but cracked it got, didn't like how much i took away :/ we persist!)

while i was waiting for it to dry, i made some texture for the ram horns!! :) i'm really proud of how these turned out! i'm realizing i actually really like sculpting, i hope i can do more in the future!!

(i never explained in the past post! these pieces are all from the same mask, but it would be too difficult and bulky to have it be one piece and blend with the wig well, so the ram horns will be attached separately. the mask pieces will be attached to the wig using magnets!!)

after that, i made some texture for the horns on top of the mask too! my goal for these was to find a happy medium between the harsh texture of the ram horns and the smoother texture of the skull. at the same time, i added some extra clay to the mask to try to balance out uneven areas. i think i'm doing a pretty good job with that BUT i think the smaller horns are gonna be permanently lopsided which sucks BALLS :/ whatever, maybe the animal this thing came from had a wonky skull, WHO KNOWS

(i like where the clay is sitting now, so i'm going to focus on just sanding and redefining the indents after it dries and puffs out and then adding more cracks. not taking out the big chunky tools again!!)

on top of that, i figured out how to make volenta's ringlets! it took me a good 2.5 hours of sitting there with a curling iron and praying but i finally got something down! my tried and true method was to take a section of hair, straighten it twice, spray it with hairspray, curl it all the way to the root (BUT wrap as much as i could around the iron before closing it and curling more), use my operation board game skills to shimmy the hair off of the iron, pin it until it cools, spray it with so much hairspray that it doesn't feel like hair anymore, and then gently pull the curl from the inside until it lowers! and then more hairspray <3

(uggy as hell for now but i figured it out!! :O )

BUT you can probably see just HOW MUCH hair goes into one ringlet, so i didn't have a long enough wig >:/ i was not very excited to order a new one but HEY, this can just be a mockup wig... (i'm also realizing now that sewing in the magnet pouches into the wig would be horrible with styled hair, so maybe this is a blessing in disguise...)

(the wig before styling! i ended up ordering one that goes halfway down the back so that i'll have plenty of wiggle room!)

total time on the mask is now 18.75 hours, and total time on the wig (mockup :/ ) is now 4 hours!

operaticsheep

FINISHED!! god it felt so good getting both done in one day! because the mask and the wig are so intertwined, i have to go back and forth to talk about them. keep scrolling to see the finished product LOL!!

first was the placement of the mask and horns on the wig! i knew that i wanted them to connect via magnets, but when i tried on the wig and the mask together, i realized that the mask ended before where the wig started. i knew i needed an extension on both sides of the wig to sew some magnets in, and i decided that, since i already wanted to have a yellow ribbon in the back of the wig to kind of look like the mask was tied on, i'd make those extensions yellow as well to make it look like it connects!

(those little circles are the magnets! also god sewing into a wig was kind of a sensory nightmare!! i'd do it again but i'd have to psyche myself up to do it!)

once the main mask attachment was situated, i moved onto the horns, which, LET ME TELL YOU, took an ENTIRE weekend. AT LEAST 8 HOURS OF WORK. volenta's lucky that i like her so much--otherwise i might have chucked the wig across the room at some point >:/

(sorry the fabric square got SO GROSS!!! this pic was taken after i covered the wig in about half a bottle of hairspray LOL)

this is what i settled on! i have a 1.5"x1.5" square of fabric with 4 magnets stitched inside AND a snap! i'll spare you my entire process but it ended up moving from the inside to the outside and that helped a ton! when the horn goes on, the snap secures it to the wig, and the magnets ensure that the angle of the horn doesn't move.

(i'm not sure how to add video so take a pic of the placement instead :/ BUT i can headbang and all of the mask pieces stay completely secure! very proud of myself for that :)

NEXT UP is the painting process for the mask pieces!

WOWEE!! it turned out way cooler than i thought!! :) the painting process was actually really easy--once i got a solid layer of cream on first, i painted on some dark brown and then wiped it away, and it stuck in the crevices of all the texture i added! IMMEDIATELY gave it so much depth omg!

(isn't that crazy??? i really like how it turned out!! :) )

next up is the wig!! i should preface this by saying that i'm not 100% happy with how it turned out but it's close enough and i need to move onto the rest of the cosplay so that i can finish everything :/ perfectionism is a BITCH!!

ughhhh there are some things i would like to clean up and it's also a little bit long on me but IT'S A WIG!! i won't go into the process bc it's long and it made me mad LOL. BUT this is so crazy, there's so much hairspray that got on the ribbon that it is now CRISP!! i was planning on burning the edges during the weathering phase but maybe i'll just leave this one be...

ALL TOGETHER!! i'm tired and i'm moving onto the next thing!!

total time for mask and wig combined: 52.75 hours!

#cosplay wip #volenta popofsky #curse of strahd cosplay

operaticsheep

strahd + volenta cosplay writeup: skirts!

(no strahd spoilers please!! :O )

next up is volenta's many skirts!! i used to work in opera so layers upon layers upon layers of skirts is right up my alley LOL! here's a breakdown of all the skirt layers:

1: the grand panniers!! they're a mid-18th-century undergarment, check out this post for a rundown of how i made them! this layer goes on first and it's the layer that gives the skirts its structure and shape.

2: the petticoat! this goes on top of the grand panniers and its purpose is to smooth out any bumps and ridges from the panniers and to add a little bit of volume. the petticoat will be 2" shorter than the main skirts because we want it to be hidden, but the panniers are 4" shorter than the petticoat because we REALLY don't want to see them!

3: the underskirt! this is essentially the same exact skirt as the petticoat but in yellow LOL. it just gets to look pretty!

4: the overskirt! this will be a layer that wraps around the back but is missing a panel in the front so that you can get a glimpse of the underskirt! it's also gonna have some wacky pleating!

just like the panniers, i got this from a pattern so SMOOTH SAILING!! i love not having to bullshit my own pattern for once LOL!

this is the entire width of the petticoat! if you're thinking WOW that's so wide, it was actually supposed to be 50" wider!! i had a little crash out when i realized i had run out of fabric BUT it ended up not being a problem at all >:)

the next step was to gather up the entire skirt and level the hem! this is also how i found out that i cut the length of the panels really wonky, oops LOL.

after that was pleating the waist down! each quarter of the skirt was 50 something inches and needed to be pleated down to EIGHT inches!! i redid the pleats a ton because i couldn't figure out what i liked best! i ended up doing a big pleat in the center, a smaller pleat on either side, and even smaller pleats for the rest, but i think for the underskirt i'm going to do a WAY bigger center pleat so that things sit more flat in the center.

finished petticoat YAYYYYYYY! i almost killed my machine having it stitch through all the layers of pleats but i emerged with a full petticoat LOL! here it is on the panniers, and bonus picture of a very tired me at 2:30AM wearing the petticoat without the panniers. it's crazy how important the panniers are!

next up is the underskirt! cannot wait to repeat the last 3 days of my life but be looking at yellow fabric instead this time LOL.

total time for the petticoat: 13 hours!

(updates will be through reblogs, check out my page for more!)

operaticsheep

short and sweet update, underskirt is done!!

(check out the side openings! those are for pocket access! :) )

i'm really happy with how this turned out!! for the most part... i don't know how but i swear i added enough inches to the hem for there to be enough extra room with the petticoat but it seems to have shrunk somewhere in the process >:/ i'm leaving the hem unfinished because i'm going to go back in during the weathering/bloodying process to cut and burn it, but i need enough room to make cuts without the petticoat showing through too much! i already took up the petticoat hem up another 1.5", and i might have to do more and see if i can finagle some extra room on the panniers too... as much as i REALLY want to get to the bottom of this and do that now, i have to pump out as much of the costume as i can for my first deadline, so that'll have to wait for now >:/

up next is the overskirt! fingers crossed it's not too difficult!

total time on the underskirt: 11.25 hours! i got a little bit faster with this one! :)

operaticsheep

DONE DONE DONE!! everything on the lower half of my body is DONE!

(check it out!! but everyone ignore the back of my stays or else BE EVAPORTED!! younger me did not accommodate for older me's luscious, luscious hips when she made these >:| )

i'm so happy to have finished this! :) i was a little nervous going into the overskirt coming back from pre-made patterns and jumping right back into self-drafted stuff, but i'm actually really proud of how it turned out and it's a huge relief! the perfectionism still hits but it's pretty gosh darn good :)

(my mockup and a curved pleat WIP!)

SO MANY PLEATS ON THIS THING!! if i'm remembering correctly, i believe there's 37 vertical pleats and 5 curved pleats! each curved pleat took an entire 2 hours to mark and sew and press and GOD DAMN did it test my patience sometimes! doing normal pleats is one thing but those curves were gnarly!! i'm so excited that it's done though :)

total time is 33.5 hours!! i still have to finish the hem BUT that'll come next in my weathering post down the line >:) yay!