Bellatrix Begins . . .

So, I started working on Bellatrix on Friday, ad if the first workday is anything to judge by, it's going to go together surprisingly easily (knocking on wood as we speak). I happen to think my sister is going to look pretty fabulous next month;)

The pattern I chose for the dress is McCall's 5484. It's a lovely pattern that is unfortunately out of print now; I'm glad I picked it up when I did! After looking at refernce pics, I decided Bellatrix was probably in a twist-front dress; I have since realized from different shots that her dress is merely gathered in the front, but I'm not sorry I decided to go the twist-front route. It gives the front of the dress a very nice drape, and I like the detail at the bust. The pattern was very easy, and the dress and sleeves went together quickly.

If you look at the way her dress falls in the pic, especially down the center-front, you can see why I thought she was wearing a twist-front dress. Que sera sera, right?

As for fabric . . . what a pain in the butt. I searched everywhere for the spiral tonal black jacquard that it looks like they used for her, and the only one I found that was close enough came from a company that only sold to the UK. They promised to send me a swatch but I never heard from them, so I had to make other plans. Instead, I chose a black cotton crepe for the outside and a black silk habotai for the inside; the crepe gives it a wonderfully worn texture, and the silk flows beautifully. I jagged-cut the edges of everything, and my sister is going to go back and fray the threads; with the cotton and silk the threads should pull very nicely.


For the spirals I'm using a silver-leafing pen and a white paint pen. The silver-leafing goes on first and the white goes over that, to make several of the spirals pop. It needs more of them, but I got a start on it on Friday. Right now the sleeves are just pinned to the shoulders on my mannequin; they need to get grommets and laces.

As you can see from this pic, she has a hood on her dress, pointed at the top. I didn't have a pattern for this, so I just made one up:

It doesn't have to be functional, so I didn't worry too much about that, though she could wear it if she wanted to. It turned out longer than Bellatrix's hood, but I like the way it hangs.


The wig looks much whiter than it appears in real life! The flash on my camera reflected off the white spray I put in it; in reality, it is only highlighted with grey.

I sculpted and baked the bird skull necklace as well; I want to thank Snapdragon Designs for the reference shots of her own necklace, which I used as a reference for mine. It turned out bigger than the original (what is with me, lately?) but I like it, and so does my sister. It stays!

I'll keep you posted on progress; the corset is up next, and then finishing, with fraying, grommeting, and painting more spirals. Stay tuned . . . .