Couture Queen of Hearts Costume

I have wanted to be the Queen of Hearts for years and never had the money for a great costume (I hate cheesy cheap looking costumes) I started sewing about 2 years ago. Self taught. Last year I designed my first creation without a pattern (Maleficient gown and headpiece). This year, I decided to design my own Queen of Hearts gown. I sketched it on a piece of paper and then headed to Joann’s to pick out fabrics to bring my creation to life. I was inspired by Ever After High cartoon version of the Queen Of Hearts (my 5 year old watches the show!)

To make this gown I used: 8 different fabrics, an old white sheet (to line the bodice and make it heavy enough to support the giant draping of the skirt) , interfacing, deck of cards that were all the Queen of Hearts, red glitter cardstock paper, hot glue gun, sewing machine, red felt , boning and ribbon. Store bought heart tiara , red & white wig, hoop under skirt. I created a pattern and started cutting and sewing. Used fusible webbing to attach heart cut outs to other fabrics. Bustle was attached with hooks and the dress goes on. Made the neckpiece by cutting out half hearts out of the redfelt and sewing the boning inside/ attaching it to the back of the collar. Then I hotglued the Queen of hearts cards to the felt. On the back of the neckpiece, I cut out card sized pieces of the red glitter cardstock to make it look like the back of the cards. I hotglued a piece of velcro to the top to help the neck/headpiece stay up and in place. Used cherry red ben nye makeup and ben nye white color cake foundation for the makeup. I did my own makeup as well.

The most awful thing happened when I was in full crunch time mode… 230 in the morning, I accidentally pulled the zipper head off the zipper after it was sewn into the dress! I spent 2 hours in complete frustration -crying because I couldn’t get the zipper head back on. Thought my costume was ruined and all my hours of hard work for nothing. My fingers were raw and I went to bed. I sent my dad a text at 430am telling him about the zipper. He came over at 9am and rescued me. He was able to get the zipper head back on while I finished designing/ hot gluing the neckpiece. Thanks, Dad, for being awesome and saving Halloween!

Everyone said I was the winning costume of the evening that they had seen. A million thumbs ups and “wows”. I had tourist wanting to take pictures with me LOL. A woman asked me to make her wedding gown! I’ve had a few others wanting to me design other dresses/costumes for them. I had others saying I should be on project runway:)

It was alot of fun to make a crazy couture costume from my imagination and definitely my best work to date! Now my 5 year old wants a mini version AND wants to steal my tiara!!! :)

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!

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