COSTUMES
ORIGINAL CREATION
PINK ROSE DRESS COSTUME
(A.K.A FLOWER MONSTER)
September 2016
I was inspired by my friend Cassandra who had made a rose theme dress to wear to Dragon Con in 2015. She suggested that friends join her in 2016 with various flower theme costumes. I chose pink roses. I wanted my dress to be a bit different since everyone was creating very unique designs, so I decided on a layer cake effect using different shades of pink. I was also inspired by a gown I'd seen on Ru Paul's Drag Race made by House of Cannery. I loved the way the skirt was shaped and wondered what excuse I could ever find to make a costume with that shape - then this flower project came along! The information he posted about the materials used and references to Zac Posen gowns as well as the Charles James Clover Leaf dress helped me a great deal. I also stumbled on a dress by Krikor Jabotian which had a similar skirt structure with flower like ruffles of fabric all over the skirt which convinced me my idea might work!
I created a lace up bustier bodice similar to Cassandra's, and added a structured skirt covered in synthetic flowers which I ordered in bulk. The flowers are sewn to the bodice, but hot glued to the skirt. I used roughly 660 flowers on the skirt.
2016 Dragon Con
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
| Pink Layer Cake Flower Costume | Pink Rose Flower Cosplay | Pink Rose Flower Costume | Pink Rose Flower Dress |
Pink Rose Flower Costume |
 |
 |
|
| Flower Monster Cosplay Group Dragon Con | Flower Costume Group Dragon Con |
Inspiration Photos
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
| Dress by Krikor Jabotian | Zac Posen dress | Pink Doll Layer Cake | Pink Flower Layer Cake and Dress |
WIG
 |
I combined two Hestia wigs in Princess Dark Pink from Epic Cosplay to make a more bouffant beehive style wig. I also trimmed the bangs because they were too long on me to wear straight.
FABRIC: The bodice is made from coutil and pink duchess satin. The skirt is made from 3 shades of duchess satin to match each layer of the flowers. I got two of the three pink duchess satins from MissNancy48 on Etsy who was good about matching samples of the flowers I sent her to the duchess satin samples she had and placed a special order for me. Her turn around time was pretty quick considering she had to special order some of the fabric colors I needed. The skirt uses roughly 25 yards of wide horsehair braid and many yards of plastic boning to support the structure.
SKIRT PATTERN: I drafted it myself. I started out with mock up shapes using paper I purchased on a roll and taped it together. Once I got a shape I hoped would work I mocked it up in cotton crinoline I was able to purchase using a half off coupon at JoAnn's.
BODICE PATTERN : I adapted Kwik Sew 3166 by lengthening the bodice, adding grommets to the back to lace it up, and rasing the cup height to convert it to a full coverage style cup.
