Otto and Victoria, a Celebration

I just had a most excellent day. Long story short, I won grand prize in the Otto and Victoria Cosplay Contest and I am so thrilled I have been smiling all day. The other cosplayers rocked their costumes and we celebrated our love of Otto and Victoria, together.

Who is Otto and Victoria you might ask? The awesome creation of Brian Kesinger. I may have mentioned him before, and if you haven't checked out his work, go, do it now, I'll wait. Here's his Deviant Art page. Here's some of his art:

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Isn't it awesome and amazing and doesn't it fill you with smiles?  Ok, so when I first saw the art and looked through it, I knew I wanted to cosplay some of his absolutely gorgeous Victorian dresses and clothing he has designed for Victoria. One drawing in particular caught my eye, due to its playfulness, its reference to animal training and because I thought I might actually be able to make the outfit (I'm still new on my path of sewing and cosplay.) There are others I want to make, oh yes, but that is for another day. By the end of DragonCon 2013, this past labor day, I set my sights on this one.

Just to give a peek into my emotional reaction to this artwork, I offer the following -

First I had to find patterns. I looked through my pattern collection and picked out these to use and possibly modify if need be.

Simplicity 5006 - for the corset, seen underneath it. This was my first time constructing a corset and it wasn't that bad. I used heavy duty cable/zip ties I bought from Lowes as the boning and it works great. p.s. Lowes really likes it when you tweet at them about walking their isles for cosplay supplies.  I matched the blue in the drawing to the best simple cotton I could find at Jo-Ann. I also added a layer of duck cloth in between the blue cotton and muslin lining.  The corset ties up the back and I used that survival chord that has become so popular recently. It works great!

Here I am modeling the completed corset with a simple long skirt. Yes, I have a few tattoos. Left shoulder - black rhino with a lotus flower in it, right shoulder - ouroboros.

McCalls 5050 - You don't see too much of the shirt in the drawing, but I figured this pattern would work well under the corset. I ended up not painting the shirt because I'd had a little trouble with the straight lines on the relatively flat skirt fabric and I was a little afraid it would be a mess to try on the gathered sleeves. I am still happy with the final look, and so don't regret this choice.

My chihuahua Daphne is clearly very helpful.

McCalls 5431 - for the skirt. I searched multiple fabric stores and went through every single fabric swatch book available in the decor fabric section and could not find a blue striped fabric I liked. So, instead, I decided to paint the fabric with fabric paint so I could get the exact look I wanted.

McCalls 6770 - for the bustle.  I modified the original pattern and only put one ruffle along the bottom. If I were to remake it for this costume, I would make it larger so it had more of a profile in the overall cosplay. It still worked great, but I could make it greater!

That was my first bustle and I also made my first bustle pad! It was really easy. I bought this downloadable pattern from SteamIngenious on Etsy, printed it out and sewed and stuffed it in about 2 hours total. Wearing a bustle pad is so much fun!

For the arm warmers I bought socks from Target , trimmed off the toe, and serged the raw edges. For the light brown bands on the left arm, I painted acrylic copper paint onto the sock, after stretching it over a pringles can. One adjustment I would make for the future - get a cylinder that is closer in size to my arm. The stiffness of the paint caused the lighter brown sections to be a little puffy when I wore it.

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The rest was just shopping. I got the belt from Target, the boots from Payless. I sewed a band of the blue cotton to make the headband. I ordered the wig from Arda. A friend of mine actually had a Bosun whistle, so I was able to borrow it for the photo shoot.  Also along for the ride, I used my Petticoat of Despair underneath the skirt, to give it more volume.

I gave the outfit a test run when I went with my friends for a Victorian afternoon to the Grand Floridian Resort's Victorian Tea room. It was a lovely meal. We actually took pictures then for my friend who also cosplayed as Victoria. (She rocks and was the one who styled my wig with her amazingly mad wig styling skills.) She styled her own green wig, of course, and I mean look at her wig, LOOK AT IT!!!! She got the exact Victoria bump. IT WAS AMAZING!

Then, the day before my birthday, I picked up a friend and we drove to Fort DeSoto beach in St. Petersburg, FL. It was an absolutely beautiful day and she took pictures of me in various poses for the cosplay contest and I took pictures of her in a Merida Pin-up shoot (the real reason we were there.) She looked amazing and also did a wonderful job taking my pictures. 

This is the beach, LOOK AT IT!

This is my friend as Merida, LOOK AT HER; she is amazing.

getting ready

I may have posed for a few pin-up photos as well. What can I say, it was a good day. I'm also rocking the zookeeper tan lines.

When we were all done we went for ice cream. Can I mention the awesomeness of this day?! I also walked away from the day with another photo shoot commission, going to take my first photo shoot for a commercial clothing-line.

Before and After - Photoshop.

The Contest asked that we tell a story, so I took the pictures and combined them with experiences from my job taking care of rhinos. We work training sessions with them on a daily basis and so, I applied what I knew to this project.

It was so much fun putting this all together and I got to work with some awesome friends. The joy that this fandom brings to so many just makes me smile. Thank you Brian Kesinger for Otto and Victoria and for the inspiration!