A couple of blog posts ago I talked about how my sister was interested in making a recreation of the tiger print outfit worn by Glenn Close in the 101 Dalmatians live action movie for Halloween. Well here is an update with some progress and finished pictures of her outfit!

When my family came to visit in September, Melanie and I spent an afternoon in the sewing lab working on the draft of her cape. The final pattern pieces ended up slightly different than the original sketch. We changed the underarm portion of the cape to tie around her shoulders in the back to support the weight of the cape. Melanie also decided she wanted to have a traditional cape shape with slits for her arms instead of the folded over sleeve we talked about in the original post. I developed the patterns by draping excess fabric on her shoulders and drawing in the lines I wanted. I then had her make paper versions of the muslin pattern pieces.

Now Melanie has some sewing experience, having worked at the University of Rhode Island's costume shop while she was in college. The only hand I had in the creation of her costume was the development of her pattern. Once she had the pattern she took it back to Rhode Island with her and sewed the costume on her own. She did an amazing job and I am so proud of her!

She used a commercial corset pattern (McCalls 5797) and altered the bottom for the correct shape. The corset is made out of velboa, lined in black denim, edged in faux leather, and boned with plastic zip ties. It zips up in the back. She found fake plastic bird talons, painted them and attached them to the front of the corset. The corset has a "faux" black panel on the front to make it look like it opens.

She made the cape out of two types of velboa, and lined the edges with the faux pleather. The collar has boning sewn into it to maintain its shape.

She also made the skirt out of the pleather and the amazing bracelet out of various metal findings! I love all the detail work she put into it!

Here are some pictures! (That's my mom in the Elsa shirt!)

Not pictured: Melanie as Cruella with my two nieces (3 years and 2 years old) dressed up as dalmatians for Halloween!!