Companions have the best clothes!

Inara definitely has the most beautiful costumes on Firefly. My favourites are the burgundy and silver one from "Jaynestown" and the gold ballgown from "Shindig." My first though on seeing the latter was if I could find/make it for my wedding dress (you know, if I ever get married).

And then I decided that I was going to go to Worldcon. And if I wanted to do something spectacular for the masquerade, I may as well go all out and do an Inara outfit... And I had made a gold dupioni silk ballskirt for my Formal, and had some material left over... It seemed almost pre-ordained...

This is, without a doubt, the hardest costume I have ever made.

The skirt and embroidered chiffon overskirt were pretty simple (though I didn't have time to bead the overskirt as I had planned). Though the stretch factor of the silk didn't help matters. The corset was designed using the "packing tape an old t-shirt to yourself" method, with the bust and sleeves being done with the "put on, pin, sew" method. Because of the thinness of the silk, a double layer of canvas had to be used to help hide the boning. And to get the underbust trim bit stiff and poofy enough in the middle, I had to use 6 layers of canvas.

The neckline was hand-beaded with beige glass pearls, and all jewelry (earrings, necklace and bracelets) was made with clear and gold plastic facetted beads of different sizes, gold pony beads and gold eye pins. The headpiece was made by using silver sparkly fabric pain to "glue" the clear plastic beads onto black elastic, and the hair clip was made of silver beads. The gloves were bought and the sandals were originally worn for my Formal.

The wonderful cardboard cut out of animated "Captain Mal" was designed by Irish and loaned to me for the evening, with my eternal gratitude and thanks! It made my skit when I carried him off while the MC said "Firefly, a show known for its 3-dimentional characters. Usually." And the "Mutant Enemy" was borrowed from a friend from his masque presentation (thanks!). Unfortunately I did not win anything, but it is likely that I will re-enter it (hopefully with more of the crew) at Toronto Trek 18.

Oh, and as a parting note, Fake eyelashes may look good, but the really are not very comfortable. And plastic boning can get very bendy...

Pictures

On our way to the masquerade
Inara and Mal
Inara and Mal: Another way to say I love you...
sffan checks out Mal's ass
Mal's not afraid of anything