Beware, gentle reader, for within this post lurk terrible atrocities: hacking, slashing, ham-fisted misuse of a sewing machine. Yep, it’s time for me to confess my crimes against sewing in my 3 day panic make of my Aughra costume for NineWorlds 2017. As per my previous post on making the mask, this is most definitely not a “how to” article. But I do have a top tip on using bog chain from Homebase. Venture on to the photo captions… if you dare.

This is what I’m aiming to represent – Aughra in all her magnificence.

Here’s the assembled basis of Aughra’s clothing.

Let’s have a closer look at that hideous belt as I am particularly proud of this ebay tat acquisition. It doesn’t look anything like the one Aughra is wearing in the picture, but it does look like something she would wear (it’s vaguely planety and she’s an astronomer) and it hangs below my belly the way hers does.

Was going to use this chain to customise the belt but ran out of time. Joined the ends together and wrapped it 3 times around my neck for some bling. Again, it doensn’t look anything like Aughra’s actual necklace.

This shirt had come apart at the seams, but also had big rips across the front and back. I just pinned it together as best I could on the wrong side and used the sewing machine on that sucker.

The mending shows, but it’s not too bad, and since I reckon Aughra’s finery is a bit worn anyway, it works. That’s my justification.

Silk curtain was already hemmed at the bottom and had curtain tape at the top so I had a good headstart on a skirt. I turned the curtain tape over and stitched it down to make a hollow waistband and ran some thick elastic through. Then I did the side seam, stitching over the elastic also to hold it in place.

I tried to cut the cotton lining of the curtain short so it wouldn’t show under the silk, but I was very tired, it was late, it all went wonky, I got in a massive temper and cut the whole lot out. This detracted from the weight and gather of the skirt, but at that point I didn’t care anymore.

I used 2 wigs to do Aughra’s hair – one I had already and a cheap party wig. I started by cutting bits from the white wig and attaching them to the curly one using a latch hook method.

Soon realised that was going to take way more time than I had, so I put grey curly party wig under straight white and pulled bits through with a crochet hook. Result isn’t perfect, but it does give impression of some grey curls in white hair.

The wig stitched onto the mask

Some grey face paint and matt black nail polish are the finishing touches.

This is what you get if you put the grey face paint over the nail polish before it’s properly dry. It doesn’t come off. Lovely, eh?

Here’s the finished result day 1 – no facepaint, with shawl.

Day two – with facepaint and nail polish, no shawl.

Day Two with some side eye.

It’s far from perfect, but I learned a lot and I was massively thrilled that some fellow Dark Crystal fans recognised me/Aughra. Thank you and big hugs to all the lovely folks who shared stories and kind words with me.

If anybody has photos of me going full Aughra at NineWorlds, I’d be very happy and very grateful if you would send them my way!

Next up: my top tips for cosplay in a hurry, or how I’d do it next time having made a shedload of mistakes this time.

Notes:

Simplicity do some really great patterns for LARP and cosplay, that aren’t too hard. Or that can be ventured on with a reasonable amount of blissfully ignorant optimism, and still turn out alright. My partner made his LARP shirt (used in this cosplay) with pretty much zero sewing experience. Watch out for the sizes. If you’re an adult working with a Misses pattern, you may well need to size it up. Try knocking up the bodice in cheap cotton or even paper to test the fit first.

Here’s the black lace panel I got from The Range. The Snazaroo facepaint also came from there, but you can get it in lots of places.

The Barry M nail polish came from superdrug, but is also available elsewhere.

This is the chain I was using from Homebase. Bargain bling.

The belt was a one-off ebay auction purchase, but it still had a Per Una label on it.