Ingredients:

  • Dress
    • dark teal wool: 5 m
    • cream colour muslin: 1 m
    • brown leather string
    • zipper
    • altered McCall’s 6817 sewing pattern
  • Cape
    • dark brown heavy silk: 5,5 m
    • altered McCall’s  4139 sewing pattern
  • Belt and Quiver
    • brown leatherette: 1 m
    • brown felt: 10 cm
    • hot-glue gun
    • 3 patents
    • poster tube
  • Wig
    • long curly natural ginger wig
  • Make-up
    • AVON Calming Effects mattifying foundation ‘Ivory’
    • RL de YOUNG face powder ‘Rosy’
    • Alverde Naturkosmetik face powder ‘Snow White’
    • RL de YOUNG blush ‘Apricot’
    • MV Eyeshadow Natural Colours
    • brown eyeliner
    • Lora Lipstick U11
    • Miss Sporty 24h Pump Up Booster black mascara
    • a very thin paintbrush
    • a Q tip

The Dress

First of all I had to modify McCall’s sewing pattern to fit me, because due my hips I need the size 16, but for my upper body I need only 12 or 14. When my eyes fell on the words ‘ribbons on arm puffs’ by reading the construction notes all strands of my hair stood up. Okay, it was made mainly for moms to make their kids happy. Well, whatever.

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First of all, I sewed the dress pieces together, then went to work with the fake underclothes pieces.

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I made gathering for the arm puffs, lower arm edges and the underclothes’ hem.

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The next step was the sewing of the arm pieces together. I made 4-4 straps for connecting the upper and lower sleeves with the sleeve puffs.

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I sewed the upper arm puff with 4-4 straps inside the armhole and sewed the finished sleeve into the armhole as well. I made holes on the V-cutline of the dress and pulled the string through them. For finishing I sewed the lower hem of the dress and sewed the zipper in.

Voi la.

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The Cape

Poorly because I made this in a hurry along with the quiver and belt I couldn’t take any progress pictures of the making progress.

First of all I sewed the main cape pieces together, then made the hood a bit bigger because of the wig, sewed it into the cape and it was done. Cheap description, but oh well.

The Belt and the Quiver

For the quiver my boyfriend cut the poster tube in 2/3 to have an accurate size.

I sewed the bottom and main pieces of the quiver and glued it to the tube along with the upper hem.

I cut a long strap of felt and sewed leatherette on its upper part. Then sewed the patents on and glued the belt and quiver together.

Make-up

First of all I put my Geo Twins Aqua Blue contact lenses in I ordered from Solution-Lens.com.

I put concealer below my eyes to cover the dark circles caused by the lack of sleep and hid all the imperfections and past scars on my face with it. Because I don’t have such a thin and small nose like Merida I put light brown eyeshadow on the sides of my nose. I put liquid foundation all over my face.

To make the foundation last longer I covered my face with RL de Young face powder. To make my cheeks more round I put Alverde ‘Snow White’ face powder on the top of my cheekbones and below my eyes. To have her cute blush I applied the blush generously below my cheekbones and a small amount on my nose, too, because Merida’s nose is a bit red, too.

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For the eyebrows I used a copperish brown eyeliner. Poorly my eyebrows are very small due a past accident, so I couldn’t make it accurate enough. To make my eyes more round I used a very soft brown eyeshadow and applied it in the crease of my eyes and made a thin upper line with the brown eyeliner. Poorly I couldn’t get ginger mascara around there, so I used my black mascara, but very-very carefully to keep my eyes natural looking.

For the lips I used a touch of a slightly peachy copper hue lipstick. And let’s not forget about her cute freckles, either. I took my earth-brown eyeshadow and made tiny spots on my cheeks and nose using a thin paintbrush. To make them blend in my skin I used a Q tip and very gently and carefully smudged them.

The outcome:

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The Wig

I ordered a natural-looking ginger wig for this cosplay which turned out to be shorter than desired.

All I could do about it that I used a small amount of hair spray and messed it up to match Merida’s unkempt unladylike hairdo.

For the bow and arrows: once my boyfriend finishes the construction notes I’m going to link to his post here.

That’s all, folks. Thank you for reading. I’m going to post the pictures of Saturday’s photoshoot ASAP.