Elphaba Act II

Character Name: Elphaba Thropp

Variation: Act II dress

Source: Wicked: the Musical

Total Cost: 500 USD

Time Consumed: 2 months

Why I made it:
Elphaba was one of those costumes that just sort of jumps out at you from somewhere when you least expect it. I suppose it all started last Christmas. My father and I ended up getting each other the same book lol.. it just happened to be Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I read it and fell in love with the story. So I figured.. hey, maybe I’ll do some simple little Elphaba type costume. So I started looking up the musical.
Trouble was… Sure I found some simple costumes, but then I came across a picture. This picture was of Julia Murney in the Act II dress. I was instantly in love with the dress, and the actress looked a LOT like me. So I started searching for more pictures, and more.. and then finally.. I made it. I sealed my fate after seeing that picture though. Especially since I had wanted to be The Wicked Witch of the West ever since I was a little girl.

How I made it:
The making of Elphie’s Act II dress involves about a billion different little parts. The first step was to buy fabric of course, about twenty yards of it. I had already had six yards of black linen fabric just lying around, so I decided to use that to make the base for the skirt. I draped my pattern and then proceeded to get various fabrics for the ruffles.
My first installment of fabric measured up to seventeen yards of various blacks (casa satin, upholstery fabric, and something rather random from Walmart), greens, reds, blues, and purples. Taffetas, silks, satins, whatever I liked the colour of and could get from the various fabric stores in the area. Then came the matter of making the ruffles.
My Serger had been broken for close to a year by this point, so the first six or so ruffles I sewed on regular machine as tubes which I then turned right side out and zigzag stitched the edges of. This was exceptionally time consuming. Thankfully by some strange twist of fate and luck, I was able to get my serger working again after this. Twilight Frost and I serged yards and yards of strips of fabric. (I thank her SOOO much for the help on the serging). I ended up having to buy even more after that too. 20 yards of ruffle fabric cut into a hundred strips or so of ruffle, sewn on in a spiral and ruffled as I went. Towards the top I switched directions around and had to roll the ruffled parts up so I could sew more ruffles on. It was very difficult. I also added a piece at the bottom back for the train and ruffled that as well. Over a hundred ruffles and four days straight went into the skirt alone!

Now that I was done with the skirt, I had to work on the bodice. I used a shirt pattern which I modified heavily to make the sleeves pouf more at the top and more fitted at the cuffs and to make it zip in the back. I also changed the collar. Using the same crinkle velvet I used on Jadis, I cut the pattern out and then added glitter glue in silver and green to it in lines which I then smeared around a little. Then I painted swirls in grey and pinkish grey onto the fabric in various places to give it a similar look to Julia Murney’s dress.
After the initial fabric was worked out I sewed the pieces together then added two layers of black tulle over the bodice, one layer on the sleeves. Of course I had to sew this down about a billion times. It was a bit harrowing. Admittedly I should have put the tulle on before I sewed the pieces together.
Next came the ruffles on the shoulders. I cut purples blacks and reds into pointy zigzags and then serged them, chaining off with long threads at each point to give it that look that the original dress has. I then proceeded to attatch these ruffled onto the shoulders of the dress. I also added layers of tulle in for extra look. To make the sleeves themselves look better, I serged triangles and irregular squares of tulle, again chaining off with long strings and then sewed them to the sleeves.

One of the most difficult parts of the costume was what I call the crazy-quilt bodice part. The layer on the outside of the bodice that is an irregularly shaped corset-looking piece made of lots of little scraps of coloured fabric.
For this part I used various colours of velvet, some of which I dyed and coloured myself by using bleach and RIT dye. These scraps were all serged together into a rough shape of the bodice. It just sort of worked out well, I kept piecing bits on and cutting and serging and finally it turned out to be the right shape. Then I added a layer of netting over that (this being a wider net than the tulle but more dense somehow and having little speckles on it). I sewed along each of the serge lines so that the netting would be well attatched, then I added piping to the edges of the finished piece.
Once the piping was added I was able to sew the crazy-quilt piece onto the bodice very carefully. The dress was starting to come together! I added some hat-netting to the shoulders over the ruffles and made sure everything was tacked down nicely then.

Here I came to a problem. The bodice didn’t fit my shoulders properly! It fit, you see, but I couldn’t really move my arms too well. So I had to let it out some! The trouble was, after all this work, there wasn’t really very much of a way to do it. Except.. I remembered something. Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. . . (If you’ve seen it you’ll figure this out). I made diamond shaped inserts for each shoulder, and slits almost like I was going to push wings through. Then I sewed the diamond gussets in. And thus it fit again.

The collar and the cuffs were mostly easy to do. I made little pointy cuts on some net (like the stuff on the crazy quilt part) then gathered it up together and sewed it on. Over that I sewed the fabulously accurate trim that Ashley (Mac) got me!

Then came the beading. I thank Defying Gravity of the Galinda’s Wardrobe message boards for posting up such wonderful detailing of the beading. I couldn’t have done it without that.
I procrastinated for days of course. It was all part of the process. Then finally I worked on the edge beading. Just single hexagonal bugles all around the upper piping. Once that was done, I procrastinated some more. I got the lower leafy beading done in one sitting. Then more procrastination.. then the upper leafy beading. About 8 hours of beading in all.

The cape was made by taking three yards of cream silk chiffon and dying with two Black RIT dyes and one Scarlet Red. Then I cut and serged it into shape and attatched giant snaps to it. The zippers (three of them) on the dress were installed by hand while watching The Prestige, Disturbia, and The Wicker Man. I first tried to do an invisible zipper in the back, but it wouldn’t close due to the fabric being so thick from so many layers. I got upset, but found a more heavy duty zipper in my arsenal and installed that instead. The sleeve zippers keep the sleeves nice and tight. They are invisible zippers.

The final thing was sewing the snaps onto the dress, which I did by hand with button hole thread. Two on the lower back and two on the shoulders to hold the cape on.
The shoes are leather granny boots, and my own little addition to the costume are the striped green and black stockings I wear with them!

The Hat was actually the first thing to be made on the costume. I went through three different first drafts using various methods (wonderflex in the brim, vinyl for the hat, and various sizes) before I finally decided on using fabric and thick interfacing. I actually was able to find some black interfacing so I used that for the inside of the cone and for the brim. Then I painted the little spotties onto it in bluish grayish acrylic paint. Next was the hatband and then finally the brim’s edge. I put a thick wire around it and then sewed bias tape around the edge then bent it all into shape. And Ta daaa! Elphaba hat!

Elphaba’s broomstick of course had to be handmade. I took a broom I bought at Walmart and stripped the straw off. Then I attached it to an apple branch (with much bloodshed etc). After that I whittled down the bark and sanded it then stained it darker brown. I wrapped it with leather and then finally the broomstick was done! My first broomstick, I like how it has the bend to it like Elphaba’s.

I cannot have a page on this costume without thanking Ashley (Mac) My lovely Glinda, who had sewing sessions with me and kept me focused! And Twilight Frost who helped me immensely by serging yards and yards of fabric for me. Also Mike, my Fiyero who actually took me to see the musical and let us dress him up as a part of our sinister plot!
You guys are great!! Thank you!

Likes: My favourite part of this costume has to be the green makeup. I decided to go with the actual makeups they used in the show. This was of course for practicality reasons. I wanted something that wouldn’t be rubbing off when I touched anyone, or if I accidentally got brushed with something or if I wanted to hug someone. I also didn’t want to have to be reapplying it all day long, or having it come off if I sweated a little. So after a lot of research I found that they used Landscape Green Chromacake by MAC with an invisible set powder over it. Then over that golden olive pigment with contours in Purple haze and a brown colour (I use Embark) all also by MAC. The nailpolish I ended up using is Go Go Green by Maybelline and the lip colour (different from the show) is just something I had lying around.
In all it gives a very natural look, and doesn’t come off, especially with a spritz of fixer spray by Kryolan on my hands.

Dislikes: My least favourite part of the costume.. wow, that’s hard because I really love this entire costume! I think it’s just the bits and pieces I’d do differently if I knew then what I know now about the making of it. Really I love the whole thing though!

 

 

 

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