Maggie Murdoch

 

Character Name: Maggie Murdoch

Source: Bizenghast

Total Cost: 250 USD

Time Consumed: 30-60 hours maybe?

Why I made it: Oh what to say about Maggie Murdoch? Well, lets start at the beginning. I had been meaning to read Bizenghast for a while a few years back.. I just never decided to actually pick up the book. Then I was at Nekocon and I met Marty (M.Alice Legrow) and decided just for fun that I would buy the book and bring it to judging so that I could make her sign it. She did, awesomely I might add.. and then I read the book. It was AMAZING. I went home and showed my mom (also an artist) all the amazing art. I knew then that I wanted to cosplay something from it.. but what?

I first thought to cosplay the art 4&20, which involves a dead looking girl with birds coming out of her Rib Cage so to speak. But that just proved too tedious with all the beading I wanted to do, then I set my sights on Maggie Murdoch. I didn’t really feel like doing Dinah so much because I don’t find my features to lend well to that type of character. But oh.. I sure can do a scary Faerie Witch Woman! So I decided about a year ago to do Maggie Murdoch from the first book.

Of course.. well.. I never got around to it. I mean, how do you make a crazy hat and that weird dress? Plus I’d have to make a bustle cage and a corset! I ended up giving up the costume from my Dragon*Con list in favour of Elphaba. And then I sort of just forgot about it for a bit. But then.. fate would have it .. that my friend Bekki decided to see if I was going to Ohayocon. I decided .. what the heck? Why not? But I needed a new costume. That was how I decided to finally do this one.

How I made it:. The first thing I did was to make the base dress.. Well most of it, I cut it out (draped entirely) from six yards of brown fabric.. the hem ended up nearly at 7 yards around, then I let it sit for about six months.

When I finally got around to really working on the costume, I decided to start this time with the hat. I had gathered some bark in the summer (Marty said the hat was made from straw-like bark) so I used that, straw, and raffia over a craft grade stabilizer base. Partly it was sewn, partly hot glued. Then I sprayed it all brown and gathered more bark to add over that. I used a black elastic thread on the back and hung a gold plated ring on it. The little bumps on the hat are painted paperclay.

Next I made my corset (a proper steel boned one) and my bustle cage as well as some bustle pads, so that I could fit the base dress properly. Then of course I finished the base dress. It has a side zipper that is nicely hidden underneath the fabrics.
Next order of business was to add all of the fabric on. On the bodice I sewed lots of rows of small tattered knit strips in browns and greens. I chose knits because I could tatter and weather them without them fraying. I also used lace and a sort of knit lace. I did the same for the skirt only with much longer and wider strips of fabric. In all there are about 28 yards of fabric in the dress itself, four of which is tulle and six of which is the base dress.

The neckline has Jute sewn onto it, to give it that natural look that Maggie’s dress has. The antlers are made with Wonderflex and paperclay and attatched to a headband (as per Marty’s suggestion). The headband has been sewn also to the hat, and has combs to keep it in the wig. The wig also has a comb in turn to keep it on my head, and is a three foot long curly white wig.

As for the accessories, I had a lot of trouble finding suitable bracelets. I found two at Rugged Wearhouse, badly damaged but to my advantage. The inlaid resin pieces had mostly been removed or fallen out, leaving an interesting brass base on each. The others were purchased at Claire’s.

The belts consist of nine antique keys purchased on e-bay, put on a chain, a flower medallion pendant purchased at Claire’s, and a Gris-Gris ball sort of thing consisting of a carnelian stone, wire wrapped, then wrapped in jute, then wrapped in human hair. I tried just making the ball out of thread, but it didn’t have the right feel to it. I wanted every piece of this costume to feel perfect.

My makeup consists of White Pro Chromacake by MAC, MAC pigment in Frozen, Stargazer Red eyeliner, NYX white Mascara, and swarovski crystals around my eyes.

Likes:My favourite part of this costume is difficult to decide. I think the ball of human hair.. or the dress.. or the Hilarious Hat, lol. I love the whole thing!

Dislikes: My least favourite part is having to wear a corset all day long.

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