DIY Corpse Bride Cosplay

Yoohoo!

I am quite happy that I am finally posting a DIY of my cosplay. I was not able to post my previous OtakuFest Scarecrow cosplay DIY (which had even more pieces than this) because I was too lazy. And when I finally got to it, pan.os na sad kaau.

Making a costume ensemble is a considerable amount of work, and throughout the whole duration of making, I had only myself to talk to. It's summer break now, so I don't really get to see my artsy classmates and friends. I know it sounds somewhat OA, but having no outside opinions or advice was worrisome for me. I wasn't sure if what I was doing to the wig was right, I wasn't sure if I got the right shade of blue, etc. etc. and all the possible "not sures". So i got a little stressed and this is my reliever. kapui sd baya. *smiley face* ahahaha

.... and i like making pretend tutorials, makes me feel important. HAHAHA. But this isn't really tutorial grade, just for inspiration on what cheap alternatives to use. I don't have much step by step pictures because i kept procrastinating hence, cramming. 

So, I like to call this Budget Cosplay. Mostly Do-It-Yourself and inexpensive material, save money leh! 

DIY FLOWER HEADDRESS

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Materials: headband, fake flowers w/ wire stem, blue fabric dye

Just twist a lot flowers into the headband like there's no tomorrow. They will eventually form that. Then leave them in blue dye bath for few hours.

DIY PAPER ROSES

Materials: Crepe paper, wire, glue

Fake flowers were out of my budget, and since I would only use them once, I made my own nalang. Hooray for broke, no choice.

Crepe paper is only like 10 pesos? So cheap and you can already make so many flowers.

  

Can't really demonstrate how to make the roses if not in video form. So if you want to make paper roses, go find a tutorial in youtube. everything is there :)

STYLING THE WIG

The wig I ordered was straight and a tad too long (reached thighs) I was prepared to trim it. bahala na. 

How to trim your wig:

The same in salons, divide the hair into sections using a tail comb, start from the bottom.

 

(left) use the comb to hold the hair in place while cutting 
(right) make vertical snips to feather the edges for a softer and more natural look

Curling the wig

The corpse bride has curly hair.

Section the hair into rollers. Then soak them in boiling water until it cools, let dry afterwards. 

This method is proven and tested, go youtube it.

So the epic fail wasn't really in the wig styling process itself. It was in my plan: to not curl the whole wig. The wig is originally straight and I did not want to damage it, as curly synthetic wigs easily tangle and are harder to manage. The parts i curl, i must straighten afterward. (wig is not real hair, it wont get  frizzy with heat styling, at least with me it didn't)

So i decided to just curl the hair I would put in the font.  The straight back hair won't be seen anyway with the veil. Bad move sis. 

I didn't pin the hair in place, so with constant moving around, the straight hair from the back eventually went over my shoulders, came to the front and mixed with the curly. No time to separate it. 

That's the story why my corpse bride has straight and curly hair at the same time. 

whattafail. but i didn't care na.  

whatever.

DIY VEIL

My favorite part because so easy! Just use an old organza curtain and tatter the ends. Gradually dip tip in blue dye for gradient effect. Attach it to floral headband w/ glue gun. 

GOWN DETAILS

Sorry no pics of actual gown dying, I was already cramming when i did this part. 

My original plan was to find a white gown in the ukay-ukay. But after walking around Colon for hours, I couldn't find a reasonably priced one. Tag 900 -1,500 ilang gown sa ukay2x, wth!?!? So after days of thinking over, I decided to have it sewn. With the cheapest possible cloth: Curtain lace, alfagena, and textured satin.

With whatever gown you have, just make sure to tatter the ends, make jagged cuts and gradually dip the ends in dye for a faded effect. 

See the dyed edges. As if you waded in a muddy forest.

Also for the lace corset, dye the edges blue and glue gun some pearls.

For the makeup:

There are lots of awesome makeup tutorials in youtube! For me the best is the one by clittlecosmetics.

The face paint brand i used was Snazaroo. I mixed white with very little blue, I like it paler. Used a damp sponge and carefully dabbed it on my face down to arms. It looks even on camera but it is actually very UNEVEN in real life. It's either I suck at applying it or it's just plain bad paint. And it's water based so if you sweat, it fades.

You know what, I woke up 7 am to do my makeup but because it would never come on evenly I had to keep redoing it, until 2 pm. I arrived at JCentre, 3 pm. The event started 10 am. How many hours late? HAHA. Nevertheless it was fun.


I hope this was somewhat informative :)

Twala!