Terra
Series: Final Fantasy III/VI
Debut: ACEN 2005
Competitions: Kunicon Denver 2005 Costume Contest
Awards: "Best Construction"
Status: Completed

This was completely unexpected. I can't even now remember exactly what prompted me to pull this together, but whatever it was, it was powerful. *^^*

Like most people who sew, I've been collecting fabric FOREVER, and I finally just decided to get up and do something with all of this stuff sitting around. I almost always have more notions than I know what to do with, and I always have things left over from every other project. Well, they grow if you leave them sitting in the back of the sewing room for a while.. and they.. resurrect. *O.o*

The bodice and detached sleeves are a cotton velvet that I used in an old Italian Renaissance dress. The main part of the skirt (as well as the little flappy thing on the front) is a murdered obi that I bought on Ebay years ago. I went to the Goodwill and found the ugliest shoes I could possibly fit my feet into, and painted them. All the things on the skirt are extra fabric bits, trim, more beads. The only two pieces of fabric that I bought new for this is the pink patterned netting in the back, the fabric I used for the applique on the bodice, and the gold-blue-green sheer on the hanging sleeves (which I wanted for a long time and couldn't figure out what I'd use it for, so I never bought it... until now).

The painting on the bodice just got out of control. XD I started with appliquéing flowers on it using a fabric I picked up and WonderUnder (great stuff, I say! Can't live without it). Well, once that was done, I decided it needed paint. So I got black paint and metallic paint and beads and acrylic jewels, and well, it just got out of control. XD The sleeves are also painted a little.

Altogether, I think I only spent about $50 on some of the extra fabric, the paint and appliqué for the bodice, and the TEN MILLION beads that I bought. The wig, too, was a leftover... From my Rydia costume, when I first ordered a wig, I got this rather horrendous color, and I have not been able to get rid of it for the life of me. Good thing, too, since it came in so handy here. ^^ As this is very much a sort of hybrid of Amano's work and the CG version from the Anthology, you know, green hair + blonde hair = fluorescent yellow! =D I like my logic.

There's lots of jewelry involved, mostly made from the extra beads (I still have a whole Tupperware box full =p), feathers, jewels, ribbons, and butterflies, as well as some other found items. I'm wearing patterned tights purchased retail, and my make up in the photos was done by Laura. One of my favorite things about the costume that you can't tell from the photos is how it sounds; there are small bells everywhere! ^^ You can hear me coming a mile away. XD

There are hundreds of small details in the costume; I can't even think of all of them at the moment. This is really a huge step away from my usual style of simple and clean (pun intended ^.~), and I'm really excited to have been successful with this project. It was actually quite amazing to me, sitting there going, "Wow, there's an empty space right there... what can I put on there?" The construction was one of the most enjoyable I've ever done, on any costume. Being a hybrid of game and artwork, and additionally, many of Amano's portraits are each unique, there was a great challenge to combine my favorite elements, add some of my own, and honor all the artists involved as much as possible.

While I made a small debut of this costume at February's GothPlay night at Rock Island Club in Denver, the first convention debut was made at Anime Central 2005.

Photos courtesy of Digital Dreams Photography.