Kaylee Frye Dress

Hello fellow fans!

If you read my post from last week, you know that on April 10th I went to Emerald City Comicon in Seattle wearing a Kaylee Frye inspired frock.

Captain Kaylee's in command

Photo Credit: Hilary from the Cutie Life <3

Now, I'm finally getting around to laying out all the details for those who are interested.

Little backstory: A few years ago, I got all the necessary items to make a Kaylee Frye cosplay, but being as it was a last-minute thing, my friends and I were too late to buy tickets so it was never completed.

Flash forward to the beginning of April this year: I had decided that I wasn't going to go to comicon without wearing something fun. The two other conventions I've been to I regretted only wearing a geeky t-shirt. It's so much more fun to wear a cosplay! (If also stressful and quite a bit sweaty, as I learned.)

It all started with an idea: a dress combining the details of both of Kaylee's most memorable outfits from Firefly.

Thankfully, I already had the dress. It was given to me by a bestie of mine. However it would need a bit of tricky alteration to look more like Kaylee's outfit. That involved turning a button up dress into one with a zipper, which is something I had never done before. Here I was going to attempt it anyway!

After removing all the buttons and plackets, I seam ripped the inside of the casing underneath where the buttons were so I could install the zipper to the other side. With a tricky bit of manipulation, it worked! I sewed back down the stitch line and shortened the bottom of the dress and that was all that needed to be done. Then I hand/basted the patches on just in case I ever wanted to wear the dress plainly.

The "shindig" part of this outfit was a little trickier. I started with a plain slip and a couple of children's tutu skirts, all of which were thrifted for under $15. I then sewed them together so it formed a long strip (we're talking 6-8 feet here!) and gathered it with the sewing machine.

So frustrating to sew, but so rewarding to watch those perfect gathers happen.

Then I simply sewed the tutu fabric to the slip. Well, not so simply considering that the slip is stretchy! And well... slippery. (haha) But I followed the words of sewing guru Tim Gunn and made it work!

I finished off the look with a pair of strawberry earrings. Very happy to say that the dress turned out almost exactly as I imagined! It was so comfortable to wear around the con too! Tutu slips might be the next big thing! You never know...

Also, a shout-out to the PDX Browncoats booth where I got the awesome Jayne hat pin! I should have had my bear wearing it during the con!

I hope this post inspires you to follow your sewing and cosplay dreams. Think outside the box and make the ideas your own. Anything is possible!