She-ra

As a child of the 80's, I wasted many an hour plastered to the TV watching the Princess of Power cartoon. And, true to my geek nature, I still have my entire collection and keep it proudly on display. The first version of this costume was an absolute disaster. In a nutshell, I cut up a plastic mannequin and covered it in fabric. Very uncomfortable, but I always giggled cuz the mannequin had molded nipples which showed even under a layer of fabric.


Bummer...can't see the nips in the pic!

 And then I discovered the joys of the seamless long line bra...

She-ra gang from left: She-ra, Frosta, Castaspella, and Catra at Dragon Con 2009



For Dragon Con 2009 myself (She-ra), my sister (Frosta), and my friends (Casta and Catra) did these using the long line bra. Luckily, I did not have to dye mine. However, the other 3 used just regular old Rit dye. Who sez polyester doesn't dye? The skirt is actually a skirted swimsuit bottom. To get a more "cartoon-y" look, all the gold bits I stitched onto light weight foam padding. It's sold at Jo-Ann's in the home dec area and is supposed to be for making table pads. It works great for getting flimsy fabric to hold a shape...especially on the headpiece:



Close up of She-ra headpiece

The headpiece is directly sewn onto a blond wig. The jewel on the headpiece is the biggest craft gem I could find. It's actually the perfect size. The gems for the bodices, however, needed to be larger than any gem I could find. So, I decided to make them! I used clear resin and added food coloring and iridescent micro glitter for sparkle. This was poured into an oval mold that was for jewelery crafting. 




Close up of resin gem on front of She-ra

 The cape is just costume satin. The boots are standard gold go-go boots. I'm not happy with them so at some point I am going to do boot tops that look more like She-ra's. Lastly, I have ordered a custom latex He-man sword that I will glue one of my resin jewels to. This is coming from Edhellen Armoury. At the time of this posting it hasn't arrived yet, but I will be sure to add pics when I get it!