My friends formed an Alice in Wonderland original design group, and I offered to be the Queen of Hearts since she has such a fabulously pompous character that would fit the glamorous fashions I wanted to try out.

This is my first original design costume. It was tougher to decide what I wanted! After doing research on the Queen of Hearts (did you know she's based on Queen Victoria?) and looking through countless photographs of both classic royal clothing and modern runway fashions, I drew up several drafts. In the end, I decided to go with a more modern style. To give proper credit, Pnina Tornai's "Noir and Blanc" dress gave me the most inspiration. I also thank my friends that helped me critique my previous drafts, though I ended up tossing those out. >_>

I used black brocade, red silky polyester, and black silk duponi fabrics. It never shows up in photographs, but there's beads sewn around the red designs on the bodice. I made up most of the red designs, but a few things might have been taken from Princess Peach's dress ;).

Ah, the hoop petticoat. Hands down, best deal I have ever gotten on eBay. I got it for $15.50--including shipping! As large as it is, I could still easily fit into the tiny auditorium seats to watch the cosplay contest by just adjusting the hoops a little.

This is an ongoing project, so I'll slowly be adding more things to the costume.