Caterina is finally finished! For three years I've toiled on this costume, and now she's finally complete, and just in time for A-kon 20!
The red parts of the costume are all cotton velvet. The gold scrollwork on the skirt panels and cloak were cut out of black pleather which I then spray painted gold and hot glued onto the velvet. All the scrollwork is outlined with gold bugle beads to give it a nice sparkle. The underskirt was originally a pair of lace curtains.
The cloak is lined with white embroidered organza. I was lucky in that it already had a scalloped edge, so all I had to do was add some scalloped lace to the raw cut edges to finish it off.
The hat is made of plastic cross-stitch canvas which I covered with red velvet. The arrows on the hat and cloak are all made from cardboard.
The bloody thing probably wouldn't have taken three years to make if I hadn't become so frustrated with it. It was very labour intensive. It's almost entirely sewn by hand, and the beading took an exorbitant amount of time. Still, I'm very pleased that I tackled this project. Caterina is an awesome character. I just hope I did her justice!

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