In making Sweet Bee's outfit, I wanted to stay true as much as possible to her animated self. Tricky since I'm a human and she is a 2D bee person animation. Using the below picture as a guide I employed bold colours as close to the shades she wears as possible.
The outfit began as a rather convincing 1950s style bathing suit. As tempting as it was to leave it this way and don my 'new-old' bathing suit on Venice Beach I continued with cutting a circular skirt (or as close as I could get given my fabric limitations) and stitching it to the waist line.
I utilised wire in the construction of the lower half of the dress to thread through the binding on the hem to make it kick out and come to life in 3D form.
The top half was doubled up to save embarrassment and boning was added between the two layers to avoid mortification. This boning not only helped the upper half stay up but also helped shape the neckline in the points.
The joys of costume making for oneself without the use of a mannequin are stabbing and on occasion actually pinning yourself to the fabric when having to shimmy in and out of the costume numerous times to make alterations. I should really get a mannequin... I was finally happy that the waist line sat in the right place and that the seams were sturdy enough but nonetheless, this costume wasn't one to wear after your typical American portion size. I was going to have to fast before putting this one on!
Now for the emblem... I used the same fabric that was used to make her antennae and backed it with interfacing to help it keep it's shape and avoid fraying so easily. It seemed to work but after wriggling in and out of the costume about 10 times already and the fact it was 5.30am I tacked it gingerly to the costume and went to bed. This emblem was stitched on securely by hand at the Cereal:Geek booth on day 3 of the San Diego Comic Con so that I knew exactly how much the yellow Lycra would stretch when worn so that the emblem would lie flat.
Stay tuned to see the end result of both Jem and Sweet Bee and to hear more about San Diego Comic Con 2014!
Peace out x
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