Making Of Ballerina Nilou
There’s a lot going with this dress and I am so glad to finally be able to talk about all the thoughts and efforts that went into making this costume. It’s originally a piece of art made by the artist miji black. When I first saw it on Twitter, I completely fell in love and decided to go for it. I self-patterned everything in this costume except the 3d print files which were modeled by Illustris Models.
I start by drafting a pattern for her corset on my mannequin. This is later used as the base for the entire costume. For the materials of the corset, I use plastic boning, organza, and cotton poplin. After stitching all the sections together and making the boning channels, I ombre dye the top part of my corset by mixing navy blue and royal purple synthetic Rit dye together. Then I insert the boning and complete the corset by adding an eyelet closure to the back.
For the next step I make a full circle skirt using Pellon two-sided heavy-weight stabilizer from Joann, hand-stitch it onto the corset and add a zipper to the back. I also attach a pocket inside the skirt for all the corset cords to go into.
Next, I made a crinoline with ½” wide spiral steel boning to go underneath the dress and lift all the petals made with thermoplastics and wires.
The dress has a total of 20 medium-to-full-sized petals; the bottom ones are made with clear worbla and iridescent vinyl, while the top ones are made with regular cotton, medium-weight stabilizer, organza, and gardening wires to give them a motion look. For the motion look, I make 3 channels inside each petal for the wires to go in. I do this by sandwiching two layers of fabrics fused with medium-weight stabilizer, fusing another two layers of blue fabrics and organza on both sides to hide the channels with basting adhesive, satin stitching around each of them with black threads for outlines, and then ombre dyeing them to match with the corset. Finally, I insert all the wires and close the edge with blue satin stitches for a seamless look.
Once all the petals are made, I hand stitch the large ones to the dress and glue the rest using E6000.
For all the blue flowers on the dress, I had to make over 800 flower petals of 5 different sizes using blue spandex from cosplay fabrics, regular 2mm craft foam, glitter and green pearls. The green vines are made with green and yellow felt and outlined with black dimensional fabric paint. I glue everything to the dress with E6000 as well.
I make the detachable sleeve using 1” no-roll elastic, organza, and blue satin. There are 96 petals in total excluding the flowers I created with organza. The top petals are made with blue cotton fused with organza, ombre dyed with Rit synthetic to match the dress. The bottom petals are made with organza. Everything is outlined with black puffy paint satin stitches. The organza sash is stitched to an armband with snaps.
The arm bracer is made with golden spandex from cosplay fabrics fused with 2mm eva foam using Heat and Bond ultra hold, then I outline everything with black dimensional fabric paint. The closure is made using 3 mm grommets and gold leather cord.
Wig
I heavily style the Nidia wig from Arda Wigs for my Ballerina Nilou. For this I first crimp all the wifts and cut out a big portion from the back for the pigtail bases to go in. For the base of the pigtails, I use two pipe joints and a small helmet made from worbla.
I separately sculpt two pigtails around the other side of the pipe joints using wire, eva foam, expanding foam, and synthetic batting. After attaching batting I spray paint it using W004 orange Wicked, then glue all the previously crimped wig fiber on it using using Got2b glue spray. I trim down the front of the wig, style it using lots of steam, and spray some glue spray to set everything. In the end, I shade everything using the same airbrush paint.
I make the veil that goes on top of her wig using blue organza. Then I sew on comb clips in it to clip it with the hair.
All her 3d print files are from Illustris Models. I print them out using PLA and wet-sand everything for a smooth finish. All the accessories, including her sword, are airbrushed and hand-painted using 5307 pearl satin gold, 0066 detailed burnt umber, and 5308 pearl silver from Createx Airbrush Colors. After painting, I seal all the colors with UVLS clear and Gloss topcoat from the same company.
The gems attached to her front horns are hand crafted with resin and dyed in Sapphire Blue Rit synthetic Dye. The rest of the head accessories are made with black worbla and airbrushed with gold acrylic paint.
As a non ballerina I tried wearing actual ballerina shoes and it was extremely uncomfortable for me. So I decide to buy an elastic ankle straps flat shoe and airbrush it with JAC1452 gamma blue from their Neopaque series to match the character. I fuse two layers of organza together with Heat & Bond ultra hold to stiffen them and made the bows. Then I made a small belt with cotton fabric, painted it with the same color as the shoes, and added the bows and snaps to the back.
