San is one of the main characters from an animated film titled "Princess Mononoke". Her costume consists of a fur covered clay mask, a blue dress, a white slip-on top that goes over the blue dress, a pair of oversized oval-shaped shell or bone earrings, leather headband & armbands, a fur cloak with a string of teeth holding it together, a jewel dagger necklace, a pair of short moccasins, and some red face paint. Altogether, I'm not sure how much I spent to gather all the materials I needed to accomplish this but it took a long time to get them all. I would estimate that the entire cost was around $130 for the entire outfit, and considering the labor for this kind of job, you'd be looking at paying about $300 for a well done costume. That is, if you bought one from me. Um...don't ask. It's fun when it's for my kids who love it no matter what discrepancies exist therein. I'm not making stuff like this for anyone but close friends.
Materials:
blue fabric for dress-1 flat sheet-$6 (I had some left over from another project.)
White fabric for top-1 yd @ $3
Moccasins-$35 (her grandmother bought those for her)
Amethyst gemstone dagger pendant- $15
4 Shell 'Teeth'- $6/each
'Fur' fabric (fuzzy fleece)- 2 yds @ $6/yd
Shell ovals for earrings- 2 @ $1.50/ea
1 pr sensitive solutions post earring findings in gold- @ $4? I had these on hand.
Velvet ribbon for armbands- $1.50/spool
black elastic for headband- @ $3? I just had some on hand.
3 black buttons for arm/headbands- $1.50/card or so
3 bone beads for arm/headbands- $5/container or so. Depends on the size of the container.
1 pre-primed full face mask- $3 or so. Can't remember exactly.
Acrylic paint for mask- 3 colors @ $1-3 per container
Hemp cord for the dagger necklace and cloak tie- $2 or so
1 package twill tape-$3 or so
Single fold bias tape in white and blue-$3/each or so
It took about 3 or 4 days to put the whole thing together. I started with the furs since they were simply a very free hand cutout resembling animal furs. I just had to make sure they were wide and long enough to match the picture and fulfill their purpose. I simply edge stitched them with a very nice zig-zag pattern. I used a t-tunic that was already made up for her and a tank top to cut out the dress and top. I used the hemp cord to make the dagger necklace and the cloak tie. It was a bit difficult to find a long enough piece of the cord that would fit through the tiny holes in the shells I used for teeth. I suppose I could have tried reaming them but I'm a tad heavy-handed. For the mask, I removed the elastic that was to hold it on the head and used a hole punch to make holes all around the outer edge. Then I sewed the smaller fur around the edge of the mask using safety pins to secure it in place through the holes. I tacked it to some twill tape on the inside. That made the mask less likely to scratch my daughter's face or make her itch. Once the fur is sewn around the mask, there's no need for that elastic thread that comes with it. For the arm bands, I just cut lengths of ribbon/elastic the size I needed, found the middle of each, sewed a black button and a bone bead in the center of each.
I've also included a picture of the animated San for those who wish to compare. You should be able to copy and paste the link.
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs28/i/2008/052/0/3/Princess_Mononoke___Wolf_by_Sonda.jpg
The mask should've been clay but that would've been heavy and would've required all kinds of patience I just don't have. I mixed some paints I had on hand to achieve colors pretty close to the original. I used a cordial glass to make the cirlces around the eye holes and I freehanded the white lines across the face. The earrings should've been shells that were solid and much larger but that would've just been too much for my daughter. Well, I hope you enjoy this post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Laugh a lot!
1 comment:
I love your creation - and your model/daughter looks amazing!
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