My Little Pony Rarity

So for NärCon this summer I did a fun costume, and it was Rarity from My Little Pony. I never got any decent pictures of it, but I have some from Comic Con Gamex.

This is Rarity. She's my favorite pony because she's a fashion designer, most of the episodes about her shows her sewing clothes, she's stylish, she's a bit of a drama queen so it's fun to be over the top when cosplaying her, her magical unicorn ability is to find gems (so yes, she's comfortable in mines) and she wears red glasses from time to time. Now the part with the red glasses was better with my old pair, that were red.

Now I've seen quite a lot of MLP cosplays that consists of a kind of corset and poofy skirt. I didn't want to do that though. MLP is a children's show, I would prefer to have a costume that's elegant without being overly sexy.

I chose to use the Vogue 1208 pattern.

I've had it in my pattern stash for quite some time, but haven't had a good reason to sew it. The Rarity cosplay would be a good way of testing the pattern. I definitely thought the elegant pattern would fit a classy pony like Rarity. I don't have any pictures of the construction, it was a project that I didn't hae enough time for really, but I still wanted to do it. I used a white duchesse satin for the outer fabric and a charmeuse for the lining. One thing is that being in a hurry and cutting two layers of slippery fabrics made for the finished pieces not matching exactly, but I don't think it's too visible unless you look really close.

Rarity's cutie mark, the symbols on her flank, are turquoise diamonds. I liked that the bow of the pattern was quite angular and mirrored the cutie marks, so I made it in the same fabric, some kind of heavy, poly satin. For the cutie marks themselves I made by cutting out a diamond pattern, cutting them out in the fabric, more or less free handing the lines on the marks with triple straight stitch. I used a satin stitch to go over all the edges and then I sewed them onto the dress.

I ordered two long, curly purple wigs on ebay. One is used for the hair and one is used for the tail, but I don't have any pictures of it. Basically I sewed the head cap of the wig into a small white bag and attached it to a wide elastic. I wear the elastic around the waist, and then the tail goes out through a whole in the dress.

The unicorn and her necklace, Rarity's element of harmony, were both found on Etsy. I'm also carrying Opal, Rarity's pet, but I have a full post about her here.

At Närcon I wore a pair of white tights and a white sandals, but I think it actually looks a lot better with pantyhose and my white high Leia boots.

This is a really comfy costume. It's not hot, it's not tight anywhere, and it's possible to walk for hours in the boots. The wig gets a bit warm, that's the only downside. Until the next time I'm going to wear it I want to make a pair of pony ears as well. I also want to make a matching turquoise handbag of the leftovers from the fabric that I used for the bow and cutie marks.

As for make up I use a lot of turquoise eye shadow and then a purple lipstick.