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bellepullman β Elphaba, The Wicked Witch 2
Published: 2009-11-22 20:30:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 10071; Favourites: 36; Downloads: 0
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YEARS later...I've finally, finally, got my Elphaba costume finished, modelled, and photographed! The bodice on its own was uploaded here march 2007, and now I have the finished article.
Design originally by Susan Hilferty, for Wicked the Musical. My take on it is slightly different - Elphaba is of earth and fire elements, dark, hot colours. The skirt is somewhat bigger than that used onstage, being a full circle plus about half again. We lost count of the number of fabrics, miles of ruffles, and hours, no, days that went into the skirt, but both myself and my delightful model Mem worked on this for weeks. The costume weighs around 12lbs - 5.5kg. There are a LOT of details in the costume, including specific fabrics in the skirt and personalised decoration.
Now I want to start again, making a bodice with more movement and a lighter skirt! A few other projects to finish first, plus, y'know, earning money etc etc...
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Comments: 26
This is amazing. I am not a seamster or seamstress and I can't even fathom what effort went into this.
It just makes me sad though. I am trying to portray Elphaba for Halloween with My Girlfriend who wants to go as Glinda, because although their initial personalities don't line up with ours, they come to realize how strong their relationships are together and how much they changed each other (I am talking all musical here, I have never read the book.)
I can't find a decent dress and the mock up dresses are easily more than I would spend on a Halloween costume. 
Do you know where I could look?
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Hey, yeah, Elphaba's Act 2 dress is an insane amount of work! Β However, her "Defying Gravity" dress is much more your typical "Wicked Witch" costume. Β And paired with Glinda's yellow "Emerald City" dress, which is also fairly easy to find something that looks similar. Β I don't know where to look in particular, but I'd think a "Wicked Witch" dress should be fairly easy to find at this time of year! Β Good luck!
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Omg this is amazing. Wow! I love that it's so detailed β₯
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Did you use premade ruffles, or did you make your own?
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they were all made by hand, bias cut strips about 3" wide, pressed in half, then mostly edged by being overlocked before being sewn on, ruffled by hand as they were sewn on!Β
...it took a while.
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Oh wow!!!!!!! You must be so talented at sewing and have a LOT of patience! This is incredible!! 
I know you've said that you don't really need a patten, but I'm not that good at that kind of thing, would it be too much to ask you to make a basic, simple patten to vaguely follow please?
It's okay if you can't, or don't want to!
This is an amazing dress, you've done really well with it!
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I don't know quite how I'd make a pattern someone else could follow, just online - making an actual paper pattern, I could, but it would take a bunch of my time and I'd charge for it.
The skirt is something like 8 panels, very narrow at the waist, flaring gently then really wide at the bottom. The top, if you bought a commercial historical dress pattern you could alter it by tracing the two halves - the bottom half is almost a corset over the top of the top half and sleeves. I really don't think I'm explaining well, sorry!
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Awesome! I wish I had a pattern to make one of these. I really want this costume.
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Pattern? You don't need a pattern! I draped this on the stand, but you could modify a commercial pattern for a victorian bodice I guess. It takes a lot of trial and error tho, cutting up old bedsheets!
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alright thanks for letting me know.
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that is some serious dedication! but it paid off!
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Thanks! It took forever but it's worth it!
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nniceeethe funny thing is the real costume in the show is 30 pounds (Julia Murney) says in a Broadway.com interview.. this is awesome
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Dang! That IS impressive. That's a complicated enough costume to draw, much less sew. Your persistence paid off.
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This looks great! I recognized that it was from Wicked right away. I love that play - I just went to see it on Broadway in December
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I featured this deviation here and in my journal.
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You are NOT doing another skirt until Glinda's bubble dress is done... at least I'm not helping you with the damn ruffles if you do. A bodice that isn't almost bulletproof would be nice though, arm movment is always a bonus
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Dear god, I hope you had a ruffler to do this. That is...FANTASMIC. Just WOW.
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Sadly we didn't have a ruffler, every one of those is ruffled by hand, thank the gods for a sewing machine to actually sew them down is all I can say!
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My hands ache for you. It was worth it though. You really did create something utterly divine.
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Thanks! It feels great for it to be FINISHED. At last.
I dunno about making more Wicked costumes, really, beyond finishing what I've started. I love the costumes a lot more than the show, and there's so many more costumes out there I want to make!
Bubblebath Gumbie, for example...
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