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This is the beginning of Jen’s DragonCon and costuming journey, so the pictures are a little sparse compared to other pages. I went with a Victorian-inspired costume.
Here’s my step-by-step process:
- Concept art
- Patterns and fabrics
- “Found” pieces
- Making and customizing pieces
- Props
- Putting it all together
1.Concept Art. I never start a costuming project without concept art. That way, I always have something to look at when I’m getting frustrated with a small detail.

This is the pattern I selected, minus the sleeves | ![]() |
Here’s a picture of the pattern cut out | ![]() |
- I went with this shiny blue fabric for the dress.
- I also used some gold padded fabric to make the “corset”, although I didn’t snag any pictures of it.
Top3.“Found” pieces.
- I found these boots at the local thrift store. Unfortunately, the boots disintegrated about two hours after I started wearing them.
Top4.Making and customizing pieces
- Unfortunately, I didn’t get many pictures of my process. Here’s a shot of putting the dress together:
- I ended up painting the toes of the boots gold, but no pictures.
- Here’s the completed dress:
Top5.Props
- Since I was going with a theme version instead of something straight out of a comic book page, I decided to make a spellbook.
- Doctor Fate’s symbol is an ankh, so I made one out of cardboard and painted it, to attach to the front of the spellbook.
Top6.Putting it all together
I managed to find one picture of the whole outfit
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