AND NOW, MURDERS

(Part 1 here)

Step one of making prop guns: having a plan. Nailed step one. These are all to scale with the exception of the rifle, on account of that one being just a little bit too big to fit on the sketchbook page.

At some point in 2018, a friend and I got to talking about costumes we'd like to build, given time and space and materials. Of those discussed, my friend mentioned that he'd like to build a demonic puppet to sit on his shoulders, while he dressed as some kind of demon summoner. Batting ideas back and forth, we settled on a theme of plague-- the puppet a demon of plague, his costume that of a plague doctor. I dearly wanted the excuse to build more fantasy guns-- so I joined in, alongside a few others to make it a group cosplay. I've been idly messing with it since, but didn't really start working on it in earnest until January of this year, which as you clearly can see is way before the whole pandemic thing. In a hideously ironic twist of fate, I finished the coat for my outfit right about when quarantine really started.

Anyway, please enjoy this description of my process, with attendant pictures under cuts:

1. I started with a muslin, made from a truly hideous candy-corn bedsheet I was desperate to get rid of. The body and sleeves were from a really lovely 1930s-era pattern vogue reprinted recently, modified to have a fold-over bit, standing collar, and tails.
( a vaguely regency-era shaped tailcoat with puffed sleeves, made of fabric printed in orange, yellow, and white stripes. )

2. Pattern settled, I cut into the real fabric and marked out my embroidery designs. Tailor's chalk didn't show up very well, and the pressure needed to make a mark made every line a fight against the slight strechiness of the fabric. My workaround was to use milk paint-- it goes on easy, shows up clearly, and disappears just like chalk with water and a little bit of rubbing. To transfer the design from paper to fabric, I painted over the back of the paper with milk paint, let it dry, laid the paper over the fabric, and went over the lines with a dull pencil. This left faint marks I could paint over for clarity. This is the back of the coat.
( black fabric with a faint pattern of white lines radiating out from a central eye. )

3. Combo beading and embroidery. The lines were done directly on the fabric, while the eye was done on an embroidery hoop, cut out, and stitched on. For security-- and ease of placement-- I used double-sided fusible interfacing on the eye to stick it in place (and tack down any loose threads on the back) before I stitched it. Not pictured: the back of this piece, where I ironed on a sheet of single-sided fusible interfacing for the same reason.
( a eye with red iris, from which radiate gold and red lines )

4. The edging of the tails: a pattern of gold thread, red beads, and eyes. The eyes here were achieved the same way as the larger eye on the back panel. Pictured here is the pattern with just the thread and eyes; I added the beads last, for ease of ironing.
( the eyes being created, as well as already attached )

5. Up until this point, the lining was plain black cotton. This looked pretty blah-- especially considering the level of decoration going on in the back.

6. Plan A was to use gold fabric paint and have black and make the lining be black and gold stripes. Technically speaking this worked, as the fabric paint went on well and showed up beautifully. Unfortunately, the stripes brought with them an unmistakable air of the circus, which...was not the effect I was going for.

7. Plan B: I know, I'll carve myself a stamp and print my own patterned fabric, because that's a totally reasonable amount of work to put into this thing.
( a sheet of grey linoleum, half-carved with a pattern of dozens of eyes in various sizes )
8. Looks real cool though.
( a pattern of gold eyes on black fabric )

9. That done, all that was left was doing the lining and the finishing touches, during which I was vividly and viscerally reminded why I usually avoid lining like the (ahem) plague.

10. Last thing to go on were the buttons and snaps, which took a great deal of fiddling about and the placement of which I am still not terribly thrilled. No doubt in a few weeks I'll pull them all off and start all over again.

 Finished Product: