Guillermo del Toro makes incredible, beautiful movies and I've loved every one, so it means a lot when I say that Crimson Peak is probably my favorite (well, tied with Pacific Rim at least). Plans for this literally started while leaving the theatre after watching it. We started with Thomas and Lucille from the finale (the Nightgown Murder Party), and next we'll be tackling their ghost versions.
Both the settings and the cabochons came from Findings Victoria on Etsy (and I can't recommend them enough; excellent shop).
I might add rhinestones eventually, but they look awesome as-is for now. (The ghost version of the ring will be the same setting in silver painted over with black, and a black glass gem.)
One of the other initial steps was fabric selection, which took a really long time (I blame part of it on the fabric being particular, and part of it on my being particular). These dyed swatch tests started last spring but I'm just now compiling them here. (But hey! At least I was more diligent on the RPF.)
These are all crepe satin, with labels on the right side, from Fabric Supplier aka Fabric Wholesale Direct. I did also swatch their charmeuse satin at the last minute, but I never painted it. The paint, top to bottom, is Americana acrylic in Avocado; Americana in Hauser Dark Green; Americana in Williamsburg Blue; and Delta Ceramcoat in Aluminum. All of it was watered down to permeate the fabric lightly and play with the color washes on her robe. After agonizing over fabric paint and fabric dye and custom dye, I figured I'd just mix acrylic and water. It's cheap, has an endless range of colors, is easy to apply, and stains like crazy. The test with a foam brush worked well, so I'm sticking with it. [This ended up being vaguely disastrous, and I was able to salvage it but I'm already working on redoing the whole dyeing/painting process.]
These are charmeuse satin and crepe satin from Fabric Empire on Etsy and their own site. The labels are on the wrong side. Same paint and same method as on the other swatches, but I was a little messier with these and it blended a little easier anyway.
I liked the silver and grey swatches best, and specifically the charmeuse from the second set. The silver gives the truest colors in the paint, and is the easiest way to get the lighter areas of the robe's mottled color. The lightweight fabric moves and looks a bit like silk, which I suspect is what the real robe is made from, and less weight would be a definite bonus with the huge size of the robe and nightgown. I ended up ordering the silver charmeuse satin from Fabric Empire.
For nightgown fabric, I did order swatches but who knows where they are now. I initially considered the faux habotai fabric from Fabric Supplier, but then worried it would be too thin and would need a lining, which would make the whole thing that much heavier and expensive and therefore impractical. So I considered some microfiber (a sheet set, actually) or various other fabrics, but watching the movie again I realized the nightgown *is* really sheer and figured I could wear something tan or white underneath for decency if I felt the need. So I scrapped the idea of lining and went back to Fabric Supplier's faux habotai and got that after all.
Finally tally of the nightgown's faux habotai ended up being 15 yards, which was actually a decent over-estimation because somewhere in all the maths I apparently forgot something or other about panel sizes and fabric widths and all that. The robe's charmeuse ended up at 10 yards, which again came down to math based on pattern panel sizes, but also matched the yardage for the original pattern close enough to feel safe and ended up being pretty exact.
For Thomas, we had a mad hunt for a just-right brocade in both black and white. We initially tried to find the same fabric in both colors to match, since ostensibly Thomas's black and white vests should be identical. Turns out the costume department actually used a different fabric for each, and since finding an accurate-ish brocade in multiple colors at an affordable price was so hard, we gave up and just focused on a fabric that worked for each individual vest. We swatched a white brocade from Fabric Supplier, and we liked it, but at that point we were still looking for the same fabric in both colors, so we passed on it. By the time we changed our plans, we unexpectedly found something else. We also swatched a black brocade from Big Z Fabric on Etsy and their own site, which we also liked and which had the raised texture similar to the screen-used fabric, but by the time we were ready to order it was out of stock. SO. Plan change again.
In the end the white fabric came from the home decor section of a JoAnn when we were there on a whim and happened to find something surprisingly good. For the black fabric we initially ordered some tablecloths off Etsy, and we were happy enough with those, but then we found a skirt at a thrift store that had more of the accurate raised texture we'd been hoping for. [I ended up making the vest out of the tablecloth fabric first as a wearable mockup, and I'll be making a second out of the skirt fabric. More on that later.]
So maybe we'll make two versions of the black vest: one with the more accurate fabric to leave nice and intact, and one with the tablecloths to stab holes in and cover in blood. The beauty of these costumes is that they go together in so many different forms. As far as on-screen story progression, both Thomas and Lucille can be worn clean or bloodied, and Nightgown!Lucille can go with both living Thomas or Ghost!Thomas.
Such a big backlog of updates is difficult to sort through and divide up and post so long after the fact, but hopefully in the next update I can slog through the patterning process.
Great article and awesome pictures.
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