ABC’s Once Upon a Time is all about the fairy tales. The story does feature the modern day, but there are plenty of flashbacks to the Enchanted Forest and that means over the top, dazzling costumes. The Evil Queen, Regina, gets the most wicked designs. Her outfits are often black with big skirts or tight pants and are complemented by sequined headpieces. Ginger made one of Regina’s costumes for Baltimore Comic-Con last year (I happened to spot her there), and she crafted the entire costume from the cape to the wig.
Ginger gathered screen caps from the series for reference and started with the cape:
I ordered some black polyester chiffon online and, after a few measurements, cut it into one large trapezoid and two smaller triangles. I then laid the triangles with the hypotenuse facing outwards and sewed the panels together using a French seam. I then drew the approximate shape of the cape in chalk, a strange spiky-flame-y shape.
I decided to use plain fabric paint on the sides of the cape to create the white flame effect. This honestly worked much better than I expected it to. I first sketched out flame-like pattern on a sheet of paper. I placed wax paper over it, then painted over the design on the wrong side of the fabric. Whenever I got to the end of the design, I shifted the paper to the next 11″ piece.
After she cut the edges of cape, she added feathers.
As far as the wig, she noted it was the first wig she ever styled. There’s a first time for everything and you only learn by trying. Her first attempt didn’t work out. She initially ordered two long black wigs but then ended up mostly destroying one. She had to get a ponytail clip-on to finish the wig.
Read more about the making of the costume at Ginger’s blog.
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