Elektra costumes

Hi!

Just thought I would start a thread here since I am in the process of making an Elektra costume. I know that Mirax has done one version of Elektra-I am in the process of making the costume from the movie Elektra with Jennifer Garner.
It looks pretty streamlined...but it is VERY tough. I have been having a time with this one.
It is not for me, but a costume that I am creating for someone to wear to DragonCon.
QS

 

I've been talking to a girl about making her an Elektra costume too. The bustier-type fella and the pants with the fun insets. I'm not sure when we're starting on it, but if you would, please let me know what you discover. It's gonna be a fun one

 

It has been a VERY difficult costume. So far I am in about 15 hours of sewing time on the bra cups ALONE.
What I have noticed, is that it is best to capture some of the details from the actual movie, and the special features section of the dvd, rather than the movie poster and publicity stills. Some of the details are "airbrushed out" in the posters. Like the seamline that runs up the crotch/center of the pants. You can clearly see it in the film in a few close ups, but in the main movie posters and pics it isn't there.

I work with making Middle Eastern dance costumes for the bulk of my costume jobs...so I am pretty familiar with the process of "covering" bra cups and sturdy-ing them up to make costumes. It was the only reason I agreed to try to make this costume.

What I did was find two corsets at thrift stores/Ebay/Goodwill. One with the cup style that I needed, and another with the outline shape that I needed. (Coming down to almost a point at naval level in front, but shorter on the sides and back. I am using the bra cups and covering them from the one corset, and I am using the other one to make my pattern on butcher paper.

I have found that the Elekra bra cups are "tilted" so you can take underwire cups and tilt them in when you position them to sew the rest of the corset together. By tilted, I mean that the outsides of the cups are higher, and the insides are lower, so the cleavage is more "in together" that "up and out".

The straps are wide apart in front start right next to armpit crease) but they go in further towards the center back in the back-so that the straps create a slight V shape in the back rather than coming straight up and down.

From my experience with covering bra cups, I already knew that you cannot cover an underwire bra cup with one piece of fabric, due to the flat fabric and curved cup not allowing for that. (If you look closely in some shots and pictuers of the corset, you can see that the cups are actually covered in three pieces each...and the hand stitched lines "conceal" the places where the three pieces meet. There are two lines that are a little bit deeper and more apparent.)

I am making the corset out of a non stretch medium-heavy weight material, but making the pants out of red lyrca. (The inserts on both are in a semi-sheer red with a slight sheen.) I used three reds from the same fabric brand, so the color is exact on all three.
You can use an exercise pants type of pattern for the pants...but take the waistline down a bit-since the pants are more low rise in style.
In the very beginning of the movie scene with her in the red costume, it shows some GREAT back views of her if you can pause it and draw the details.

The boots and sash belt are made from leather, and they are a bit deeper/darker than the bright red of the costume itself. There are tiny tiny studs detailing the hand wraps and boot tops-and if you look around on the internet you can find plently of still shots that show the pattern.

I will add more as I think of it...it is a doozy.

 

Thank you for the insight! A few of those things I'd have never come up with on my own. You've saved me a ton of work! I'm thinking about dying some white powernet for the pants insets, wonder if that would work. . .I could dye some heavyweight dance Lycra at the same time. I'm still way in the planning stages, however. I'm pretty psyched to get going though.

 

I hope to see some sexy movie version Elektra costumes at Dragon Con this year. As with all revealing costumes, if you don?t have the body for it, don?t do it. No offense, but that?s just my two cents. Please ignore the unintentional rhyme.

 

Pssst! While you're talking about corsets...

Is there a special name for a kind of corset that has a crotch on it too?

 

BluePheonix-

The woman that I am making this costume for is young enough, exercises regularly, and she has not had any children. I take great pride in my work, and I would not make this costume for someone who could not carry it off. I hope that eases your mind.

Electrakitty-

I actually used red sheer organza for the inserts. I am sure that powernet would work if you can get it in red, or dye it in red. Something I did when I was sewing the pants, was when I started piecing them together, after serging each seam, I topstitched right next to it on top of the fabric, so that the serging in the back laid flat, and didn't flip over onto the sheer half inside of the pants. I hope that made sense. ha ha Basically, now the 1/4 of serging inside is held over behind the solid red lycra and won't show through the sheer parts. The only part that shows serging through the sheer, is the small section where the two small sheer stripes meet the long sheer stripe down the front, but in my pictures of Elektra from the film-it shows through in HER pants as well.
You don't need to bother dying dance Lycra. They sell it at Joann fabrics with the skate and dance materials in bright red. Perfect.

QS