smelly flower (xianghua), belted

It's been a while since I've posted any status on my Xianghua costume. You probably figured out by now that I had another huge project brewing, and I will blog about that later! If you haven't seen it already, then you should be in for a treat :)

I didn't mention that I had to dye the TASSEL of this belt a total of 4 times. The first time was a complete failure as the tassel didn't absorb the dye properly. The 2nd and 3rd times, I bought fringe and dyed that. The fringe wouldn't take the dye, instead becoming a really dirty, mold color. During my 3rd trial, I realized that the color completely washed out during my final rinse, but the color stayed vibrant during the dyeing process.

Left: A trim that did not take the dye properly (I didn't show the result);
Right: The fringe, before dyeing

The 2nd time I dyed the fringe

The 4th time, unwashed

So for my 4th trial, I did not wash the fringe. I am surprised the color came out this close to the belt, which I dyed in a separate trial.

Next, the reference photo I had did not depict the details entirely, so I was free to interpret the front of the belt. I sewed buttons to the center of the flowers I had sewn, and glued, then clamped ribbon ends to the sections I would be adding beads to.

You can see that the color is a lot lighter after it's dried.

I could not find golden ribbon ends to match my beads, so I had to paint them with 2 coats of acrylic paint, then I used clear nail polish (2 coats) to add some shine to the ends. I used a thin brass wire to string the beads.

Just regular old Rimmel top coat!

Since it was near impossible for me to find the exact type of tassel for the end of the belt, I had to sew the fringe to make a "fake tassel". Luckily there was a butterfly decoration where the belt would connect to the tassel, so I pulled out the clay again, and glued all the pieces together.