About the creation: I fell in love with Zhaan Priest Vestments from "Rhapsody in Blue" and so pleased to see them again in "Look at the Princess". I started to make a copy of them for a Halloween Costume to were to my office. (I really didn't think that I would ever go all the way and make the complete vestment and actually where it with makeup and all!!) But I did! I wore "the Full Monty" to the Burbank Convention as you see in the photos.

UNDERDRESS: The underdress is a plain turquoise polyester based on a simple V-neck nightgown.

SYMBOLS:I felt the symbols were critical to the design as they made the garment "priest vestments"-not just a gown. So, I spent weeks copying the beautiful gold "Delvian" symbols of the vestments from Zhaans gown by watching my VHS tapes for hours on end, frame-by-frame as the DVDs weren't out when I started.

GOWN: The Royal-Blue of layer is made of heavy weight polyester satin in V-neck vest w/the long strip of fabric with the designs layered on top via "Stitch Witchery" and a fabulous polyester Liquid Gold material. Unfortunately, it was very hard to find a gold fabric that could be ironed, and every application of the gold on top of the satin required ironing. Gluing was out of the question as it would not hold up. But I found by trial and error that I could iron it if I placed it wrong side up, then the Stitch Witchery, then the satin and then paper-on a MEDIUM hot iron-for a short period of time. (If I needed a touch up later, I could even iron on the front of the gold if I placed a paper over it-never iron directly on the gold material  

SHAWL: The shawl is made from a cape pattern that I altered by hand to match the shape of the garment from the show.  The fabric is an Autumn design of leaves with subtle gold tints, interfaced with 2 layers of heaviest interfacing and lined with same fabric. Again I felt that the designs on the shawl were very import to the design so I spent I great deal of time trying to copy them exactly. I drew the symbols on the shawl by hand with a fabric marker pencil. Then I hand-painted each symbol on this shawl to attempt to mimic the look of the original. It is held closed with a broach that is gold, has a moon and sun and just looks good with the garment.

HAIR: I was not gonna go for the skull cap as I really felt that I have too much hair to make it work, so I went for the look of Zhaan nemesis in the Look at the Princess who has a full head of white hair. I sprayed it with I white hair paint, that looked gray with my naturally dark brown hair. Oh well.

MAKEUP: the makeup was quite an experience! I bought it at a professional makeup shop. I started painting my face (and much later my hands) completely royal blue. Then I gradually added layer, after layer of white, highlighting and shading sometimes with the blue again, until I felt that I had the proper "look" that Zhaan was able to achieve. I the nailpolish-type brush (that came in the bottle of white paint) to paint on the "spots" on the cheekbones, nose and forehead. Then I used a very thin eyeliner brush and drew in the "veining" on the side of the face, the throat, neck and collarbones. I lately used an iridescent glitter all over the face, neck, throat, etc which you can't really see in the photo. I then scrubbed my hands and arms with the blue paint, put on multiple silver rings, and hurried to the convention before it all wore off.

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I loved making and wearing this costume as it was a real labor of love. But even better was seeing the reaction of the actors when they saw ME wearing it!! Virginia saw me in the full costume-without the makeup--at the San Diego Comic Con and I was THRILLED that she said I had captured the design perfectly including doing the symbols exactly! Then when I saw Claudia at Burbank in Full Costume and makeup she said that it was "marvelous" and that I had done a "wonderful job". Ben just was speechless, then asked me questions about making it. *happy dance* What more could I ask?