Badb - The Wicked + The Divine

Character Name:: Badb
Source:: The Wicked + The Divine
Debuted At:: Snailoween 2016

Reference / Design Sketches

WIP

Costumes Notes

As with many of my costumes, this started with Slothcore. She handed me a copy of The Wicked + The Divine and I was hooked within minutes. Stop reading this and go order/read that.

Anyhoo, Slothcore has been doing cos-tests for many of the characters, and settled on elaborating more on her Amaterasu costume. And, as per normal, I decided to make something to match. I decided on Badb as her outfit was a little easier to amass/make in the short period of time I had.

The corset was bought off a friend, the skirt was a Value Village find (once and a while I get lucky there), and I already owned both of the red wigs that I stacked for this costume. I just had to make the shirt, arms, and feathered detailings.

For the feather/scale arm, using a cardboard stencil, I created a series of textured vinyl strips that were dry-brushed with opalescent green paint on the edges to create a feathered look. These strips were then sewn onto a cotton sleeve. The cock feather trim at the top is a seperate piece so that I can carefully wash the sleeve.

Version 1.0 (Snailoween) of the shirt was an ongoing series of mistakes. I didn't have time iterate on my mock-up and it shows. Thankfully, most of the hideousness is hidden beneath the corset, but I know it's there (and now so do you). Also, I hate working with that matieral; so damn slippery.

Version 1.0 of the raven sleeve was the work on Slothcore. She spent over an hour applying ravens to my arm using alcohol-based ink (so they'd last a night of sweating dancing) using a stencil and a sponge. The eventual goal is to make a skin-tone sleeve already bedazzled with ravens that I can just pull on and off at will.

Version 2.0 of the top was made from black stretch mesh, using the top half of the ever useful Kwik Sew 3502 pattern. I added on black ribbon and buttons to the front to mimic a button closure, but in reality it's closes with a zipper and hook-and-eye on the back. Light-beige mesh was used on the sleeves, with the ravens stenciled on using fabric paint* and the same plastic stencils that were used for version 1.0 of the arm.

* I tested a bunch of methods for applying the raven stencils: colouring in with Sharpie (massive fail), paint with a sponge dabber-brush, paint with a paint brush, and various sizes of stencil brushes with various acrylic paint to fabric-medium mixes. Then the fabric was washed to see how each held up before I started in on the final version of the sleeve.

I honestly cannot remember why I had the cock-feather trim. Did I order for one of my many dead-in-the-water costumes? Did I order it for Badb/Morrigan earlier in the year? Did I just see it one day and think "SHINY! I must have that!"? They're all very plausible possibilities. No matter why I had the feathered trim, it was layer upon itself and sewn into various configuration to produce the arm-flare and the skirt accents.

Toss on a pair of black army-style boots and get friends to help with the make-up and the costume is complete. Also, despite the corset, it's surprisingly comfy, if a little toasty.