One of the most important things in creating Queen Victoria's costume was making the whole set of the Order of the Garter insignia. So the next few post will be about these elements of my costume, starting from the Garter.

I made mine using dark blue velvet, glass rhinestone chains, glass and acrylic rhinestones and liquid metal paint.

The text on it says "Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame on him who thinks ill of it)".

You can see it on many of Queen Victoria's portraits

Also on my profile picture and a few pictures of me in Queen Victoria's costume you may notice the sad fact that I'm wearing my Garter all wrong :( I was in such a big rush that the person that helped me put it on did it the wrong way and I didn't even notice (well, actually my whole sleeve was wrong and we also sewed the garter in, so I coudn't change it at the time. I need to put some kind of closing to it to avoid this mistake in the future. And also fix the sleeve, but that's all for another post).

Chopinianna

Prince Albert's Brooch was the first thing that I made for Queen Victoria's costume. I made it (like most of jewelry that I make) using eva foam and glass rhinestones. I tried to give it more dimension by sticking together rhinestones to create kind-of diamond shape.

The Sapphire Coronet is the only (excluding Victoria's locket pendant, but I'll write about that in another post) piece of Queen Victoria's jewelry that I didn't make 100% myself from scratch. I found a small crown that is very similar to the original Sapphire Coronet. I made eva foam gold bases with acrylic "sapphires" and glued it to this tiara. I guess it kind of works :)

The original brooch was a present to Queen Victoria from Prince Albert. He gave it to her the day before their wedding. You can see it on many Victoria's portraits.

The Coronet was also designed and given as a gift to the Queen by her husband. I am very happy that after many years it will return to the V&A museum!

Here is me wearing the Brooch with my full Victoria costume. You can also read about my Diamond Diadem replica that I'm wearing on this picture <click >.

The State Diadem was definitely the most time-consuming element of my Queen Victoria's costume.

I made it myself from scrap so it was quite a challenge. I started with a base: two layers of an eva foam with wires, costume bones and if I remember correctly... rulers. After all, it had to be able to hold the weight of glue and many, many rhinestones (I bought most of rhinestones on Aliexpress. The shipping takes a while, but the low price made it possible for me to make this project).

I tried to make the measurements and shapes as close to the original as possible, though it is a bit bigger because I had to make it the right size for my wig (in real life I have short pink bob, so not very Victoria-like haha). Fortunately for this element I had no problem finding photos and all important information about it, because it's still in use by Her Majesty Queen Elizabth II.

Here is me wearing it with my wig. It actually sparkles like crazy even though the rhinestones are glass ones!

Aaaaaaand more photos of the Diadem!

I had lots of fun making it! :)

This is how it all looked at the beginning

Let me know what you think,

Chopinianna

Hello!

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Justyna aka Chopinianna and I'm from Poland (so just to make things clear about why my English is not perfect).

I like to make historical costumes and cosplay... well, sort of. Actually I hate sewing :D I'm not good at it, but I try my best (usually with help from my more experienced friends). I love being creative and making jewelry. 

So, with that in mind it's time for the most important thing and the reason for this introduction post: my costumes are not 100% historically accurate. I just want to say it at the beginning to avoid any confusion from my viewers. What I mean by that? Well, if the gown was originally from silk, then I'll probably use something that looks similar and doesn't ruin me financially. Same thing with jewelry. I don't use gold or silver, but mostly EVA foam, liquid metal and glass rhinestones. Basically anything that works. For me what is important is to make the end result looking as close to the original as possible and... to have fun! :)

I hope you'll enjoy the stuff that I'm going to post there,

Chopinianna