Granado Espada

We called this group “Pomegranate Sword”, since… the name of the game could technically be that poorly translated. It was a labor of love, literally. Our Granado Espada group was set up originally by a friend and was intended to include many people, however it didn’t come to fruition when she was diagnosed with cancer. Yunie and I continued to finish these costumes in dedication to her, but did not compete in them since it wouldn’t have felt right.

This costume was a lot of firsts for me: first time dyeing my own silk, first time sewing pants, first time making my own complex jewelry, and doing such extensive satin stitching everywhere. Despite how relatively simple it looked, this was one of the most detailed costumes I’ve ever done at the time. The “Capezzolo di Pericolo” costume had a lot of skin in strange places, so I had to improvise a little, and interpret the costume on how best it would translate to real fabrics.
The entire costume is silk except the lining of the pants (taffeta), the arm poof (sheer crepe), and gloves (cotton knit). I found the perfect color of light olive silk for the top and pant details, but could not for the life of me find the perfect kelly-green tone of silk, so I ended up dyeing my own. The leaf designs on the pants and shirt are done with contrasting green applique, which all were meticulously satin stitched, then cut out the centers of – except the shirt, to which I sewed flesh-colored material in several layers. This was the most pain-staking and time consuming part of the costume. The large leaf on the bodice was several Heat-N-Bond layers of silk, taffeta, and buckram, with Swarovski crystals off the ends. I was quite satisfied with how the crepe sleeve draped, and to keep it light I fray checked the ends with heat. 
The arm band was made with wire, chains, and Swarovski crystals, while I took a shorter route on the choker and beaded with false pearls to match the belt “flowers”. I’m most pleased with the belt, as the “flowers” are all hand beaded, and I luckily found the disks that make up the bulk of the belt in a craft store.
The silver wig was a lucky find on Ebay, and needed next to no styling to keep its shape accurate to the reference. I also added tiny pearls and beads throughout the wig, and found a fun LED fiber-optic hair clip on Ebay. I did not have time to make the shoes to my liking, so I wore a pair of flowered flats that ended up matching the outfit very well as a whole, and purchased and altered green gloves.