This diary was way too big for one page, so this section documents my making of Dorme's embroidered buckle. To see my progress on the remainder of her costume, click [here].

black cotton, duck cloth, quilters batting, black cotton - layered, then quilted together with black thread; I traced my outline onto white stabilizer with a pen then held everything together temporarily with quilters basting spray; once finished quilting, I trimmed close to my thread outline

       

I was able to find a good match for all of the embroidery thread at Joanns; they are: Dark Pewter Gray (413), Dark Blue (825), Light Straw (3822), Deep Canary (972) Dark Orange Spice (720), V Light Pistachio Green (369), and V Dark Old Gold (3829). I also found a Metallic Gold (5282) but didn't end up using it.

First, I finished my cut outside edge with the dark gold thread using a simple satin stitch. Then I started filling in all of the shapes with the appropriate colors. For the cutouts in the middle, I used an exacto knife to trim close to the quilted line, then finished the edge again with the dark gold thread. I went over my outside edge a second time, since I didn't do it really well the first go around.

       

       

       

       

   

To finish the back of the buckle once all of the embroidery was done, I used my template to cut out the same shape of the buckle using black wool felt (which I had on hand). I then cut a small piece of black 1/2" ribbon and fray-checked the ends. This was attached to the back of the felt with my zipper foot. After stitching on one side of the ribbon, I inserted a large safety pin before stitching the other side - this way I could stitch close to the pin to minimize shifting. Once the safety pin was attached, I used temporary spray adhesive to mount the felt backing to the embroidered buckle. I handstitched the felt backing to the buckle with black cotton thread, and this stabilized the entire piece quite nicely.

       

Here's two pictures of me modeling the finished buckle. I haven't even mocked up the bodice and skirt Dorme wears, so I'm wearing the buckle over my Harry Potter skirt and sweater. I used a leftover piece of fabric from my pleated skirt to do a quick imitation of the belt. These pictures are really just to get an idea of color and size/scale. The last picture shows a comparison between my buckle and the original. *Note - the color is still a little off due to crappy bathroom lighting.

       

To see the reference images used to make this costume,
check out my Dorme EP2 Goodbye Gown Research.