How the Talas cosplay was made, part 2.

Qizil Kiymeshek

You know what's wonderful? It's finding a page with the exact garment you're planning to make spread out various ways! Making patterns yourself does not get much easier than this.

Very well then: what I would need were one huge rectangle/diamond shape of wool and another, slightly smaller triangle. As for the part that lays on the top of the head, examples on that page showed that it can be done practically any way you want to. I chose to cut the top and bottom corners slightly rounder (but not the sides) and add a piece cut in almond shape. At the widest it's 12cm wide (seam allowances included) and it's about 35cm long. Its exact shape was not a real concern because a) its function would only be to add some room for my head and b) no one would ever see it.

Or so I thought. And then I planned the skit and - well. :D

But onwards!

Again I began embroidering before putting the whole thing together. Much easier on the arms, but required some planning.

Btw the narrow yellow lines are just sewing thread. I made those huge crosses to help me keep the lines straight while I chain-stitched ahead. If you look closely at the outer edges of the black piece you'll see that curiously each corner has at least one piece of embroidery already in... they and the thick, red line were put there in the beginning to make sure the piece would not move around, tear or misshape itself while I worked on the middle.

The work advances. The yellow guidelines have been removed.

Detail shot of the embroidery. According to my research this part had to be made of wool and decorated with chain stitches. There's another kind of a kiymeshek that's white in colour and decorated in red cross-stitch, but those are usually worn by older women. If you read Bride's Story you can see the difference in the shade of Talas' and her mother-in-law's kiymeshek and their decorations. Kaoru Mori is the queen of research.

First piece done! It gave me some trouble when I realized that Talas in the manga is actually wearing a k'ok k'oylek and a kiymeshek with a somewhat different pattern then the one shown in the cover picture, but then I thought there could be a logical explanation. She was very young when she was married the first time and she married four times in total, so she might possibly grow too tall for her old ones at some point. Besides her husbands' family back then was definitely wealthy enough to order new ones. This is just a headcanon, mind you. :P

Adding the border piece. It still annoys me that the bottom of the red wool started to curve as I worked on it... I somehow didn't see that coming though I've worked with wool before and KNOW how it likes to shape itself on its own. But it was a learning experience - always keep in mind that wool does as wool does.

 Once the embroidery was all done I sewed the front piece, top of the head and back piece together. I put the whole thing over my head and set it at the right place, marked my nose, chin and forehead and cut the hole for the face, carefully and little by little since it couldn't be too large. I covered the edges of my face-hole with bias binding and added some embroidery under the chin. Then I added the long, black lines for the back and embroidered the red grid on those and as a last measure cut the line of tassels out of the fabric.

Here's how it looks at the back when worn.

Next part: the headdress: Sa'wkele.