ABBA Voyage Costumes

 Apologies for the hiatus.  I started this project in early November, and only finished it like a couple of days ago, and while that isn't all that long for me to finish a project (honestly now that I think about it, that is fairly quick for a project haha), this project was a NIGHTMARE to work on.  I've never done anything quite like this before, working with EL lights, using foam, using lots of hot glue (which, if you know me, I HATE working with hot glue), and I thought this would be fairly easy and straightforward.   But ultimately this project turned out to be the most complicated thing ever, and the most expensive....  I had to buy a new glue gun, double the amount of lights because I needed more, and the lights were like $30 a pack.  

However, ultimately in the end, everything worked out.  Before I go on to show the finished project, I just want to give a huge shoutout to the company who makes the EL lights for having excellent customer service and sending me a replacement light when I the issue of lights shorting out, and also many thanks to my dad the electrical engineer for helping me figure out how to join the lights together and for doing the work of soldering everything together.  I couldn't have done it without you. <3

Alright, now before I go into more detail, I just want to mention that I made these outfits despite there not being many reference photos.  I spent HOURS studying the same like two second clips from the concert trailer showing each ABBA-tar outfit, and I had to make up a bunch of details, and so if these aren't 100% accurate, well, the perfectionist in me hates that, but that's why I have all the excess wire sticking out the top of all their outfits in case I have to go back and change things. xD  Only after more reference photos come out will I finally cut off the excess, okay?  Okay.

Alright, here is Bjorn's outfit:

I used foam to make all the "armor" pieces, painted with two coats of black paint, and then a layer of a super glossy mod podge over the top.

And here's Bjorn's outfit to compare it with:

Agnetha's:

 

Frida's:

and Benny's:

Overall, I think I am pretty happy with how this project turned out.  I hate that it was so hard and complicated, and I think I need a well deserved break after this, but in the end, I gained more than I lost, and I think I handled it all pretty well considering how many times I was ready to give up. xD  Anyways, ABBA, please release like 360 pictures of the ABBA-tar outfits, it would ease my suffering a lot, but also if you see this, I hope you like it...? xD  

Also if anyone's interested, I made a video documenting some of the process of making this, so if you like that, here it is:

So what ABBA project does Becky plan on making next...?  Well, I recently went to Hobby Lobby and got a lot of fabric for various projects, including some remakes as well as new costumes I've never made before.... xD