When the pretty birds have flown...

 Hello again.  Long time no post.  :3  So.... I've been having random bursts of inspiration every now and then, and for the past month, I have been very sporadically working on a new batch of ABBA costume recreations for my dolls, and as of last night, I have officially finished making ABBA's animal outfits from 1978.  (okay, technically Bjorn and Benny do not have boots, and Agnetha doesn't have a proper belt, but it's good enough xD.  Will probably make those at a future time tho.)

However, before we jump right in and show you what I have made, I feel it is very, very important that I show you my first attempt at these costumes, from back in the day in February, 2012. 

These were actually the first outfits I ever made for my dolls, but I had only made Agnetha and Frida's outfits.  Technically, I only *sewed* the outfits.  My sister painted on the details and well....  Let's just say we weren't really striving for accuracy back then lololol.  Surprisingly, despite having made these literally 10 years ago, I remember everything about making these outfits, from my uncle for some reason being the one to pick up some shirts from the thrift store in the colors I needed and dropping them off for me to my attempting to sew the outfits and not doing a very good job of it.  The thread wasn't even matching, and my goodness, we did not do a good job with the painting hahahaha.  It was an attempt, and for my first ever costume recreation, I don't think it's too bad.  

Then a few months alter I used some of my mom's leftover gold fabric and made Bjorn and Benny's outfits, though I can't say I progressed in my sewing at all.  The fabric had a ton of runs in it already, and also I for some reason used blue thread for it, which doesn't match at all!  Also, I was an idiot and didn't put anything between the layers of the outfits when *badly* painting on Bjorn and Benny's animals on the front, so the paint stained onto the back.  There was a reason I never really shared any pictures of their outfits online hahahaa.  These are legit the only photos I have:

Anyways, fast forward 10 years later, and I finally have new versions of these oufits that I like.  I've actually been gathering supplies to make these for quite a while, like I bought a red satin shirt to cut up and turn into Agnetha's outfit maybe three or four years ago, and green fabric for Frida's early last year, and only got the fabric for the re
st later in the year.  I also bought tights in green and red specifically for these outfits, and only used a teeny tiny bit, so now I have partially cut up but otherwise fully functioning tights lying around haha.  

 I think one reason why I held off making these outfits for some time is because I wasn't quite confident in my painting skills, and honestly there aren't many good, high quality photos of their outfits and I had to make up some details and do my best to piece together different angles and pictures, but ultimately I think I did a pretty decent job.

Without further ado, here is the animal outfits, all new in 2022:

 First we have Bjorn's outfit.  So I know Bjorn would sometimes wear his outfit with black jeans I think it is, but I noticed that while in Japan in late 1978, he wore a pair of matching pants to his top, so I chose to make those.  I have no idea what type of bird is on Bjorn's outfit, but it was a lot of fun to paint.  Honestly, of all the outfits i made, I think his came out the best painting wise.

Next we have Agnetha's outfit.  I painted her outfit first, and well, I'm not 100% in love with it and the desire to redo it is strong, but it turns out I do not have enough red satin left, so imma just try to ignore that urge. xD 

Also, as this was the first outfit I painted, I had not discovered the use of the hair dryer when painting, and as a result this one took AGES to paint hahahhaa.

I made her a pair of boots, but I honestly made them out of such a bad material, but it's the only one I have in the color I was looking for.  This fabric was also bought 10 years ago yet I still have a decent amount of it. xD

 Next is Frida's outfit.  I don't think I used actual satin for this outfit, like it's a different type of fabric, I don't quite know what it is as I just grabbed it because it was the right color and similar enough in appearance, but it does the job, that's for sure.  I think this is my second favorite in terms of the painting. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

And last but not least, we have Benny's.  So his I think it's an eagle was the hardest in terms of trying to get a good reference photo.  As Benny is always behind the piano, I couldn't see the bottom left (his right) of the eagle, so I kinda had to make it up, but I think it's good enough.  Also I suppose it's something I could always paint over somewhat at a later time if I got it wrong.  But I think it came out pretty good.  I wish I could have gone in with more feather details, but gosh painting in miniature is hard!!  Also I used more of that gosh awful 10 year old fabric for his pants, but it looks pretty good so I'm okay with it.  Funnily enough I made his pants out of the same material the first time, too. xD

So that's everything (for now.  as I said before, will probably make the shows for the Bs and a better belt for Agnetha at a later time.)  How well did I do?  I'm pretty happy with the results, and I'm excited to sometime soon get inspiration to make more doll costumes.  I'm thinking the Waterloo costumes next, but we'll see!

Alright, tata for now!