Finally facing my Waterloo

 February 9th, 1974...  ABBA step out on stage to perform their entry in that year's Melodifestivalen, adorned in a new set of costumes, the first of many new costumes throughout their career. 

ABBA's costumes have always been really well known, some of them standing out more than others, like the Cat Dresses for starters.  The Waterloo costumes, however, in my opinion, have to be one of their most iconic outfits.  Vekvet tops, satin and silk bottoms, chains and sequins, silver buttons, patches...  Aside from how outstanding and unique their song Waterloo was, surely their outfits helped contribute to their incredible win as well!

 When I first began my journey of trying to recreate all of ABBA's costumes for my originally not super raggedy dolls, among the first costumes I tried to make were the waterloo costumes.  As to be expected as I was just starting out, my first attempt was not so good.  You get the general idea, and I mean, I had some good ideas, but overall it was not good. xD

Frida sitting on the ground because I couldn't get her to stand like the others lol.  Also wow, Benny doll had so much hair back then,xD

 At the time, I heavily relied on whatever fabrics I had on hand, which was not a lot, and also I definitely liked my cardboard and acrylic paint. xD  There were no such things as proper closures, all the tops
were solid pieces, but honestly, for what they were, they were pretty decent.  Like you definitely get the idea.

It didn't take long for me to dislike these first versions, and two years later, in honor of 40 years since ABBA's Eurovision win, I made the outfits again.  

 This time around, I had more sequins, better color choices, slightly more accurate construction, but I didn't quite have the right fabrics.  Plus I decided to cover cardboard with aluminum foil for the shoulder pads, and let me recommend you guys never do that.  It was a really idea. xD   Also I used these bead trim thingies for the chains and um... they weren't all that good and I had a lot of difficulties trying to figure out how to attach them to the outfits and I think I used hook and eyes for that.

I was never all that satisfied with these versions of the costume, and always had the idea to get more accurate fabrics, and was a lot more inspired after getting for myself the Agnetha beanie crochet kit from ABBA the Museum  and then converting that to miniature.  I was finally able to do that more recently, and now after a few weeks as this project took a bit longer than I anticipated, I present to you, my new and improved Waterloo costumes. :')

Now I just want to mention that these aren't 100% accurate either!  I did not have the correct colors for Frida's outfit, it's a lot browner compared to her actual outfit, but luckily all those brown pieces could theoretically be swapped out to a better fabric in the future.

For these outfits, for the first time, I have chains, silver buttons, lots of sequins in various sizes, more accurate shoulder pads made of foam painted silver, hand painted patches.... and I have the star guitar!  I bought the mini star guitar that it sold at ABBA the Museum, and it's actually the perfect size for my dolls which is pretty cool! (Fun fact, I attempted to make my own star guitar back in 2014 out of cardboard, but I never ended up finishing it as it was too complicated lol.)  I also have a ring light now, so maybe my lighting in my pictures will be better. xD

First up, let's take a look at Agnetha's outfit.

For her top I made it out of a light blue velvet I got from Hobby Lobby.  It's a little too blue, but other than that I'm happy with it.  I glued on with fabric glue a variety of different sized sequins all around the outfit.  There are even some hand painted pins made out of foam to look like their actual pins.  The buttons I bought off of Amazon.  They're a bit too big, and I tried to get smaller ones at first, but the seller canceled my order because they couldn't find the inventory or something like that, so i settled for these ones.

I also handpainted little patches based off their actual patches.  No I cannot tell you what they are of, I legit just copied what I could see and I hope it looks enough like it.  Someday, I'll get myself to Sweden to the museum so I can actually see what the patches are of, and then I'll redo them.  Until then, they're just gonna look like this. xD

Also, it's usually hidden by her hair, but there's actually a patch on the back of her shirt as well, as can somewhat be seen in the video for Hovas Vittne.  Again, I have no idea what it is, I just mimicked it to the best of my ability.

In reality, Agnetha's pants are made out of silk I believe, but I used blue satin.  the bells on her pants were a nightmare to figure out, I even went as far as to write to the museum to ask them if they had any good pictures of her pants so I could have an easier time trying to pattern them, but they didn't reply to me smh.  I should at some point try to make the emphasize the bell shape on the bottoms, but that's for another time.  I made her boots out of a silver metallic fabric I have.  I'm not to happy with them, they're a bit too dark, so I might make them again out of another fabric another time.

Here is Frida's outfit.  As I mentioned, my fabric is a bit too brown compared to Frida's actual outfit..  I also don't have fabric that resembled the pattern Frida's outfit enough, so I decided to draw on the design for her outfit using a special marker I got off Amazon which took ages, and as a result its not super accurate, but it gets the job done.  If anyone knows of anyway to print custom designs on fabric, please let me know!

 

A closer look at the  foam shoulder pads.  I attached all the chain with jump rings btw.  No hook and eye necessary. xD

Also the cuffs and collar are removable, just like Frida's actual outfit.

And a closer look at the skirt.  I realized after the fact that the white on the skirt as actually made of velvet and not satin, so I will have to switch that up at some point.

And a closer look at the back, with the patch that I have no idea what it's of. xD  Also shhh, don't tell anyone but I didn't make shoes for Frida because the skirt is so long you wouldn't see it anyway. xD

Benny's outfit.  I think the velvet I chose is my of a grey than a blue, but also in other lighting it looks more blue so idk.  He wears a velvet shirt over a white button down with lots of frills on the sleeves and down the front.  Sadly the ones down the front seemed to have lost their gather after I completed the construction, so I'll have to fix that someday.

 

Benny's trouseres, tucked into his boots. Also I know his boots should have some designs on them, but like I said earlier, I'm not too satisfied with the boots yet, so when i swap them out at some point, I'll add the designs then.

Also Benny's outfit has three patches, more than the rest, whereas Bjorn's has seemingly none.

And last but certainly not least, we have Bjorn's outfit,

Bjorn and his starguitar.  I added the strap to it by the way.  

The fabric I used for the design on his pants is a lot more accurate for he boots and I'll probably make them out of that if I don't find a better fabric later.

And the back of the pants if anyone's interested in little details like that.

And a closer look at the star guitar.  I love how detailed it is, and that it comes with its own stand. 

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how these costumes came out, and I don't know what outfits I'll attempt next, but I look forward to making whatever it'll be. xD