Our first build for 2026 was a speed build that took us a little over 2 weeks. We weren't expecting to make LADS but we had fun with the process and super happy we finished them! Construction summary below:

We made the tailcoats and pants using polyester satin fabric and modeled the accessories/trinkets and used both PLA and resin. There were also pieces that we bought and modified: The inner shirts had minor modifications, but Xavier's cummerbund and Zayne's vest were modified more heavily.

For the coats, we used a basic suit pattern and modified the pieces by extending them into a tailcoat. We had a commercial tailcoat pattern we initially wanted to use but the seams weren't what we wanted for these designs. We also patterned both their lapels manually. We first patterned Xavier's coat with mock fabric but after we were comfortable with getting what we wanted, we went straight to patterning Zayne's coat on his actual fabric.

For Xavier's details, we used trims, rhinestones, machine embroidery, and iron-on vinyl. For Zayne's details, we wanted them to be slightly more subtle so we digitized the designs and cut them out as stencils, used fabric paint to apply the designs over the stencils, and then added additional strokes manually with a fine paint brush. We also added rhinestones and small trinkets.

For the modifications on the bought pieces, we spliced up Xavier's cummerbund to add seams/darts for an exact fit. Zayne's vest was initially a full vest and we also spliced it up, patterned the lapels manually and added them onto the vest.

As with our usual priority, both pants have functional pockets ✨ though we only added side seam pockets this time. Usually when we make pants, we also like adding double-welt pockets on the back, but as this was a speed build we needed to save as much time as possible. Maybe we'll add the double-welt pockets in the future hehe.

This build is for the LADS event at ALA 2026 organized by the amazing Aicosu. ♡