Tales of Costumes PAAAAST!: Fire Phoenix

All this talk and prep for Labyrinth of Jareth had me thinking about older costumes I made for the event. LoJ is definitely one of my all time favorite parties to attend. Mainly because it gives me an opportunity to go a bit wild on some fantasty designs. Don't get me wrong, I love historical costumes! But sometimes I really need to go back to my roots and so something fantasy based.
Yes, I am a nerd.
I'm sure this was automatically established with the fact that I have a costume blog.

Anyways, I had a ton of different costumes I wore to LoJ; A Greek Nymph, the female version of Bacchus, a very thrown together steampunk fairy... But honestly, the fire phoenix is still my favorite.
This was back in the day when I was brave enough to expose my gushy belly to the world. Yes folks! Bask in the moon tan! Bask in it!
Okay, its not that bad but I am a pretty pale lass.

My two girlfriends Jennifer and Stephanie decided to team up for this even and go as a themed group. We started with the idea of the elements; fire, water, and earth. We had to leave air out since we lacked a fourth person. I chose fire mainly because my hair is red. Seemed like the natural choice! Jen chose water and Steph went with earth because of her vast collection of antlers...I kid you not.
The elements idea ended up evolving a bit more into mythical animals. I wanted wings. I knew that much. So I decided to turn my fire costume into a phoenix themed costume. The wings were fun to make. I just cut the base out of craft foam then covered the whole thing with red, yellow, and orange feathers. I wish I had a picture of the back of the wings because I had a large mass of ribbons, beads, and sequins all trailing down bellow them which I thought looked pretty spiff.
I went with a sudo Indian/belly dancer style for the look. The top came from a simplicity pattern I slightly modified. I managed to make the top self supporting. And trust me, for a big bosomed gal like me? That isn't easy to do. But I did it!  The wings were fixed directly onto the shirt since they were so light. The skirt was built from overlapping panels that were cut to be shaped like flames. And the hair clips are a combo of  painted craft foam, feathers, and ribbons.

Here's a picture of the three of us all together.

I really loved how all three of us turned out that night. I'd also like to point out that Steph did our face painting that night which turned out excellent.
Overall? A fun time!

Debbie Reynold's Movie Costume Collection Auction

Once again, the TLo blog blows me away with another awesome costume article. This one on the vast collection of golden age movie costumes of Debbie Reynolds. The collection is BREATH TAKING! Apparently Ms. Reynolds' was wanting to open a museum of movie costumes for her collection but it never came to be....okay that is a bummer, because I would have been first in line to see that museum!
Alas, the auction is over so I wasn't able to spend my bazillion dollars on the My Fair Lady Ascot Grove dress. But the catalog is available to download for free as a  PDF here which I believe is just as nice.

You can also check out T-Lo's blog entry here and see the catalog as well. If you're a movie costume nut as much as I am, its definitely a fun look!

Middle Eastern Coat and Aphrodite Headdress.

I hit an SCA tourney last weekend all decked out in my middle eastern garb. And it was actually cold enough that I could wear my Persian coat I made for Estrella.

 

Here it is on a body! It really is a very comfy overcoat. Nice and warm and comfy. Though I am thinking of taking the wrists out a touch since it can be a chore getting it on and off. Thank you to my friend Ty for taking this photo.

I also am starting my Aphrodite costume for this year's Labyrinth of Jareth. Some other gal pals and I are all going as various Goddesses. I ended up drawing Aphrodite from the hat. And while I've never felt like the Aphrodite type, I have been having a great time figuring out how I want the costume to look. I am going for a Alphonse Mucha style costume. The dress is going to be very simple but the accessories will be very ornate.

So far, I got the head dress done.

The Jeweled band there is recycled from a previous costume when I went as a female version of Bacchus. I wanted the crown to look very Mucha-esque. I don't believe I will go much further than what I got. I think I'm currently walking the fine line between elaborate and tacky.

 I'll be starting the dress hopefully this weekend. Labyrinth is on a couple weeks so I have a limited time. But since the dress is so simple, I think I can pull it off pretty quick.

More progress shots to come!

Hair Falls, Hair Clips, and RegencyGowns, Oh MY!

Anime Expo is fast approaching! And my friends and I tend to get a few tables together in the Artist Alley there. We go under the name ZOMGWTF?! Studios....long story behind that name. Its comprised of my other artist pals, Shing Khor, Trishana Prater, and Kythera of Anevern. And trust me when I say our styles and what we sell are VASTLY different between the four of us.

We like to keep people on their toes.

Anyways, every time the four of us get together for an event like this, I use it as an excuse to try my hand at doing something new. Last year I did a bunch of accessories for my Dollfie (...I really should take some photos of those). This year I decided to turn my attention to my interest in belly dancing and make some dancer style hair falls/hair clips. Well, okay that was my original idea. It ended up evolving slightly. As my brain is want to do for most projects I work on.

Take a peek! 

These are the hair falls/clips I originally started making.  A couple of these may turn into matching sets if I get my motivation springing again tonight.

And then I ended up finding these butterflies and kinda fell in love with them. So I made a couple sets of those as well in a similar style.

 

Did I mention I bought a LOT of butterflies? I ended up veering WAY off course from the hair fall style and ended up making these. I really like how these turned out. I'm considering making a few more simply because they are just fun to make...Need more butterflies though. Maybe some dragon flies if I can find some good ones.

And my one odd guy out here. I was going more for a Retro vintage style clip here. Might make a couple more of these just so I have some options.

And here is the result of the work I did while watching copious amounts of MST3K in my studio. These were a BLAST to make. It put me in a sort of zen state to slam out so many. I'm hoping I can sell a few. They will be available to buy in the Artist Alley during Anime Expo. We are in Row D...Not sure exactly what table number yet but I will let you know! Those that won't sell will be up on my Esty site right afterwards.

And since this is a costuming blog...

Regency progress! Keep in mind this is all just pinned together at the moment. Pins and sheer will are keeping that skirt on my dress form. I'm still tweaking this. As you can see I redid the stomacher. Since I don't have period stays (YET!) to wear under the dress I needed to rethink the stomacher to

 hide a bra. Alas, the stomacher looks great on the form but fits me really weird. So I'm going to have to bring a friend in to take a look at it to see where I'm going wrong. But at least I'm making progress!

Steampunk Photos!....Sorta

I went all the way to a Steampunk con and forgot to grab my camera.
Rather typical of me really.
So the only two photos I happen to have of the finished Regina Black costume. DRAT IT ALL!
The good news though is Colleen from WyngdLyon Creations and I are planning a photo shoot after May to get some decent shots of our work. I have a costume and she has a ton of beautiful stock to photograph to keep us busy.
Anyways...Here's the photos in all their blurry glory!

Yeah, blurry but not horrific!



It all turned out really well and I got a great response from people while wearing it. I'm hoping by the next go around that I'll finally do the glove I've been wanting to make.  As you can see, I decided to put the gun back into the picture.  I only got one side of it fully painted though so I ended up strapping the thing to my leg so you couldn't see the unfinished side. One thing I'm good at? Hiding the crap. This lead to me building a gun holster in an hour.

Detail shot!

The gun is a Nerf gun. Just the typical one you see modified by most Steampunk costumers. Eh, I like the shape even if I was being unoriginal. So the gun holster came out far better than I imagined it would. Its definitely very close to my original design since I wanted the gun to show. The holster part is actually cardboard with a bit of nylon trim around the top. I spray painted it copper then added the studs to it. It actually is Velcro-ed in the back so I can remove the gun when I wished.  I really didn't want to since it wasn't finished but its always nice to have an option! The cardboard is a bit flimsy so when I rebuild it, I'll probably use craft foam. For a day's use, it wasn't too bad. The chains are plastic and held it to my belt. I tied the rest of it around my thigh with a piece of braided hemp cord I made. Overall it was a lot more sturdy than advertised.

I cannot wait to get better shots of this costume!

On a less blurry photo note. I also got some fantastic photos of me in my dancing garb for the belly dancing performance I participated in at the con on Saturday! I couldn't have asked for a better photo!

We dubbed my hairstyle, sexual chicken... I had some vodka in me by then.

Unfortunately I don't know the photographer. So whoever you are Mr Photographer, thank you for the wonderful picture! If you see this, send me a link to your gallery and I'll post it! I do know that my friend Lilli took this fantastic picture of me and my hubby, Max who was dressed a la Morocco Mole. Thanks for the photo!

By the way, his vest was made by Colleen at WyngdLyon Creations. The link is posted in my links section. You should buy some of her amazing stuff...just sayin'.

Thanks for looking!



Steampunk Progress for Gaslight Gathering

I really need to stop taking photos with my camera phone. But I do it all the time. Mostly because I can't remember where I put my regular camera. Its somewhere in the house. I know THAT much.

The Gaslight Gathering is fast approaching! Its this Friday to be exact. I managed to get my long in overhaul steampunk costume (Regina "Reggie" Black) more or less to a finishing point. So if I venture on over on Friday, I'll have something to wear.

Goggles!

  

I considered buying welding goggles and rebuilding them all together. But honestly, I have been really happy with how my original goggles looked design wise. They pretty much look exactly like my drawing.  So I went back and fixed up all the broken bits then added on a few new pieces. The clock gears I think gives it more of a mechanised look than before. I still have to go in and clean up some bits but overall, they are done.


Coat and Vest!

  I amped up the distressing on the coat a LOT. I'm still half tempted to go in with some red paint and do a couple quick splatters on it, just to add some more grittiness. I decided to keep the blue shirt from the original since I look better in color. I added the watch chain and finally got the vial belt finished. Though I am considering going in and distressing the belt a bit more. I'm hoping to add a couple more hangy-offy thingys (Technical term. Honest) on the belt and coat just to give it more character. I do have a gun prop as well but I'm on the fence on if I want to use it since I'll need to build a holster for it.
I'll probably be wearing my old black slacks and my black goth-y looking boots to go with it. As much as I love my beautiful brown suede boots that are VERY steampunk, they hurt my knees if I'm in them for too long. Since I'll probably be on my feet all day, its probably best I go for comfort.
So its all the devil in the details from this point. I'll probably be playing around a bit more before I finally wear this sucker. Alas, I never got to my Victorian gown for this event but I DID manage to get some great patterns. It shall be in the works!

Hopefully I can get some photos of me in full costume soon!

Tales of Costumes PAAAAST!: Suki from Avatar the Last Air Bender.

So I used to cosplay. Yes, to those mundane friends of mine who found this blog via Facebook, I was one of THOSE people. I was one of the ridiculous folk who dressed up as imaginary characters at conventions. Trust me, this IS as weird as it sounds when you've never been exposed to that universe. Hell, I wasn't really fully exposed to that universe until I turned 25. So imagine my surprise at the notion that it even existed!
In my defence, I have to say that cosplay was really a fantastic way for me to learn how to sew. And that's pretty much what it was; fodder for me to get my feet with with ye olde sewing machine. I had some epic failures in cosplay *cough* which I rather not put on view here at the moment. But get me drunk one night and I may post the "What was a thinking!? Seriously!?" entry just to remind myself that, well, I HAVE improved over time.
But that is for another day.
...and another bottle of tequila.
And luckily for me, every misstep also led to a learning experience and a project that turned out even better than my expectations could lead. Over the years my interest has waned from cosplay and into more historical recreation.(You can thank the SCA for that one). I tend to take more delight these days in creating my own designs. But that doesn't mean that I don't admire a good chunk of cosplayers out there that have technical skill out the Yin Yang! Trust me, there are tons...I'm looking at YOU, Besty.
I only dabbled a bit.

Suki from Avatar: The Last Air Bender cartoon is definitely one of my better cosplay adventures.  This was done back in 2007-ish at Anime Expo. Trishana, my partner in crime in the above photo, was the one who came up with the idea of doing this cosplay.  She was a huge fan of Avatar. I was just starting to get into the show. Honestly, even though I loved the show, The main reason I did this costume was because I REALLY wanted to build the armor.

Ah, my old apartment...
Anyways, the armor and wrist guards are made of craft foam. No fooling. There's an amazing tutorial online RIGHT here that gives you step by step instructions on how to do this. I pretty much followed it to the letter. the breast plate slats are sewn/glued onto a muslin base I built. Pretty much the same with the wrist guards. The medallion is sculpty.

Believe it or now, we dyed the fabrics all on our own. Definitely came out better than previous adventures into dye. In retrospect, I wish I documented my progress on this costume since I learned so many new techniques. Unfortunately I was so swept up with working on it, I didn't bother to take my camera out for this. Regardless,  it was an adventure making the Suki costume.
One that didn't end in tears and bottles of tequila, either.
Baby Steps.