Mickey's Halloween Party!

Photo dump!

Max and I hit Mickey's Halloween Party a few weeks back. I have to admit, it was a great event! We didn't have time to put together amazing costumes so instead we opted for our Steampunk wear. (Though I did make Max a new Aba. He needed one.)

This was the first time I ever went to the park in full costume and it was a fantastic and almost magical experience! Here are a few pics of the two of us all decked out.

 

Morocco Mole and his lady hit the seas!

We mainly took photos in Adventure land because we matched the decor best there.

 

HAD to take a photo with The Genie while dressed like this.

 

 



Our friends Steve and Sammy wanted in on the photo fun too. Thank you Sammy for taking almost all these photos!

 



This one is my favorite. In front of Aladdin's Palace

 



With the flash on. THAT'S what we looked like.

 

We'll End this post with Morocco in his sweet ride.

 

Drive Morocco! Drive like the WIND!!

Halloween Approaches!!

You think I'd be more vocal with Halloween coming up, huh? Well, the truth is I've been so dang swamped with everything that I've haven't had two seconds to stop and take photos of things. Regardless, October is always my busiest sewing month (next to May). I do have lots to show, including a new middle eastern coat I finished. Pics of that to come. Until then, CLOWNS!

 

I love making costumes for my two nephews! And this year my sister wanted them both to dress as little clowns. They're still at the age where they don't care what they wear and mommy can chose for them. So I was tasked with making two little clown costumes.

This one is for the youngest, Tommie.



 

My friend and savior Ellyn was nice enough to gift me with a new sewing machine. Well, new to me at least. She had it for a while and has never used it. Apparently she thought it would be in good hands in my studio. Thank you Ellyn! Its a fantastic machine! It also comes with various embroidery stitches I can play with. I did some here on the collar for Tommie's costume.

 

 

And here's the costume for my oldest nephew, Danny. I love the yellow polkadot fabric!

 



 

Once again, I had fun with my new stitches. I'm a bit addicted to using those settings. I may end up putting decorative top stitching on everything at the rate I'm going.

I'm so excited to see  my nephews in their costumes!

 

Most of my Halloween efforts were put towards my little guys. So instead of putting together something new for myself, I figured I'd recycle an old costume. Namely this one:

 

 

But I'm I'm going to make it Persephone instead of Aphrodite. And hopefully have enough time to fill in little details I want to do. Perhaps like changing out the sash for something else. Eh, I haven't decided yet on that.
Anyways, I started working on the new head piece. Here it is so far.



 

Its coming along. I've put all the happy blooms on the top then as the headdress goes down, the flowers start to die and decay. Right now its a bit too subtle so I'm going to pump it all up a bit more. I just don't think its reading that well yet.

More shots:

 

 

That's all I have done for now. I'm also hoping to put together a very simple, wrap/robe to wear over the chiton, in a black to represent the whole underworld aspect.



So currently I have Mickey's Halloween party, my own Halloween party, and Caid coronation coming up. SO MUCH SEWING!
Stay tuned!

Dapper Days at Disneyland!

 

 

I return! And with tons of photos! Just this last Friday I participated in Dapper Days at Disneyland. Its a fantastic event where everyone comes dressed in either their vintage finest or just in something fashionable to come play in the park for an evening. And even though my feet are killing me for wearing impractical shoes, I still had a fantastic time!

 

So prepare yourself! We took a TON of photos of us looking ridiculously dapper, that day! Lets start the show!

 



 

I hauled out my Dio de Los Muertos dress for the occasion and switched out my witch's hat for a vintage pill box hat that used to belong to my grandma.  I just told everyone I was dressing as the Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately my favorite ride was closed as the refurbish it for the holidays, but at least I got to stand in front of it for a quick pic!

 

 

 

 

Two of my elegant lady friends, Ana and Sara posing with me in front of the Mansion. Yes, Sara is wearing a Perry the Platypus dress. It was fantastic!

 

 

 

Jackie, Alison, and Miguel joined us a bit later on. Here's Minnie Mouse looking dapper with all of us.

 

 

 

The Tower of Terror? EEK! So Scaaaary!

...Okay no, not really but the photo is pretty dang cute.

 

And another pic of us doing the saucy face as we waited for the tram to the park.

 

 

This cast member was a great sport. We kinda dragged him into this photo with us over at California Adventure. By the way, the new remodel of DCA is quite amazing! I can't wait to go back and play some more there!

 

 

CARS LAND! I'm not a huge fan of Cars but the new Cars Land in DCA is really amazing.

 

 

And here are a few other Dappers I managed to snap some photos of.

 

 

The first group of Dappers we ran into, just as we got off the tram. They were adorable!

 

 



Dapper Peter Pan and Dapper Tiger Lilly. I absolutely adore how they looked!

 

 



And these two gentlemen where my favorites of the night. Full out 1970's chic, INCLUDING a vintage grad night button, a vintage shoulder bag, and paper bag from Disneyland circa 1976. Got to love men with an eye for authenticity.

  



I definitely plan to return for another round of Dapper Days (though I'm not sure if I can make the February date coming up). I am dying to make a Mad Men style dress A'la Joan Holloway with some little Disney accents here and there. The crinoline was starting to get on my nerves and I think A good pencil skirt would show off my curves better.  Already I can't wait!:)

Tah, Darlings!

San Diego Comic Con! Annabelle and Archer!

I usually go to SDCC every year to help out with the SCA table. But this year I actually had time to cosplay!
Who KNEW?
It wasn't anything too special mind you. Since my summer schedule is usually pure insanity I didn't really put anything new and spectacular together. And the one thing I did put together was a total thrift store find.

The big one was being a part of an Archer Cosplay group. For those who don't know what Archer is, well, here's the website. In a nutshell its a hilarious and raunchy cartoon set in a 1960's-esque spy world. If you're into sharp dialog and some insane cartoon comedy, I highly recommend it.

My friend Sherief has been wanting to do an Archer cosplay group for a while now and asked if I could step in as Mallory Archer, the title character's heavy drinking overbearing mother.

Yup, That's Malory.

And yeah, I only had...let see... about 1.5 days to pull this together. Oh yeah, I learned about the group a while ago but with all the stuff I've been doing? Yeah. 1.5 days. So my cosplay isn't exactly accurate but dang it, I did my best in what time I had!

I am gonna be a sexy broad when I hit 70.

The whole outfit was found at Amvets literally ten minutes before they closed for the day. I took my husband with me who apparently is good luck on thrift runs. Usually, I'd be searching for hours.

 The whole outfit was a whopping $14. Go me! The jewelry is my mothers old jewelry from the late 80's. She gave me a bag of the stuff thinking I would use it eventually in my costuming adventures. She was right!

The flask was a last minute save by a friend. I wanted to bring a highball glass but completely forgot it. Luckily a friend of mine had a flask as part of his steampunk gear and was willing to let me borrow for a while.

Here's the entire group.





Left to Right Character wise: The Wee Baby Shamus, Pam, Cyril, Carol/Cheryl, Ray, Kimiko, Dr. Krieger, Mallory, Sterling, and Brett from I.S.I.S.

Pam, Carol/Cheryl, and Mallory.

We really had fun doing this. And the people who recognized us flipped out when they saw the group. We were even featured on Io9 in one of their cosplay galleries!  The group of us are hoping to do another cosplay next year. Lord only knows what it may be but I'm sure we will be amusing the heck out of ourselves.

On Saturday, there was a big steampunk gathering. I couldn't resist putting on my Annabelle Leigh Langly costume again. I worked my butt off on it so I am getting as much mileage out of it as I can, dang it!

My friend took these great pictures of me all Annabelled up. You can see the mismatched stockings and my work boots finally! YAAAY! And a great side shot of my bustle.

Yeah...I really love wearing my Annabelle costume!

And even though this one is from LoJ and not SDCC, I still wanted to post it because its a great photo. Finding a photo of me NOT looking like a complete doof is hard to find sometimes!

Photo by The Frame Guy.

And thus, my crazy costuming summer comes to a close. It was an adventure to say the least! Right now its all about studio clean up time and SCA garb planning.

 I'm hoping to delve more into the world of Italian Ren and Persian goodness. I also finally have all the pieces I need to work on my Victorian walking dress!  But for now, a good rest is what I'm looking forward to.

Cheers!





Labyrinth Of Jareth 2012: Annabelle Leigh Langly is Complete!

Left to Right: Ellyn, Me, Jen, and Ace

All done!
Here is my group heading out to LoJ on Friday night. I absolutely love this event. Of course the fact that it's a masqurade ball is the main reason but still! I really think I'll be doing both nights next year. One night is just not enough!

I have to say that this is my favorite costume I've made for LoJ to date. It turned out lovely, it fit perfectly, and it was extremely comfortable all night. I never wore a corset for long periods of time before so I was shocked how comfortable it felt and how great it was for my posture all night.

Here's the picture its based on again:

Pretty dan close, I'd say! I am very happy with the color changes I made. I only wish I had a better shot of the mismatched stockings. They were one of my favorite parts of the costume.

Yes, that is a ferret on my shoulder. The character owns a ferret named Senor Squeakypants. Yes, Squeaky is wearing tiny goggles.

...what do you want from me? I'm a gamer!

Senor Squeakypants was the most popular one in our group that night. I should haul him around everywhere.

My friend Jen went as her character and Annabelle's bestest buddy, Madam Jezebel Norton. We had lots of fun piecing her costume together. And our colors really complemented eachother.

Behold! Poofy Steampunk Butt!

The blouse exceeded my expectations. The fabric looked fantastic under the lights, breathed like a dream, and was very gentle against my skin. I loved how the sleeves looked especially. And yup, those are my Regina goggles. I'm getting as much milage out of them as possible.

I'm seriously considering hauling the Annabelle costume out to San Diego ComicCon for the steampunk meet up. I would like wear it again.

Even though Friday is the quiet night at LoJ I still saw some amazing costumes that evening. Here are some of my favorites!

Madam butterfly was my absolute favorite of the night.

Awesome bird people!

Lovely Steampunk ladies. The photo does not do their dresses justice.

Two more of my cohorts, Capt'n and Michelle looking rather spectacular.

SO much love for that hat!

A wonderful blue fairy.

I wish this picture turned out better because this Queen of Hearts was simply stunning!

A Junk Lady and a rather jolly Sultan. That hat! So much LOVE!

Even though I didn't make it to Saturday evening, my friend Ace took TONS of photos for me so I could see all the lovelies I missed. I'll be posting those photos very soon...as soon as I have a chance to look through all of them and drool.

I'm already excited to go back to LoJ next year! I'm thinking of putting together some form of Valkyrie costume perhaps for one of the nights. Though knowing me, I'll change my mind fourteen times before I get there.

Until then I really don't have any pressing projects... which feels odd after almost three months straight of working on things. I'll be probably puttering around with some SCA garb soon (I'm in need of another Viking) and as soon as I find the right green linen, I'll be putting together Merida's (from Pixar's Brave) gown for Halloween.

Until then... I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

LoJ Costume in Progress! Annabelle Leigh Langly.

Labyrinth of Jareth is creeping up on me yet again! Luckily this time around was prepared and started work on my costume at the beginning of the month instead of oh, 2 days before the actual event. I'm glad I did too because this one is extremely different from anything else I've put together.
I'll be heading to LoJ on Friday night which is steampunk night. So I figured I'll put together something somewhat steampunkish for the evening. At first I was going to put together an old ornery prairie woman (and I still may do that for a future date). But then I drew this:

Above is a beloved original character I created named Annabelle Leigh Langly. She pretty much resides in a wild west steampunk world. I really had a blast designing her look on paper so I figured why not try to bring it to life?

I'm a masochist sometimes.

Here's some progress shots:

I wanted the blouse to be very light and sheer. I ended up stumbling onto this strange yet pretty gold netting. Its not really netting as much as webbing. The pictures don't do the sparkle justice.  Its a bit Frankenstein-ed from various patterns I had laying around. I'm not sure why I decided to get so fancy with the seams since you're not going to see them. %90 of the blouse is hidden by the corset.  The sleeves proved a bit of a challenge since they are so sheer and I didn't want the elastic to show though. I did some trickery with gold ribbon to hide it.

Here's where I left off last night. Everything is in dire need of closures right now. I foresee lots of hand sewing in my future this week.

Once again, I Frankenstein-ed a bunch of patterns to get the skirt right. I was originally going to go purple for the skirt like in my drawing. But I fell in love with this plaid while fabric shopping and went this route. I'm actually really happy with the choice. The original design tended to chop my body up into sections, making me look short and squat. Since the corset and the skirt are so close in tone, they really do a good job lengthening my body and making me look a lot less choppy.  I also changed the stocking colors to black and burgundy to keep with the tones.

The corset I got from Corset Story. They have amazing sales so if you're in the market for a corset I highly recommend them. Also, their shipping is very quick. The corset fits me far better than the form since I'm... well... squishy.

I'm going to need to punch some extra holes in the belt too.

I'm guessing I was standing on one leg when I took this photo. The bustle in the back is so far my favorite part of the costume. Its from a Truly Victorian pattern that is deceptively easy. I'll be adding some sort of steampunk-ish looking brooch/doodad on the butterfly part of the bustle to dress it up. To get the bustle to hang where I want it, I'll have to Macgyver it to the belt then attach the train sides to the apron front.  Honestly, I'm not looking forward to attaching that train to the leather belt.

So the big parts are done! WOO! From this point on its just finishing work and detailing. I still need to make a pair of brown fingerless gloves, find a steampunkish belt pouch, put closures on the skirt and blouse, and then do all the little details to make it look like a finished piece and TAH DAH! finished!

More photos to come soon!