2013 In Review

In 2013 I finished:

My 1872 Bustle Day Dress for Arisia:

Maghda from Diablo III for Arisia:

 

Vanellope for Arisia:

Lady of Lanterns for Costume Con:

 Samwise Gamgee for Thing 2 for Costume Con:

Lil' Pyro for Thing 2 for Costume Con:

Aang the Last Airbender for Costume Con:

My curtain dress for Costume College:

 

Otilia for WorldCon:

 

Ayumi Hamsaki's Ladies Night for WorldCon: 

Twilight Sparkle Princess Dress for Thing 1 for Halloween:

 A dinosaur for Sir Ally Saur for Halloween:

Daniel Deronda Seaside Gown for PhilCon:

Costuming the Kids

Halloween is coming up.  In this house that means one thing: costumes for the niece and nephews.  I don't costume myself on Halloween.  In fact, this is the first year where we live even remotely near a neighborhood where kids might come trick-or-treat.  Bars never appealed to me either, most of my costumes are too unwieldy and complicated to just go out drinking in only to lose a contest to a girl in a bikini.  Kids, though, they need costumes.

Thing 1 in last year's costume: Rapunzel

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when costuming kids that I don't generally think of for adults.  First off is comfort.  While I'll sacrifice a lot of comfort in my own costumes you really can't ask kids to do that.  They want to look great, but they've still got to feel ok.  I try not to put a lot of boning or foundation in kids' costumes because it can ride up and poke them in places.  Usually careful choice and placement of interlining or interfacing is enough. You've also got to think environment.  I made Thing 1's Rapunzel  costume for dress up as well as Halloween which is why she's wearing a turtleneck under it.  Halloween is usually cold, and kids need coverage.  If I had made the costume just for Halloween I probably would have done something so she didn't have to wear a turtleneck.

Thing 2 as a Ninja

The third thing you need to think about is sizing.  I like the Things to get as much play as possible out of their costumes because they love dress-up time and make-believe.  Thus their costumes are always a little too big so they last longer.  Coincidentally it also makes it easier to make costumes for kids that are halfway across the country.

Monkey as Bob the Builder

Finally, remember that it may be impossible to get kids to wear some things.  I've made costume accessories for Thing 1 that she straight out refused to wear.  Thing 2 is great at not wanting his picture taken, so I make him things and am happy with what few pictures I can get out of him.  Kids can be finicky, so just be happy with them and share their joy.  That's what it takes to instill the next generation of costumers!

Monday Progress Update: April 22

Gosh, it's been almost two months since I did one of these.  Time certainly flies!  I'm not only getting ready for Costume Con right now, but also moving to another state, so to say I'm a bit busy is a drastic understatement!  I'm still managing to get things done though.  Right now it's a hobbit costume.  Thing 2 has decided that Hobbits are the greatest thing ever, so he's going to be Samwise Gamgee for the SF/F at Costume Con:

Shirt.  I'm not quite sure what it's made out of, there's a slight crosshatching to it but it has an awesome drape.  The buttons are wood, which seem to match what I can make out on the original.

Vest.  It's made out of stripey linen and lined with the thinnest cotton I could find.  There's so many layers to this costume I'm worried he will overheat, so I tried to be as thin as possible without things looking cheap.  The buttons are antiqued brass shank buttons, very nice.

The coat is brown wool.  It's slightly felted so that I didn't need to finish any of the edges.  I'm still debating with myself whether or not I'll try to take some of the color out and distress it like the movie.  Either way the edges will probably get a blanket stitch in the long car ride to the con.

 The pants are brown linen.  They kinda have a drop front/two fly system going on.  I added a seam where the flies are so that they're more durable for play after the con.  There's wood buttons that show, I still need to add some really flat buttons on the inside.

The cloak being cut.  I used the patter on the LOTR costume website:  http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Things/FCloak/FCloak_pattern.htm  It was pretty easy to miniaturize.

The finished cloak with hood.

Side-by-side comparisons.  I think it ended up pretty good, don't you?  I've bought a cloak leaf and hobbit feet "spats" for his shoes, so he'll be comfortable and still look hobbity.  I'll be wearing my old Rosie costume.   9 years old and I can still wear it, hooray for back-laced bodices!  Thankfully I wrote up a making-of that I still have, it would have been hard to do documentation for it so many years later!

Next up: finishing up my seaside historical sew-fornightly (I know, I'm behind, but I just couldn't stand to hem tonight with my headache) and then doing fashion folio outfits for me and Thing 2.  I don't think I'll be accomplishing any new hall costumes, I'll probably take the bustle dress and Vanellope since they're comfortable and pack easy.

Monday Progress Update: Apr 9

I've been making lots of videos!  I've got a few other irons in the fire too, though:

Thing 1's competition dress for the F/SF is coming together.  I put in the most beautiful invisible zipper yesterday!  I think the key is putting it in before you sew the back pieces together.  Hope I can get something half as pretty on her fairy dress.

The flower dress is coming together nicely too.  I'm edging each of the petals in fabric paint, which is the longest part of doing this.  The first row of petals was a little hard to sew on, but I figured out to use my teflon foot to go over the fabric paint and now they sew like a dream.  Only 4 more rows to go!  Thank goodness there are fewer and fewer petals on each row :P

I cut the skirt of the Cinderella Historical . . .

and I made the bodice mock-up.  I've got to figure out how to fit it on myself, since it's back-closing :(  I'm using these two patterns:

The skirt is TV247:  1865 Elliptical Skirt and the bodice is TV442: 1860s Ballgown Bodice.  I'm going to wing it on the puffs of the skirt.  I tried dying the stripey over fabric and failed miserably (it's as plastic as plastic can get, but, unfortunately, it's the only thing I could find in a narrow enough stripe).  I guess it's just gonna stay white and hope the under taffeta shades it enough for pictures because I don't have the money, time or energy to airbrush paint the entire 10 yards blue.


Finally, since it was Easter yesterday here's a picture of Thing 1, Thing 2, and Monkey in their Easter outfits:

Monday Progress Update: Apr 2

I took all these pics yesterday and then forgot to post them!  Silly me!

This is Thing 2's sailor outfit.  All it needs is buttons and a hem on the shirt.

Thing 1's F/SF dress for CC30 got cut out.  I love how the lace just barely shows through the chiffon.  Making this dress up is hopefully going to be all done this week.

I also drafted up the massive sleeves for the dress.  Seriously, they're as big as my head!

I finished the sleeves on the green fairy dress, too.  Trying to figure out the trim situation.  Just on top, like this?

Or down the bodice seams, like this?  Or both, like this one?


Finally, I over-dyed the petals for the flower lolita dress:

They were almost saturated so they're barely darker than the second ones, but it's just enough that it'll be noticeable in all but pictures I think.  We'll see, in this shot they look awful similar.  I may overdye them again and try to get a bit darker.