Handsewing Tip

I was padstitching my pretty collar for my Morning Dress coat this morning when something crossed my mind.  How many of you iron your thread?  I'm serious.  I've been made fun of before for doing this, but it really makes a difference in handsewing.  After you run thread through your wax line it up on your board and run it under your iron (I use a press cloth).  It melts the wax into the thread, making it stronger and less likely to knot and tangle.  The wax also isn't lumpy or flaky afterward.  It's little steps like these that seem to take a long time in the moment, but the time saved in not having to detangle thread makes it worth it.

How to Run a Small Costume Contest

I've decided to re-post some of the tutorials over on my LiveJournal so they can get reworked.  Here's the second.

How to Run a Small Costume Contest

AKA: What's the Bare Minimum I Need?

So you want to run a small costume contest at your con. Maybe you don't have the space for a full Masquerade. Maybe you just want a contest for your track/fandom/interest group. But where to draw the line as to what's needed and what isn't? Hopefully this article will help you organize your thoughts some and help you organize the awesome contest you've been dreaming of.

First every contest needs rules. Yes, even yours. Rules allow everyone helping you out to determine what is and isn't allowed without bugging you about it every 10 seconds. Here are some rule categories you should consider covering:

-Nudity
How much will you allow? How much is too much? Yes, even if it is an NC-17 contest, if you're charging to get in (to the con OR to your little contest) you should check to see if you're covered by public entertainment laws on nudity and conform to them or risk getting yourself and your contestants arrested.

-Genres
Which ones are covered by the contest? How much crossover is allowed? You'd be suprised at how a clueless Trekkie/Stormtrooper/Anime/Furry/Comic/Whathaveyou character will want to enter your Star Trek/Star Wars/Cosplay/Furry/Comic/Whathaveyou contest. Have a rule in place as to what you'll allow, or someone will sneak through and make the audience say WTF?

-Bought Costumes
Have a hard and fast ruling on bought costumes. Are they allowed? What if only part was bought? What if it was bought from a thrift store then changed by the entrant? Giving your staffers rulings ahead of time prevents drama.

-Costume Stuff
Will you allow any costume? How about the fairy that's throwing glitter everywhere? Who's going to vacuum afterward? How about the guy that's covered in peanut butter, glopping all over the floor (yeah, it's a famous story, google it). How about people throwing things into the audience? Set a limit or you'll be left cleaning up the mess.


Next you need to decide on prizes, both what you'll award and what you'll give to winners. First decide what kind of things you want to award. Is your contest for well made costumes, great skits, crowd favorites, or a combination of the above? Even if you want to say it'll be even, it never will, so decide now what's most important for the winners to have. This helps you pick the right judges and advertise to the right crowd. You also need to decide what you'll give the winners. JMO, ribbons with nothing printed on them or blank certificates where prizes can be filled in are better than dictating awards. Especially at a small contest you can try to give a 'Best Child' award, but if no children enter you're stuck with a ribbon you can't use. If you have access to a computer and printer consider making up a template and printing out awards as the judges decide. Also, decide if you'll be giving honorable mentions, and how many prizes total you will give out. It's rather obvious and disheartening when you give out 6 awards in a contest that had 8 entries, and the 2 that didn't get an award are going to be more heartbroken than if you only gave out one prize. I recommend not allowing more than half the contestants to get awards. Consider how much space and time you have and determine how many entries you can handle from that. Too many entries can wreck a contest even more than too few.

Next your contest needs judges. Your judges should really be tailored to your award emphasis. Try to get experienced costumers to judge a contest for well-made costumes, and great skit people or guest actors for skit-centric contests. If you want audience favorites, consider letting the audience decide. If at all possible don't rely on applause, though. If your audience and number of contestants are small enough you can give each audience member a token, colored toothpick, or other small item and have them put them in jars/tissueboxes/whathaveyou to vote for their favorites. It's also better if the jars/boxes/whatever are closed and opaque, or you might get hurt feelings from Joe's friends who tell him he only had two tokens in his box. Also, you can give prizes to first, second, and third using the counts, or you can use this to give an 'audience favorite' award in addition to awards given by judges. Final note on judges - odd numbers rarely have ties.

Next determine your resources. Will you have a stage? How about a cd player or sound system? Do you have an MC or announcer? Is that person NOT you? It really shouldn't be, because you have too much to do, and leaving the big decisions during the event to your staff is cruel. Consider how much space and time you have and determine how many entries you can handle from that. Too many entries can wreck a contest even more than too few. Consider how much space you have. Contestants need somewhere to sit, minimum. Making them stand the entire time in a back hallway makes for unhappy contestants. They can sit in the audience, but then you have to rope off your best seats, or you'll delay the contest by the contestants coming from the back. How much time do you have? Skits take time. Presentation time, setup time, and judging time. If you don't have a lot of time consider not judging skits, just costume workmanship, and consider having the judges work without the audience (during a social hour or break in the schedule), then pull all the contestants on stage at one time for the audience to look over as you announce winners. Takes very little stage time, and contestants are happy they got to talk to judges personally. Also, provide your judges with some paper to write on. A judging form is nice if you expect more than 20 contest entries, but not necessary. While you're thinking of forms, make up an entry form, too.

Finally, figure out your staff requirements. You should have one door guard to the contestant area pre-contest. One person should be in the contestant room before and during the contest to answer contestant questions and line them up in order. If you have an announcer/MC they can go around ahead of the contest and collect names/announcements. Provide them with a stack of index cards and a bundle of pencils/pens. Have someone to keep track of the order people go onstage and help line up groups during the contest and escort them to stage. Have a judges' assistant if you have more than one to take their award list and organize them for the MC. If you're doing an audience vote have a staffer to guard the jars/boxes/whatever. Above all, try for none of these people to be you so that you are free for the major emergencies. If there are none just help out where you are needed in a place where all your staff can find you.

Tips for First-Time Judges

I've decided to re-post some of the tutorials over on my LiveJournal so they can get reworked.  Here's the first.

 Tips for First-Time Judges

-Find out if there will be a judging form. If so, try to get a copy ahead of time so you can read and understand it. If not, bring a pen and pad of paper, and invent a notation system so that you can write quickly and still remember what it means.

-Get a copy of the Masquerade rules. Read them. Understand them. If you have any questions, ask the MD for clarification. The rules are a great key into the thinking of the MD and the kind of contest they are running.

-Find out if there will be a judges' briefing. If not, email the MD. Find out what kind of things they want rewarded (good costumes with an OOC presentation over a great skit with bad costumes is a good example). Also find out if there will be pre-judging, and if so, how much time you have for each slot. Ask for a rough estimate on how much time there will be for judges' deliberation after the contest before awards need to be given. Find out what awards are expected to be given, and whether or not there are miscellaneous awards or smaller prize items available if you feel the need to reward more. Find out what the MD's expectations for the masquerade are. A good question to ask - Why did you pick me? That tells you what skills you have that the MD saw and wanted to use. For example, if it's because - You make awesome fursuits - that means the MD wanted you to judge construction. That doesn't mean he doesn't want you to look at stage presentation, but it gives a clue to where he wants you to emphasize.

-During judging, keep track of time or appoint someone to do it for you. Take a note of the impression of every costume - one you dismiss may be brought up by your fellow judges, and it helps discussion to note why you dismissed it. Also remember that dismissing costumes is part of your job. At least half of the costumes in the contest will not get awards, and trying to fit every one into a category only increases the time you will spend deliberating and the frustration of the deliberation discussions. Don't be afraid to ask your other judges for advice, but also don't be afraid to offer up your own opinion, even if the other judges have years of experience over you. You were chosen to judge because of your own merits, and your opinion is just as useful as anyone else's. A good judge is aware that they have prejudices and gaps in their understanding. For example, I am totally in awe of Mechas, because I've never done one and have no clue how to start. A Mecha maker, however new, can look at a Mecha costume much more objectively than I can, and know how well it was made because they understand the techniques. Also, even if you share or overlap specialties, one set of eyes can only look at one place on the stage at a time. Don't be afraid to speak up about something you caught that no one else did.

-If there is a pre-judging session, try to refrain from setting out all the awards before the stage session. In fact, I encourage no deliberation time whatsoever between pre-judging and the stage show. If there's a break, find some friends who are NOT judges and go eat. If your mind is made up for the stage show you'll pay less attention, and you may miss a great entry that deserves to be bumped up just because you'd already determined who would win.

-During the stage show, try to take every entry seriously. They put the time and effort into making or obtaining their costumes, practicing, and getting onstage in front of an audience. Even if the skit is 10 minutes long and you are bored out of your mind appear to be paying attention. If you must, write notes to keep yourself engaged. Keep in mind that 'joke' entries are just as eligible for awards as other entries, and they deserve equal consideration if they have the same evidence of skill.

-Before you get to the con, determine if you will give feedback or not. Contestants will ask you what you think, so have an answer ready. For example, when I'm asked for feedback I tell the asker that I don't discuss entries at a con, then hand them my card and tell them to email me in a week or so. I do this because I've found that with a week's reflection any passions, on either end, have cooled and I am more able to look at any entry objectively. Knowing this answer ahead of time makes it easier when asked on the fly. Also, keep in mind that it is acceptable to talk to an entrant about your impressions of their entry, but only that. It is not acceptable to talk to an entrant about another entry, even to compare that entry to the entrant's. It is also not acceptable to repeat anything that was said in the judging room, or to give opinions for other judges. If the entrant wants the opinion of another judge, they can go ask them. Watch out for this, it can be really tempting to say "I thought you were great but the other judges voted no" but that's putting the other judges in a very bad position (and possibly setting them up for a very charged confrontation).  Give only your own impression and suggestions for improvement. Also, don't be afraid to ask for a picture of the entrant's costumes to jog your memory. They should understand that you saw a lot of people in a short amount of time, and faces were low on the list to remember.

-WARNING- a lesson learned the hard way. Find out at the judges' meeting what will be done with the judging sheets. If a staffer collects them and throws them out, either make sure it's a person you trust implicitly or else follow them to the trach can. Or keep your own sheets and throw them out yourself. Don't throw them in the deliberation room trash can. If possible, find a dumpster a block over. Or keep them to throw away at home. You can't imagine what kind of drama comes from entrants finding the judging sheets in the trash after the contest and then posting scans of them on the con's message board.

-Finally, be courteous. Don't make fun of entrants, even in the judging room. Don't use slurs on contestants, present or not, or on your fellow judges. Remember that you're critiquing the entries, and that is your job, but not the anime/movie/tv show/comic/etc. that the costume is from. The only time it is acceptable to discuss the medium is when there is a question whether the medium falls within allowable entries under the rules, and that question should be immediately forwarded to the MD for a ruling, not the judges (judges should never disqualify an entry, that is the MD's job ONLY). Try to judge an entry for its own merit, not your like/dislike of the medium. Also, be courteous. Be on time. Try to keep the judging on time. Be nice to your staffers and helpers. Last, if any of the rules, MD's expectations, or con traditions don't jive with your outlook or experience, it's ok to say no. If you feel you need to say no, the earlier the better for the MD's sanity.