Camo Nuns
So these are another fun masquerade entry my local costume buddies and I created for Norwescon, again I am sure there are more pictures for this project about and will add what I can find. Pretty basic concept making ecclesiastical outfits from desert camo, was a ton of fun.
Powerpuff Girls all grown up…….
So this was another hall costume project me and my buddies came up with, I am pretty sure there are some more pics from this floating about and will add them as I can find them. The basic concept was taking the three iconic power puff girls from the anime and interpreting them with a grown up fetish style twist. So we bought latex/vinyl in their colors (green,pink,blue) for the outfits and added corsets and such to complete the looks.
Power puff girl
PJ Princess hall costume idea
OK so just a start for this category. A fun hall costume idea Annika and I came up with for Orycon, hopefully we will actually make it this year.
So all those tacky historically incorrect yet cute princess patterns for Halloween sparked the idea and some really soft and plush fabric in the fleece and furs section of our local fabric depot. So taking a tacky pattern, see below the option we chose:
Now find some typical PJ type fabrics, flannel, fleece or such to construct this with.
Such as these below:
Cupcakes on Pink – Cuddle Plush Robert Kaufman Print
Extremely soft and cuddly.
C6007 Got the Munchies? – Ice Cream Cones on Pink
And you’re all set for a fun and comfy hall costume to wear to the convention. Now I must admit it also seems a fun idea to actually find a purpose for those silly little Halloween princess patterns.
So now just at the idea stage, more to come……
Sew now it begins……..
So I decided to start a costuming blog. One so I can better track my various different projects from conception to completion. Two so I can share how I make the various different projects. Simple enough right?
So a little brief background, I have been costuming for 20+ some odd years give or take since I was a teenager. I am more or less self taught, beyond that silly little Home Economics class in Junior High that briefly touched some basics for me. I had actually already been sewing awhile before then anyways. I have always enjoyed arts and crafts in general, however, I am a better multidimensional artist; so I have always wished I could draw or paint but just never seemed to have the nack for it. Let’s say I can do some awesome stick figure drawings and leave it at that. So My earliest memories of sewing are making blankets and halters and such for my Breyer horses as a child. I actually made some pretty neat little items once I figured out how to manipulate things. My mother sewed, so we had a sewing room in the house full of fabrics and notions and such, and I went in and pretty much helped myself to small little snippets of fabric, trims and ribbons and went to town decorating my little herd to my hearts content (I don’t think she ever even noticed). I also seem to recall spending some time making clothes for my Barbie dolls, however, I was much more obsessed with the Breyers and horses in general so I by far focused more on the horses and making fun little items for them.
Now forward a few years to high school and I was a pretty typical geeky teen. I was really into science fiction/fantasy books, various different historical eras (oh yeah I loved the Renaissance faires) and was a bit of a gothy/metal teen. So I started making costumes for myself. The first real big project I started was a Dragonlance Theme costume, I made a clerics costume for Crysania, pretty basic white on white robes and cloak. It was a fun project and turned out pretty well for a teenager with no real idea how to make garments. I didn’t even use patterns, I just kinda guessed the basic shape for the pieces and well hey all I can say is no one could have told it was not made from a pattern. I kinda wish I had some pictures, for an early project it really was a good turn out. The gown/robe was a pretty slinky white knit and the cloak was a fake fur lined in satin. Now along with this, I made a really awesome native American inspired outfit for my best friend of the time to dress up as Goldmoon. This I must admit made me realize I could make costumes fairly intuitively. Again no patterns or guides I simply got a bunch of brown felt and fake sheepskin fur and cobbled together a pretty little skirt and halter top for her covered with beads and decorations and it turned out pretty dang good. Now this one I really wish I had a picture of, since it was the piece that really inspired me to get my shit together and really learn about how to make costumes.
So I began really looking into how to sew, I learned how to read patterns and cut out fabrics and on and on from there. I actually would love to take some more advanced classes on tailoring and pattern making, but I have a pretty good idea how to do most of that by now and would consider myself at a professional level as a costumer.
So through my 20′s I participated in Renaissance Faires and this created more opportunities for me to really expand my costuming repertoire. Then after moving from Southern California to Oregon about a decade ago I started going to Sci-Fi conventions, found a new Ren faire group and participated in various different LARP groups and joined some local costuming guilds all providing more sources for costuming inspiration and projects. Now one of the reason’s I wanted to start a blog was to help track different projects, since at this point many of my pieces are long gone and I never got any photos of them; which always seemed a shame. Several years ago I lost a considerable amount of weight and decided to sell off most of my pieces on Ebay since it seemed silly to keep costumes I couldn’t wear anymore. So here I can start collecting images of past projects I can scrounge up and make sure to keep track of my current and future projects.
So hopefully that is just enough and not too much about me to get us started here.
White Italian gown
Here again is an SCA inspired gown, made for a feast with an all white theme. Beautiful off white raw silk overgrown and jacquard patterned gown with amber and gold accents. I was always quite surprised that I managed to keep this one as clean as I did, especially at the feast.
Teal velvet italian Renaissance gown.
Now for a few years I participated in the local SCA here in Portland and made several different costumes from appropriate eras to wear to events. I personally have a preference for renaissance era, so I dabbled in several different Renaissance styles such as Italian, Spanish, German and English gowns. I made a slew of Italian gowns as they were fairly comfortable for events having these lovely higher bust lines for spending a day at a camping event.
Here is one of the prettier ones……
Certainly needed a good pressing, but since it was a standard velvet it suffered a bit being thrown in bins between events and stuffed into closets the rest of the time.
