I'm Alive!

Wow, I'm sorry for the lack of activity here, folks!

We moved in February and I'm still putting my life back together. But I've been crafting loads of stuff for the new place and I have a lot to share. Just give me a moment to get some pictures together...

I've also done four new costumes this year! I made Howl and Sophie for Anime Expo, Jewel from Marvel, and I finished this too. I'll post more about them later, but if anyone is interested, I usually post my costume stuff first on my Deviant Art page. Feel free to check it out, 'n stuff.

Bethany Hawke cosplay

Preview for my next costume, Bethany's Circle Robes from Dragon Age 2. I want to do Dragon Age again, but I don't really want to show my navel anymore. I still have to do some detail, like the buttons and the shoulders and the collar, but it's almost done.

I really like the color and the fuzzy sleeves.

HOWTO: Toddler Totoro Costume

You may recall Charlie was Totoro for Halloween, and I promised a tutorial, way back then. Well, here it is, finally!

This costume was really easy and I finished it in a single (long) afternoon naptime, about 3 hours.

Supplies:
1.5 yards charcoal grey fleece
(you could also use blue)
18"x12" scrap of ivory or white fleece
1 sheet craft foam (the thickest white one)
1 22 inch matching grey zipper

First, to make the basic jumpsuit pattern I laid down a set of my son's clothes and traced VERY loosely around them:



This was how I made sure it was roughly the right size - much easier than trying to measure a two year old! The fit is very baggy, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

Trace one side, then fold the fabric in half and cut that piece out for the front. Then fold that whole piece in half, and use that as a pattern piece for the two back pieces, leaving a half inch for seam allowance:



So the body is composed of three pieces that look roughly like this:


Pin & sew the back pieces together from the crotch up to the "butt", leaving the rest open for the zipper. Then pin and sew the front and back together, right sides together, around the arms, body and legs.



Like the body, I also traced loosely around one of my son's hoodies to make the pattern for the hood:



Again, it's loose, so the shape is approximate, but make sure the length of the bottom will approximately match the size of the neck on the body, after hemming.



Sew these two pieces together starting at the top of the head (the zipper opening has to go all the way to the top or your baby will get stuck), then hem the front around the face opening. Pin into either side of the neck hole, right sides together, and sew in.



For the belly design, I cut a 17.5"x11" oval out of the lighter fleece and then ironed it on with fusible web. I sewed this down for safety, like an applique, and then did all the little triangles, similarly, on top of this.



The tail is just two elongated "D" shaped pieces, sewn right sides together, flipped inside out, and stuffed with scraps of fleece.



Tail pattern is about 7" long.



To finish the body, sew the tail on by pinning it to the butt, the round part of the "D" facing up. Sew across, then fold down. Finally, install the zipper from the butt to the top of the head.

The ears are made using this general pattern, pattern piece is about 6" tall:



Cut four ear pieces from grey fleece, then each pair sew right side together and reverse. Trace the resulting shape onto craft foam then stuff the foam piece into the ear so it's stiff.



Then sew onto the top of the head, the same way as the tail. I also sewed in a craft foam "head band" on the inside of the hood, for stability, and sewed the ears to that as well.



I finished with a leaf made out of craft foam - this didn't survive the night, but you could make one out of felt, or even grab something from the floral department.

And that's how to make a super easy Totoro toddler costume!

Hey let's go!

Charlie is Totoro for Halloween...





This costume was super easy... like, it took me about three hours, for real. Tutorial coming soon :)

Staff of Newspapers and Duct Tape

I actually have some non-Dragon Age related crafts coming up real soon, I swear. Halloween!!! Anyway...



Geoff mentioned more than once that he thought the Anders costume really needed a staff. "He's not a mage without a staff," he insisted. But I didn't know how to make something like that, so I went about the internet until I found this amazing blog, where the author explains in detail how she makes incredible WoW staves.

I don't think I'll ever be able to make anything on that level, but I was inspired to make something like this staff. I started with a large stick and a bunch of wire, from the hardware store. I wrapped the wire around the top of the stick and then taped it down.



Then I wrapped it in newspaper and duct tape, and formed it into something like the shape I wanted.



Then a layer of paper tape. I made the spines out of cardboard and taped them on.



After that I started with papier mache.



My first few layers were old school newspaper strips and Mod Podge. I had to do this on my patio, so everyone in my building started asking about my weird dragon sculpture. Yeah, now they know...

Then I built it up using papier mache powder (CelluClay). This stuff was more difficult to work with than it appeared in the video, so I'm not sure if I mixed it wrong or if it was a different brand, but it looked a lot like igneous rock when it hardened. Still, very strong and hard.



Then I finished with a layer of gesso, to smooth it, and black-brown acrylic paint.



I wish I had known that gesso came in black because that would have made painting it a lot easier.

The staff has some glowing green eyes. I happened to have some "jewels" left over from the Morrigan necklace, I cut the centers out of these and used them for shiny eyeballs.



I hot glued them on and then painted around them with puffy black fabric paint, to give it an "eyelid."

And that's it! A very cheap, if somewhat time consuming, mage staff.

More Detail Than You Ever Needed

Here are some construction notes on the Anders costume, for anyone who's interested. I think this is the most complicated character I've ever done.

The Top Coat



Or whatever you want to call this. The bolero? Anders' bolero is made of a single layer cotton bottomweight twill from Joann Fabrics, because I wanted it to breath. I used black twill, and then I used color remover to bring it down to a worn charcoal gray. I started with the same pattern as my Gaius Baltar coat (Butterick 3927), except I lengthened the collar, shortened the coat, and skipped the lining.

I made the piping myself, using some gold lining fabric from my stash, and this piping twine (size 1). I have no idea how one is officially supposed to make piping, I don't really understand how one makes corners, but I used a zipper foot on my sewing machine and... whatever you call the stitch where the needle is over to the right instead of in the middle.

Since the Renegade Coat is closed, I added a jacket zipper to the middle (it's hidden under the piping). Then I put in interfacing and sewed in the edge detail using a very short wide zigzag stitch (eg, the poor man's satin stitch).



And his collar. Oy. I know there are supposed to be two rows of pips on his collar. I tried to make two rows of pips on his collar, but those little pips were a bear and after a lot of frustration I had to give in and accept one row of pips. They are made out of the same satin as the piping, turned into applique using some iron-on interfacing, and then sewed down for security with a satin stitch.

There might have been an easier way to do this. I think gold fabric paint stenciled on with freezer paper might have looked great, for example. But this is how I did it, and so I only have one row of pips. I think they look pretty okay anyway.

That snap there is to keep the feathers in place (more on that later).

The Long Coat



Or, the under coat. This was made out of black upholstery-weight ultrasuede, also from Joann Fabrics. Upholstery fabrics go on sale for half price all the time there, don't ever pay full price. This required about a yard and a half.

I made the pattern myself using some cheap fabric I had lying around, just a basic robe out of three pieces, and then when the coat was made, I topstitched a grid pattern using gold thread. Anders' coat in the game actually has a more complicated square pattern... but I wanted to finish this in this lifetime.



I also didn't want to spend a million years putting rivets in this thing, so I cheated and used mini brass brads from the scrapbooking section of Michaels instead of rivets on this part. They can snag but it took me 20 minutes instead of hours. I used real rivets on the tabs on the front (rapid rivets from Tandy Leather).

And the gold strip in the front is the same gold lining material as the piping.

The Belt



I used the same ultra suede material for the belt, reinforced with heavy interfacing and topstitched with gold thread. The brass rings are from a leather supplier on ebay, here. I used the 2.5" size for the belt (one in front and one in the back) and the 2" size for the little dangling rings near the boots. I used black buttons to hold it together, because that's what I had around.

You can also see here the other side of the brads... yeah they are really brads!

The fabric in the middle is a lightweight quilting cotton. I tie-dyed it using black RIT to give it a faded look, and I don't think it was entirely successful but it looks interesting.

Armbands and Other Details



Although you could definitely just tie fabric around your arms and hope for the best, my experience is that tends to fall off, so I sewed these together to look tied. The fabric was white muslin, tinted off-white with strong coffee so that it wouldn't glow on camera. I spent a lot of time dying fabric on this costume, actually...

The leatherette for the guard is Cordoba Brown, which I also used for my Mission Vao boots and I love. It's goes right through the sewing machine and is super cheap. I used the same vinyl for the canteen and the belt pouch.

The Feathers



The feathers look really impressive, but this was probably the easiest part of the costume. They are just two layers of black hackle feather trim (two yards total), sewn onto a piece of black fabric. The gold chain is just a basic chain from Michaels jewelry section. I hid a snap under the chain to keep the feathers where I wanted them on his shoulders.

Sorry about the camera strap in the picture, there...

The Boots



The boots were the last thing I did and I love them. I spent a lot of time looking at military boots, and I almost bought some really expensive goth boots until I found these, cheapy cheap ultra suede boots. I bought the biggest size, which fit Geoff fine.

I cut the boots free from the lining, so that they weren't slouchy any more. Then I cut a slit down the front, hemmed the edges, and sewed in a tongue (that I made from that same ultra suede above). Then I added eyelets (the large gold ones from Joann Fabrics), and connected them with wide elastic bands.



I sewed the elastic down, just to secure the eyelets (those buggers always pop out). Geoff added some inserts for extra arch support, and then the boots were actually really comfy.

...and I think that covers it for the clothes. I'm impressed you read this whole thing!

Anders Cosplay, Details Coming Soon

I haven't posted anything about this yet, but did Geoff indeed have a costume at Comic Con this year: Anders from Dragon Age 2.

He won a Fan Favorite award at the Bioware costume contest. And the fangirls approve... which is totally awesome, not gonna lie :D

Comic Con 2011: Mission Complete

Sorry this has taken me so long to post, but I did manage to make some costumes for Comic Con this year. First, here's my Mission Vao costume in action. Watch me make an ass of myself:



I really don't think I'm going to do the Masquerade again. It was a lot of work and not really as much fun as walking the floor, but it was an interesting experience and now I can take it off the bucket list, or whatever.

I haven't found photos of this costume yet, if anyone wants to search for them for me, I'll give you internet cookies.

Mission Accepted

Hi! Sorry it's been a while. I know that's something I say fairly often, but still. Sorry. I have a baby who is quite fascinated by the moving shiny needle, and it is rather hard to sew.

I'm still working on two costumes this year for Comic Con, though. Here's the beginning of the first one:



I'm going with a Knights of the Old Republic group, where I will be filling in as Mission Vao. If you are familiar with the game, Mission is a Twi'lek. So yes, in caser you are wondering, I will have giant brain tentacles coming out of my head.



Here's the beginning of the brain tentacles. Lissette's brother-in-law, Josh, is helping me out with these. Usually I just get to hide under a wig. This year I get to be blue and wear lekku, that is way further out!

Dragon Age Plushie - Queen Anora

So I've mentioned I'm really involved with the fandom of that game. In the fandom, I am best known for being the biggest Anora apologist out there. Queen Anora is the bitchy conniving queen of Ferelden who double crosses you every chance she gets, and I love her.

I made this for my friend mutive, who also loves her and actually cosplayed as her at Comic Con.

I used this great tutorial: Baby London Star. The doll is a little small, if I did it again, I would make her a bit bigger, as it was too small to do on a sewing machine, and very hard to turn inside out.

The Most Decadent Cookie Ever

I just made these for a work holiday treat exchange: Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies. They are rich chocolate on the outside and sweet peanut butter on the inside and they are as big as my fist.

I don't know what the question was, but the answer is fuck yes.

Halloween Ahoy

Hello all! I have Halloween pictures.

We had a whole other plan for Charlie, where he was going to be Captain Kirk and Geoff was going to be Spock and I was going to be, I don't know, one of those green chicks, but I could not find a gold colored baby shirt. Or gold dye. Or anything, it was so frustrating. So at the last minute I took one of his t-shirts, stuck some grommets in it, got some black string and gold rope, and a bandana, and called him a pirate.


He's a very cute pirate. He has a parrot too (okay I know it's an owl). Look at him just eating it, I mean, wow. This pirate is out of his mind!


"Hey, mom, are we done taking pictures now? Because-"


"-I really hate this stupid bandana!"


Charlie also "helped" with the pumpkin.


The pumpkin was supposed to be angry!Jack Skellington, but the eyes came out more like giant tear drops. I still think it looks pretty sweet. Geoff did the actual carving, although I'm sure Charlie feels very proud of what he accomplished with that big spoon.

Watercolor Ponies and Fan Art

So, I'm still doing Dragon Age. Sorry guys! That game is sooo good! I kind of got into the fandom. And by kind of, I mean I got really involved in it and wrote a bunch of fan fiction and did fan art. Here's some of it. I love watercolor so much you guys. And ponies. I also love ponies.