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!

Color me flattered

Check out what showed up on Sew and So, a blog I happen to follow. It's a Tardis Tissue box cozy! My original post is easily my most popular post ever, and I'm so excited to see someone pick it up and run with it.

I've been thinking about making a new one myself, since the original was sent off to the UK for a craft swap, and it would be nice to put together a better tutorial. Someday when I have time.

Not Too Sci Fi Mobile

I made a mobile. It is not g33ky. I considered making a mobile that re-enacted the destruction of the Death Star, with a big sphere in the middle and little TIE Fighters and X Wings spinning around it... but my husband said, and I quote, "Let's give the kid a chance."

So I made a simple mobile with stars. Which are spacey but not too much. It's made out of wooden dowels, wooden craft shapes, monofilament, hot glue, and acrylic paint. And that's a Totoro print in the background, because Totoro never hurt anybody.

Good-bye Galactica

Battlestar Galactica signed off for good on March 21st. I have some problems with the ending... mostly the missiles ex machina, and the, um, head Starbuck? But overall it's a good show and a magical fantasy ending doesn't really ruin the whole thing.

But I digress. Ron Moore makes a cameo appearance in the final episode, and my blog got a lot of hits from this because my Ron Moore photo is on the first page of a Google image search. I have just been informed that he is actually wearing the exact same shirt in my picture as he did in the episode.



Behold the geeky comp my friend Mark whipped up. See the gray shirt with the red starburst there? Yeah! And we are in the same order and everything, it's like we were psychic :)

TRON Bib and Burp Rag

This is a commission for a friend, whose coworker has just had a baby girl. TRON is more important to this coworker than I am allowed to explain here. Ha. That sounded dirty (it truly isn't).

The bib pattern is from The Purl Bee. It was exciting to be able to craft for a baby. I always see great crafts for babies, but alas, there are no babies in my life. Which is probably a good thing, but still... cute bibs, man.

The applique on the bib is a Light Cycle, and the applique on the burp rag is a Recognizer. Does it look like an M? I should have planned that one out a little better. Maybe if I am lucky, M is also important to this coworker.

Number Six Earrings

I got a surprise commission last week. A fellow Six cosplayer found my picture on Flickr, tracked it back to this blog, and asked if I could get her a pair of earrings like the ones I wore at Comic Con. So flattering!

I made them in surgical steel, per request. Mine were gold, and clip ons-- and completely in the wrong position in this picture....


The red beads are from Michaels, the findings are all from Joann Fabrics. The wire is memory wire (meant for bracelets), carefully bent out, and the top of the bead is a craft sequin with crimp on top. I think they are pretty enough to wear outside of cosplay.

Can't wait to see her pictures!

Tardis Tissue Box Cozy

UPDATE: This blog post has gone around some, which is awesome, but I know these instructions are a little fly-by-night. If you want any help please feel free to comment and I will respond.

Allons-y! -Jessica

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It had to be done. It's so obvious that it's even been done before. This is my interpretation, made for the Great Geek Swap. My swapper partner likes Dr. Who.



The BBC has actually copyrighted the TARDIS design, which is one of those interesting copyright oddities since clearly this "design" was just borrowed from actual police boxes designed for the London PD. Whatever, I'm not selling this.

Supplies:
20x20" Fusible interfacing
1/4 yd Dark denim
1/4 yd lining
Silver Satin (scraps)
Embroidery floss (white and navy)
Print n Press transfer paper (dark fabric)
Sewing Machine, denim needle & navy thread
Bead for top light
1 5.5x5.5" cardboard square

I wanted to do a more detailed HOWTO, but my process got changed and convoluted somewhere along the way so this is the best I can muster. Here's the basic template for the sides:


This should be about the size of the larger side of your tissue box. All the blue is one piece, and the dark blue sections form the top pieces. A base piece the size of the light blue area is also needed.

And here's the sign I used (with Print n Press transfer paper). Print this out for use on one of the denim base (door) pieces.



First step: cut interfacing into shapes based on template, then iron onto the denim. Notice one of the sides has to be split in half, for the door.



Next, cut them apart, cut open the "windows" and baste the window seams under. Topstitch the window pieces on top of strips of satin, and the base pieces. Then sew the sections together, with the "doors" on either end. After this I topstitched four corner pieces over the seams.



Embroidered "Police Public Call Box" labels. The window grids are also (very simply) embroidered.



I cut out a square piece of denim big with sides the length of one of the panels. As tissue boxes are not square, this did not fit exactly, but the cloth was forgiving. I sewed this to the top of my panels.

I added a lining to hide the embroidery mess on the inside. This was done by sewing together a lining in the same shape as the denim exterior, then sewing it to the denim, right sides together, and flipping it inside out.


It would have been more awesome if I had found a lining fabric that had a big polka dot pattern like the inside of the actual TARDIS... but I already had this, and I like money. Both of these fabrics are leftover from a certain other cozy project.

Almost done - just some last minute tailoring. I hand sewed the embroidered signs on at this stage.



The top is just five pieces of fabric sewn together and then hand stitched to the top. It is tightly stuffed so it could be used as a pin cushion if you are so inclined to have a pin cushion on top of your tissue box. The "light" is a clear bead tied on with embroidery floss.



The base is made by sewing denim around a piece of reclaimed cardboard, and then hand sewn to the cozy. I made the base in the actual dimensions of the tissue box (rather than square) and then just pushed the fabric around until it fit properly.



Some final product detail shots.





There really is a tissue box in there.





I love the otherworldly glow in this shot:



I also made a Dr. Who card, which I colored with a highlighter and a green marker. David Tennant, incidentally, looks like an older Scottish version of my brother. Who in turn looks like an older, American version of Daniel Radcliffe.

Starbuck Swirlimagig Pillows

Somewhat inspired by this awesome hat by QuirkyKnitGirl, I made these pillows for my friend Brian, who generously makes his TV available for cable-less buddies on Battlestar Galactica night. The squared off Ikea couch in his living room was crying out for throw pillows.



The fandom aspect is very subtle; you would have to be a fan of the show to recognize this. And even if you are, it's hard to see that this is supposed to resemble Kara Thrace's wacky painting of the "Eye of Jupiter." Here's a pic of the so you can join the coolness.



See? The fringe, it's like the edges... and the free hand quilting is like brush strokes. Right? I have new found respect for quilters, by the way. It's hard to get everything right when all your stitches are on display.

Flies are Hard

My sister-in-law warned me: flies are hard. It was extra hard because the line in the Burda 7841 detailing how to attach the underside zipper made no sense. Like really, it was in the English column, but it wasn't the English that I speak.

These are for a Gaius Baltar cosplay, in case you're just tuning in.

Apart from the puckering around the fly, which is not too obvious when attached to a person, the pattern was great. The fit is nice and slim, the pieces fit together in a simple and obvious way, and the pockets are nice and roomy. I skipped the back pockets because they didn't seem necessary for this suit, and they looked a bit complicated.

I picked this pattern because it was literally the only pattern for a simple pair of men's pants in all of Joann Fabrics, but I've heard good things about Kwik Sew 3267 if your store has that brand in stock and you want some better fly instructions than Burda has to offer.

The fabric is from Fabric.com's sale section and was only $2 a yard. It's a stretchy suiting.



Geoff was unavailable to model these pants, so they are being modeled by the curtain rod over my bedroom door. Yes, my bedroom has curtains. There is a reason, and it has to do with cats. It gives my bedroom a Turkish harem feel, I think.

Spock be Prosperin' - T Shirt

So what did I tell ya, huh? Geeky?

This is a design I did for the Threadless competition. After it did somewhat poorly in the voting, I decided to bleach stencil it using this process. The image was then touched up with fabric pens. I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Action shot:


This will officially be the first item for sale in my Etsy shop, should be up by the end of the day. Enjoy :)

Knitted (River) Tam

I have been seeing tams, those giant slouchy knit hats, a lot lately, and I like them. In honor of River, I'm making a blue one (because rivers are blue-ish). Here's the pattern I'm using, an amalgam of some different ones I've seen.

Supplies
Size 7 circular needles
Worsted weight yarn (wool-ease in denim)

Brim
-Cast on 72 stitches.
-2 rows seed stitch (knit-knit-purl-purl)
-Proceed in stockinette (knit-purl) until 1.25" long
-2 rows seed again

Body
-Increase to 96 with k3 (knit 3), m1 (make one)
-Rib stitch 4x4 until 4.5" long

Crown
-1st row: p2tog (purl two together) in the center of each depression (decrease 12)
-2nd row: proceed with rib
-3rd row: k2tog (knit two together) in the center of each stockinette section (decrease 12)
-4th row: proceed with rib
-Continue in this fashion until 12 stitches remain. Sew together.

UPDATE: I learned something about myself. I f@#$ing hate circular needles! And I don't have the patience to figure out DPNs. So... screw this!