Dragon Con Update

We are past the 2 month countdown mark.

I am hard at work on my Kaylee costume, which will be finished in the next week. I also have the deadline for the Inara Scarf costume - I just need to get the pants. Again, done in the next week. I keep looking for the jewelry, and am striking out, so I think I am going to have to hit up my BeadNut friend, and commission her to make the bling for all the Inara garb. She has a lot of resources that I don't, and don't have the time to look for.

Nearly 2 down.

The River costume - holy hell, COP and I both found multi-layered skirts at our favorite thrift store. We plan on hitting them with Kool-Aid in the next week, and with a white tank, the River togs will be nearly done. As much as we would like to knit our own sweaters, I knit WAAAAAY too slow, and COP is somewhat injured, so we are going to take pics, yarn that we are staining, and a checkbook to Knitting Wiz (I will have to let you all know how the staining goes - we are giving the Kool-Aid a workout on this set of costumes) and see what we can get done. She is a much faster knitter than COP or I.

COP found a perfect burnished leather jacket to tear apart and remake into a Zoe vest. The front won't even have to be cut much as the back panels of the jacket will work really well with the pattern of Zoe's vest.

And finally, the Inara Jaynestown gown. It's been giving me fits, the thought of sewing all that chiffon. I found a dress at Ye Olde Fave thrift store for 7.50. It's the right wine color, it has straps that I can build the brocade overdress onto, and it has not one, but two underdresses. This is something I have been concerned about, since in the episode, Inara's dress is several layers of chiffon only. I don't feel comfy in just see through chiffon, no matter that it is multi-layered. I want a solid underdress. So I am going to take out the second layer of this dress, and probably take off the overskirt of organza, since it is really stiff and not soft and floaty like chiffon, and just sew a layer or maybe two of chiffon onto it from waist level on down.

I was really stressing, since there is no pattern for this, and it is a three-tiered dress in terms of pattern. Since I have to do an obi for the Inara Shawl costume, I am going to sew the Jaynestown obi as well. Oh! And while small, a pleasing detail! The Jaynestown obi is tied with a twined cord, and looks like it has tassles at the end of it. I was picking up thread at Wally World last week, and saw the notions rack, and on it were tassles in the wine color of the cord that also had a rather asian looking bead on them. Perfect! So I can end my cord in classy looking tassles, rather than just ending them in a tie off type of thing.

While we are feeling the crunch, things are looking ok. The sewing is looking less scary than it was, and I cannot tell you how much of a relief that is. The fabrics I am working with are fairly intimidating.

So look next week to see the Kaylee (with parasol!!!) and Inara shawl costumes.

Cheers!

BAH

Costumes on the Cheap

First, the FM went to Ren Fest with the family, and I have to tell you, as the FM, I am really pleased with myself. My darling husband got himself all costumed out in some of my pirate gear (see earlier post) and let his hair down - literally, and was very piratical. The kids were also mini-Capt. Blighs, and wore their garb all day without complaint. I DO have pics, but I have been seperated from my camera cord, and have been looking in vain for it.





The thing I am really happy about is MY costume. We went to Ren Fest on a Sunday, so I happened to be out yard sale-ing on a Saturday. I found an awesome Goth Witch Costume for 2 bucks and it had an extra feathered and veiled hat to play with, which was even more awesome.





This is the costume - I like the muted lime green. For a ready made costume - and I know the pooh pooh-ers are out there - I was impressed. I liked it. It is not see through, and all I had to wear under it was bike shorts, vs slip, petticoat, etc. The goal was a simple costume that would allow me to enjoy being dressed but still chase after kids.

I have some peridot jewelry, so I paired it with that. Even black, crystal, or rhinestones would have looked good, but I love my peridot and pineapple quartz set. The dress had to be sewn a little, as the green panels were loose, but it gave me a chance to try out my new sewing machine, and I was really pleased with it. I have no issues with my old one, other than I am still skeevy since the dog got pissed at me and peed on the bobbin box part, but I can tell the difference between my simple one and this new fancy schmancy one - which, btw, was another yard sale find.

So, I have the 2 dollar dress, and my own jewelry. I remember that last year at the Carolina Ren Fest, SAP, my lovely sister, bought me a headdress made of raven and peacock feathers. I did that out, and have a cross between a fairy type and a wishful maiden of Ren times.

Upon further investigation, I have a set of dark fairy wings that are made of raven feathers. The feathers need to be re-glued, as do the elastic straps, and my trusty glue gun takes care of that. I was worried that glue alone would not hold up, but I was wrong. It held like it was super glue. So I repaired my sad wings and then added a couple of peacock feather eyes, and some glass accent rocks, and Voila! - much more interesting Dark Forest Fairy wings.

The wings, bought last yard sale season with the idea that I was sure I could do something with them at some point, cost me 50 cents. The glass rocks, which I have an entire jar of, also 50 cents.

Total expenditure - 3 bucks and about an hour of repair and fiddling. As soon as I am reuinited with camera cord, I will post the actual pics. But this is to illustrate that if you like costuming, and are not sure how to start, just start hitting yard sales, or thrift stores, and stockpiling, for cheap, the things that speak to you. You will use it eventually.

I will say, if I had to purchase the Awesome Headdress on my own, my outlay would have been about 40 bucks higher, but these feather head bands are amazing, and every woman should have one. I personally love raven and peacock feathers, I could not have found a better band.

Even so, I have found that you can indeed do costuming on the cheap, but there is usually one item that ends up costing a bit, but in the overall scheme of costume costs, it is not a bank breaker.

Pics as soon as I can.

Cheers!

BAH

AhhhhhhHHHHhhhh! *cue the singing of angels*

Please take a look at one of the Holy Grails we are looking for ------------->

So. The River costume from the 'Safe' episode. It's one of our personal favorites, after the Maidenhead outfit and the red outfit (not sure which one, but COP is certain of what it is).

This one is not too difficult, although it involves the making of a sweater. We have found the yarn, a mohair blend, and will be experimenting with staining it the faded fuchsia. YaY! for yardsales. Still have to make the dress, although other than time, and matching of the tiered skirt, not super hard. Although COP and FM have had discussions regarding the shades of pink on her dress. I have seen several cosplay costumes, and some have been all white. I see a light and lighter pink, so that is still in committee as far as what colors we will use. Light cotton, for sure.

But the kicker is always the boots. We found threads going back 4 years discussing the challenge of River's Firefly boots. (There was another set made for Serenity, they are slightly different.) According to Shawna, she bought them at Hideout Fashions on Melrose, which has since gone out of business. No other info on style, brand, etc. Apparently, Hideout Fashions has another location, but upon searching, I have only ever found the defunct location listing.

We have been searching all week for engineer/motorcycle boots that would work, would be capable of being modified. Fireflyfan.net was most helpful with links, although the links for the T.U.K. Gladiator steel plate boots showed as being out of stock (which sucks, since with the plate removed, they match River's boots). So another link directed us to Vixens and Angels, which is the web site for the store Fashion Nation in Denver, CO. They have a style of boot from Underground called the Judge St boot. It is listed on their sale page, and is listed with very limited sizes.

Upon learning how close we are to Fashion Nation, we take a trip over to see what else they might have that potentially is not listed on the site. We find the Judge St boot, and the sales girl says it is their last pair. They look close in size for the FM, so we ask them to bring out the other boot. Lo and behold, when the sales guy (who was AWESOME, by the way, and I didn't get his name) comes out with my boot, he tells COP that rather than being a solo pair, he actually has more than this one lonely only. So COP asks for her size, and he brings out a man's boot in a comparable size.

Lovelies, they fit. Both the COP and FM have muscular calves, and have had this problem with foot oriented haberdashery before. BUT - both of us fit into the boots, when buckled, and the sizes were and are very comfortable.

I am going to put the link for the store, on the particular boot, so as to perhaps help someone else who is desperately searching for River's boots from Firefly. I would recommend calling the store to see what is actually in stock, because what was listed on the site was not exactly what was in the store. In their total defense, they list a LOT of shoes. But call them.

And tell them what you are after, and why. We had to promise to send pics of the completed costume.

While this is not the EXACT match, it is the closest we have found. Had we been able to find the T.U.K. gladiators, it might have been even more of a match, but these two were the closest style I could find.

Thanks SO much to the people at Fashion Nation, aka Vixens and Angels online, because I am sure they were internally LTAO when the suburban mommies rolled up in the mini van, toddlers in tow, looking for boots and a bathroom. They were SO helpful, and nice, and didn't bat an eye (that we saw) at our somewhat unruly offspring.

Here is the link for the boots, and you can get their number off this site as well. Scroll down to see the Judge St and the Dredd St styles, both of which would work. Not sure you can remove the plate for the Dredd St, though. Got so excited about finding the right size, we forgot to ask.

http://www.vixensandangels.com/Item.cfm?Type=291&v=1

Also, to age them without actually beating them up, white sidewalk chalk is looking good thus far.

The first three pics are as follows: The FM, The Amazing Duo, and The Capn.

Dragon*Con 2010 In The Works

So, COP and I have taken on an impressive list for D*C this year. It is ALL from either Firefly or Serenity. Prior to this summer, COP had only seen Serenity, but she took the plunge and recently bought the season (the lonely only! *sob*) of Firefly. She has gotten Mr. COP into watching it with her - to the point where he had to be gone this weekend, and he told her not to watch any more episodes without him, LOL - and both agree it was a crime and a black mark against Fox for the cancellation. Boo. Hisssss.

Anyway.

COP is going for a Zoey, in dark trousers and a blue shirt, with the awesome vest, which we are making. As well, she is beefing up the Jayne, doing an Inara in her gold and red velvet patterned robe with red slinky underneath, and River in the pink ruffled skirt/dress with the fuchsia sweater. To my surprise, COP said she saw no problem with knitting said sweater, frayed sleeves and hem and all. Go COP! I will say, we will probably solicit a little help from our Knitting Wiz. Just to make it better.

For myself, I am going for Kaylee in the Serenity pilot when she meets Book, Inara's Jaynestown dress, Inara's Gold Shawl outfit from the scene at Haven in Serenity, a beefed up Jayne, and the pink ruffled River outfit.

This happens to us a lot. We choose the same outfits. However, there are 5 days of costuming opportunities at D*C, so we can just insure there is no overlap, LOL.

We will keep you updated with the progress of the costumes. Any suggestions for improving accuracy appreciated, as we are both detail people.

Can't Stop The Serenity 2009

So on a totally different tack, COP and FM are also HUH-YUGE Firefly/Serenity fans. Also very enthusiastic Jayne Cobb fans. And REALLY enthusiastic Jayne Hat fans. When we discovered that CSTS had an event here, we got all atwitter, and started looking around for a Jayne hat.

In searching the web, we found a number of folks making the hats, a few actually selling them, and one WONDERFUL site that gave a pattern to follow. This is the best site that I found.

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=19076.20

The only thing we didn't agree with was the shading of the hat. The COP and I have gotten into gentle discussions with makers of hats in our area regarding shading.

If you look at screenshots of Jayne from the episode which is posted above, the earflaps, where I have had the most discussions, are a muted rust/orange. Not red. At that point, neither the COP or FM were knitters (this has since been rectified) and we bartered with our Knitting Wiz friend to make us some Jayne hats. She did her own research online, and came to the same conclusion we did about the shading. So the next pic is us, in our Jayne hats. One thing that Knitting Wiz noticed was that the hat (she actually rented Firefly from the library to be able to take a better look at this hat) has a bit of a halo around it, suggesting a certain type of yarn. We ended up with alpaca yarn, since it gave it a fuzzy halo, which Jayne also sports.

We ordered the Flying Elves t-shirt from Zazzle, I think. If you google Jayne Flying Elves, you will find this. After going back and forth between screen shots and this t-shirt, I think the guy who designed it did a damn fine job!

Cargo pants from the thrift store, which are being replaced this year based on the complete lack of flattering of the Buddha and the arse, and combat boots. Note on the pants- Jayne's pants are close fitting, as are Mal's Capn Tightpants. but the cargo part of the pants is on steroids. The belts were gun belts borrowed from dad and husband. We are both looking to replace the belts with ones that hang a little lower, and that tie off on the leg. Jayne also wears a belt for the pants, black, with brass buckle. On the list. I have recently found a costuming forum where this guy makes his own Firefly/Serenity weaponry, and he has a really detailed discussion of the various pieces, so COP and I are going to get a better weapon than the orange numbers sported in the pic.

The First Mate

So this is FMBAH, circa RenFest 2009. A good time was had by all, we played well with the other....er...privateers we encountered that day, and my lace stayed fairly clean. The sporran was not completely empty upon a return home, which was nice also.

The vest was a thrift store find, grey velour, with plastic and wooden beads on it. We found this long before the costume came to be, but it was so wonderful we knew we could do something with it at some point. I fiddled around with pants, and finally found a great set - lace up, and lace up calves with that Pantaloon look - at tobeapirate.com. My sewing skills were not up to this. As well, I had a look for a shirt that I wanted - waterfall ruffles from the neck down, and deep lace cuffs. This was the perfect shirt, although they run a little large. The boots are also lace up the back of the calf, found on Amazon. They really have a great selection of footwear.

The hat was harder. If you have dressed as a pirate, you know that you either buy a lovely leather piece, or you comb through the Halloween costume sites. Once I decided on the grey vest, I looked for a grey hat, and found this on using musketeer hat in the search engine. It snaps up on the one side, and I cut out a leather piece from one of the coats we have kept around for parts, and hot glued the feathers to the leather, and then wrapped the feathers all the way around, and glued the whole affair to the hat where it snaps. While hot glue is not the greatest, it held my plumage in place all day. I think I will reinforce this however, because I hate worrying part of my look is going to go blowing away.

I made the necklace, which is something I use for my Dark Lady RenFest costume. It's a 60's pot metal piece, and I found a costume pearl necklace that the pearls were falling off of and twisted them onto the necklace to give it more of an Elizabethan look. Plain pearl ball earrings, and while you can't see it, I put a 50s/60s pearl and rhinestone choker with this as well. Pirates liked to show their riches, and I was going for the dandy look.

The belt - there are 2, although they don't show well. The first went around my sash, and I attached a leather strap with a snap - you can make your own by finding an old leather coat with snaps on the wrists and cutting off the wrists and tidying up the seams - for my mug so I didn't have to carry it all day. This was a black leather belt with a brass buckle. I like that larger brass buckle look.

Oh! The sash was from the pirate website listed earlier, as it was realllly long, and I wrapped it around twice and still had a nice tail on it.

The second belt was a large men's belt, and this is what I attached my sword to. Sword, in scabbard - 5 bucks at a yard sale. Nice, somewhat tatty leather scabbard, which I kind of liked. It was too long, though, so I will be looking for a long dagger instead for this, because being short, the long sword bumped into a lot. I attached the sword to the belt with the other wrist of the aforementioned leather coat, and it hung nicely. I have seen the really lovely stiff leather sword scabbards that are several vertical loops of leather that hold the sword close to prevent swinging, which may be an option should I keep this in my regular costume closet.

So there is a rundown on the pirate garb. I really liked this get up, so it may come to D*C this year.

On the RenFest front, I think since I am working on lots of D*C costumes, I am going to bring out the Dark Lady. I love her. So I will get decked out, and post a pic, and go through the costume again.

As well, I need to get COP on here to post pics of her pirate self, and the costume breakdown, because her vest is just awesome.

FM

Dragon*Con approaches

Yes, it is only June, but looking at the calender, we only have 3 months to get approximately 10 costumes together. Of course, we have our pirate garb looking spiffy. That is actually the genius moment behind this blog. Last year, we spent probably 4 months putting together pirate costumes for the yearly Renfest. Every year, we do a different theme. Last year, it was pirates. There was much haunting of thrift stores and racing to the sewing machine to make it "just right". On one of the many marathon days - I think we were hat trimming, and we are VERY oriented towards feathers, so it was inSANE - I told the Capt (not yet named) that her chapeau was looking very decked out, pimpy even. In a moment of sheer brilliance, I laughed and called her Captain O'Pimpy. She laughed also, and said, then you are First Mate. The shining light was still upon me, and I said, well, I need to be First Mate BeatAHo. You know, the perfect foil to Captain O'Pimpy. And thus, the Capt and FM were born. We laughed so hard that many bathroom trips were required that evening. Being moms over 30, there's no helping that.

Now, with Dragon*Con looming, and both of us going for the first time, and having gotten a coveted room in one of the Con hotels - we are swimming in various costuming activities. In researching our costumes, we have found a lot of personal blogs that have been really helpful in solidifying how we are going to re-create this year's crop.

We decided that we wanted to be able to give back, to share with others since we have learned a lot from those who have gone before. We doff our many plumed hats at you all.

So this will be a record of our costuming journey. It may not be updated daily, but we are always in the process of making some sort of costume, so it will be something that stays regular.

And maybe, we can help someone else out like we were along the way.

Cheers!