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