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

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.

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!