Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Costume Updates

    I spent last week at my parents' house, and one thing my sisters and I did was work on acquiring pieces for their costumes.  Combine that with some of the other buying and crafting I've done recently, and I've been pretty productive on the costume front lately.  So...time for an update!

    Abby Sciuto Cosplay

    The first item to arrive for my Abby costume was a skull bracelet that I found on eBay for $.79 and free shipping.  Can't beat that!



    Next was the lab coat...also from eBay...which I failed to take a picture of before I embroidered.  But I made up for it by taking a video of the embroidery machine at work!



    Am I the only one who finds watching embroidery machines fascinating?  Yes?  Ok, fine.  Here's a still shot of it for all the rest of you.


    And here is the final product!


    Today the skirt and leggings came in the mail, too...



    Funny story about these leggings.  I didn't realize when I ordered the that they had holes down the front.  That was very unclear in the picture/description.  And while that look may be appropriate for Abby, I was hoping to be able to wear these myself, and that's NOT my style.  So I went back on swap.com to return them, and they told me they'd give me my money back but that I could keep the leggings for my inconvenience.  That's the second time swap has done that to me!  So now, I guess I'm going to use them after all...I mean, they were free!  My one concern was that they wouldn't look right when I paired them with the knee socks (which haven't come in yet for me to try), but I think it'll look fine.  I'm definitely glad I have the leggings, because that skirt just BARELY covers me!

    Still waiting on my shirt, dog collar, knee socks, and wig to arrive, but they're all coming from China :/ so the estimated arrival puts them here anytime between next week and mid-April.

    Samantha Parkington Cosplay

    Sugarplum's costume is the most labor-intensive, and also the one that I've accomplished the least on.  Gotta make myself sit down and sew!  Some of it has to do with finding the time...the perfect day when Sugarplum herself will actually cooperate and LET me sit down and sew!

    Anyway, I did buy the fabric from Hobby Lobby.  As I said in my last post, it's not exact, but it's the closest I could find.

    I also found this ribbon at JoAnn to use for the waistband.


    This is the pattern I'm going to be using, found on Etsy. 

   

    I've cut out all the pieces, and ironed the fabric, so my next step is ironing the pattern pieces and then pinning and cutting everything.  It's been so long since I've actually sewn with a pattern, it makes me a little nervous.  Funny that having instructions and a guide would make me more nervous than winging it.

    Lastly, I found a pair of black patent leather shoes on eBay.  I got them a little big in hopes that she'll still be able to wear them next winter to church.




    Rey Cosplay

    My sister M's Rey cosplay is coming along well.  First I found her a pair of pants at Goodwill.


    They're a little more grey in person than they look in this photo.  I need to cut them off at her knees and hem them, but other than that they're the perfect fabric (linen-esque) and color.

    We finally decided on some fabric, from JoAnn.  Hobby Lobby had the same type of fabric labeled as batiste, but I'm not sure if that's the correct name for it or not.  Regardless, it seemed to be the perfect texture for the fabric that drapes around Rey's shoulders.  I measured from M's knee, up over the opposite shoulder, and back down to her knee, which turned out to be 2 1/2 yards.  Since the fabric comes 45" wide, I just bought that length, and cut the fabric in half lengthwise to make a strip for each shoulder.  No need to have 45" worth of fabric gathered up on her shoulder!



    Here's a picture of Rey's costume for texture comparison.



    The other item we found for her cosplay last week was a shirt.  


    We bought this off-white fitted tee from Walmart, and I'm going to make a couple of alterations to it.


    You can just barely see in this picture where I've marked the collar and sleeve.  On the collar I'll be cutting a small "v".  The sleeves are supposed to be cap sleeves, so I'm going to cut them off shorter and re-hem them.

    We already own the belt and leather wrist cuff, so now we just need to find her some boots and some kind of fabric to wrap around her arms.  She decided to forego the staff...too expensive and too much of a pain to carry around all day!


    Vanellope von Schweetz Cosplay

    My youngest sister D's cosplay is also nearing completion.  It took us awhile to find the perfect hoodie...there are a lot of teal hoodies out there, but most of them have logos and/or zippers on the front.  Also, finding the perfect color teal is easier said than done, especially without paying through the nose for it!  But I finally came across this one on eBay, which was a great price AND (contrary to what this picture shows) is the perfect color.


    Not too blue, not too green, that's the key with finding teal!  D kept this one with her, and is planning on dying or changing out the strings to hot pink, as well as adding the hot pink stitching on the pocket.
   
    She's also going to be working on her leggings.  We found these at Walgreens, of all places.


    For color comparison purposes, these are slightly bluer and a good bit darker than her hoodie.  I saw a tutorial on Pinterest for how to paint white tights to look like Vanellope's, but we figured that painting teal ones with the white stripes would equal less paint, and they'd be less likely to be stiff.  Hopefully we were right!

    Another swap.com purchase was her skirt, which just came in the mail today, so she hasn't actually had a chance to try it on yet.  It *should* be the right size, though!


    Now all she needs is some shoes and some candy for her hair, and she'll be good to go!

    I didn't include DH's Clint Eastwood cosplay in this list, because he hasn't acquired any new items yet.  :)  He's having a really hard time finding a hat that meets his standards without costing $100 +!  Unfortunately it's not one of those things you can just pick up on eBay or at Goodwill for a few bucks.  

    Eventually, when everything is complete, I'll try to compile all of these into separate, single posts, so that all the information about each costume is available in one place.  But for now, I find it fun to be able to share my progress as it comes! 


Check out my Etsy shop! I sell hand painted wooden signs with a variety of themes including geek, Disney, and Christian, and I also make custom orders!