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!

New year, new costumes!

    For the past couple of years, I have started thinking about my costume for ComiCon at the beginning of the year.  Sometimes it takes me a while to decide what I want to do, and I want to make sure I have plenty of time to accomplish making the costume or putting it together if it ends up being complicated.  Like my Arwen dress last year, for instance!  This year it was particularly important to start early, since I not only have my costume and Sugarplum's costume to plan (plus helping hubby out if he needs any sewing done), but my two little sisters have decided to come with us, too!  I'm super excited about introducing them to cosplay and ComiCon.  I always say that my husband turned me into a geek, and I pretty much passed it on to these two (and my older sister to some extent, too!).  We were all already Disney geeks, but DH got me into Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and I in turn introduced my sisters.  Haven't gotten them on Doctor Who yet...maybe that'll come next. ;)

    Anyway, it turns out that most of our costumes won't require that much sewing this year, other than Sugarplum's.  Which is even more of a good thing considering what I just found out earlier this week...Wizard World, the convention that we usually attend in September, isn't coming to Nashville this year.  That means our only choice now is FanBoy Expo, which I don't know much about, but it looks like it'll be good.  There's one in Nashville in May, and one in Knoxville in June.  That leaves us only around 3 months to get everything ready!

    Thankfully, everyone has made up their minds on who they want to be, though it did take us a while.  We debated for what seemed like forever on whether or not we could come up with a group cosplay, like maybe all cosplaying as characters from The Force Awakens.  We ended up scratching that idea, because in every scenario at least one person was going to end up settling for a costume that they weren't necessarily thrilled about.  I really wanted my sisters, especially, to be whoever they really wanted to for their first ComiCon.

    So, without further ado, here is what we have all decided on for this year's ComiCon, and our progress so far.

    My costume: Abby Sciuto from NCIS

    I watched the show NCIS faithfully for a few years.  Now I mostly see re-runs, but Abby has always been a favorite.  I mean, who doesn't love Abby?  So far her outfit has been pretty fun to put together.  I really couldn't have chosen anyone whose sense of style was more different from my own!  But that's actually what makes it so much fun.

    So far I have ordered a lab coat, which I plan on embroidering with "NCIS" myself; a black wig, which I will be cutting and styling; black and white striped knee socks; a black spiked dog collar; and one skull bracelet.  All of those came off of eBay.  I already own a pair of black combat boots that I'll be using.  Still keeping my eye out for a plaid skirt, another bracelet, and some sort of skull/skeleton top.  Also a pair of black leggings, because the knee sock and mini skirt combo is a little....bare...for me.  DH will be helping me with the tattoos when the time comes...I have zero tattoos, and Abby has 7 that will be visible!  We haven't quite decided yet what method we'll be using for those, so I'll keep you updated and probably post a tutorial later on.

    DH's costume: The Man with No Name from A Fistful of Dollars

    I've only actually seen parts of this movie a couple of times, honestly, so I don't know that much about it other than this guy is the gun-slingin' hero!  DH searched for a while for a character that he could pull off with his current beard and hairstyle.  We've discovered in the past couple of years that there really aren't very many bearded characters, besides old men and wizards!  Anyway, he already owns at least a couple of pieces for this look, including the shoes and vest.  He's currently looking for the hat (I told him just to wear his Indiana Jones hat from last year, but he claims that this is a pretty specific hat, haha.  Shows you what I know.).  We're thinking for the poncho we'll end up buying or making a plain brown one, and then painting the designs on.  You can actually find this specific poncho for sale online, but they're quite pricey.

    Sugarplum's costume: Samantha Parkington, an American Girl

    My sisters and I all grew up with American Girl dolls.  I didn't personally own Samantha until I was a teenager (I started collecting the dolls as they were being discontinued), but my older sister did.  I chose Samantha for Sugarplum because they look the most alike.  :)  This will be the one costume that will be sewn completely from scratch.  And let me tell you...that fabric is NOT easy to find!  It's technically a burgundy and grey gingham print on a kind of taffeta like fabric, but no such thing seems to actually exist in the real world.  I've had to settle for a burgundy gingham on cotton, which I found at Hobby Lobby for ~$3.50 a yard sale price.  It's certainly not exact but it's the closest I could find...well, there was one slightly closer that I found online, but with the cost of shipping it would have been $25 total at least.  It wasn't different enough to pay that much.  

    I also have the ribbon for the waist, and a pattern for a very similar looking girls' Victorian dress, which I found on Etsy.  I ordered a pair of black patent leather dress shoes from eBay, but I'll still need to find the black stockings, and something to use for that gold ring on the belt.  

    M's costume: Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 

    

    Despite the fact that we decided not to go with a group Star Wars cosplay, there will still be one TFA character in the bunch.  My 18-year-old sister is going to be cosplaying Rey, the heroine of the movie.  As soon as I saw Rey I knew that she'd be a good character to be...her outfit just looks so comfy and fun, doesn't it?  We haven't done much shopping for my sisters' costumes yet, since we'd like to do it together and they live a few hours away.  I'm planning on visiting next week, though, and I'm sure we'll get a lot accomplished then.  However, I did happen to pick up a belt much like Rey's at Goodwill a few months ago on a whim, and I found a perfect pair of pants (that I'm hoping will fit!) at Goodwill a couple of days ago.  They're long pants, so I'll have to cut them off and tie them at the knees.  Right now I'm on a search for the perfect fabric to drape around her...something light and flowy but not super expensive, which is easier said than done.  The other piece that may be difficult to find is the boots, unless she has something already that I don't know about.  I'm sure we won't find anything too exact, but as long as they're close in style and color I think she'll be satisfied.

    D's costume: Vanellope Von Schweetz from Wreck it Ralph

    My 14-year-old sister changed her mind multiple times, but finally decided on Vanellope.  We haven't gotten any pieces for her costume yet - though I believe she said she had some shoes that would work - but we have made some plans.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest for painting a pair of white tights to look like Vanellope's, and we've talked about how to do the candy for her hair.  She wants to use real candy, so we plan to glue it onto bobby pins.  We may even thread a wire through an actual Twizzler to wrap around her ponytail!  Finding a teal hoodie that doesn't have a zipper down the front is proving harder than I would have thought, so there has also been talk of buying a white hoodie and dying it the correct color.

    And there you have it!  We ended up with a very random combination of characters, but I think we're all happy with what we've decided on.  There will be progress reports to come, so stay tuned!

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!