Rey's staff

Props are essential for any costume. For Lauren's Rey cosplay, I set out to make Rey's staff. I ended up making a scaled-down and less detailed interpretation, but it is clear what it is supposed to be.

Remember the show Art Attack? That show taught me that pretty much any craft project that one can imagine can be constructed using toilet paper rolls, paper, glue, and masking tape. One material I have added to the list is gardening wire (as seen with the Maleficent horns). This project started with a broomstick, the materials mentioned above, fabric scraps from the costume, and vinyl belt. The belt was trimmed down to make the strap, and scrap material was wrapped around the middle of the staff. The constructed parts were finished with black acrylic paint, and high-gloss craft varnish.

Lauren saw the work-in-progess (middle picture) when she came over for her first costume fitting. She asked, "Where do you get these ideas from?" Honestly? Art Attack. From the Maleficent horns, to the magic wand for my Gryffindor neice, the same principles apply: start with a base, build it up with other material, wrap it all in masking tape, and paint, paint, paint.

Also, when it comes to crafts and sewing, I view mistakes and failures as learning experiences. It makes me (relatively) fearless, and confident enough in my abilities to take risks, like Rey, when she piloted the Millennium Falcon. I'm trying to apply that attitude and confidence to other aspects of life.

Belts and Boots

I stand in front of the belts in the thift store, staring at two leather belts in my hands, trying to determine which one would better fit my overall vision for Lauren's Rey costume.

I narrow my eyes, feeling the texture of the details of the belt in my right hand. I turn to Lauren and crinkle my forehead, trying to picture the final product. I huff frustratedly, mentally going back and forth between both belt options.

"I trust your vision," L says reassurringly, seeing my obvious distress over the belt dilemma. I decide to hold on to both belts, plus a third one, and leave the decision until after L has finished trying on a selection of Rey-like tank tops and pants.

Lauren makes her way past the footware to the fitting rooms. I trail behind, looking back at the belts again, and then glancing at some scarves as I hear Lauren squeal, "B!!!!" from the next aisle  over.

She comes bounding around the corner, boots in hand, and we both know that we are at the start of another fantastic costume adventure. The boots are perfect. Absolutely perfect.

I can't wait to see how everything comes together.

Mad Hatter Madness

For Halloween 2016, my friends and I have chosen to go as characters from Alice in Wonderland. This decision was made in November of 2014 as we browsed in a consignment shop in downtown Toronto. It was at that time that I purchased the hat. It is a magnificent Holt Renfrew beaver skin top hat.

Last year my friend informed me that her daughter wanted to be The Mad Hatter for Halloween, so I immediately went into auntie-mode. "DOES SHE HAVE A HAT!" I practially squealed, knowing that this would be the perfect opportunity to add bits an baubles to the Holt Renfrew hat. And of course that is exactly what I ended up doing! Process pics below. :-)

Something there that wasn't there before

Lauren and I have been friends for a little over half our lives, but it is only in the past few years that we have developed a designer/cosplayer relationship. I have to say that I am grateful that Lauren trusts me enough to let me choose her costumes, and then proceed to make a vision come to life. You may remember Lauren from such costumes as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry,  and Maleficent. (That was a Troy McClure homage,  as we're both Simpsons fanatics!)

On Thursday night I finished making alterations to a dress that Lauren found at a thrift shop to make it look like Belle's dress from the "Little Town" sequence in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. When we were discussing cosplay ideas for this year's Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, I was most excited about the possibility of making a dress from my absolute favourite Disney movie. This sent Lauren on a thrift store scavenger hunt to find a reasonably priced garment that could be altered fairly quickly, and on a budget.

The before/after picture is posted below. Here were the steps involved in altering the dress.

1. Square the bust line. Lauren tried on the dress so that I could see how it fit. Rather than measuring and marking, I took a short cut and took the scissors to the dress while it was on Lauren. This is where the duration of our friendship comes into play -- "let me just put these super-sharp blades close to your jugular and cut down to about where your heart is" -- then I used masking tape to mark where the material would need to be cut across. We also the discussed the length and what to do about that white stripe in the middle of skirt. It turns out that the stripe was easily removed,  and I had some material on-hand for the white trim.

2. After that initial fitting,  I measured my tape markings to make sure everything was symmetrical,  and set to work cutting, pinning, and finishing the edges of the bust line and straps.

One challenge presented by the dress was that there were rhinestones randomly placed on the shoulders, and so I had to be careful the avoid them. Careful as I was, one tiny rhinestone was overlooked and shattered my sewing machine needle. Luckily I had a spare handy, so disaster was averted.

Without the apron it become apparent how much fuller
the skirt is without the sewn-in pleats.

3. Un-pleat the pleats. This involved using my seam ripper, a hot iron, and steam. Thankfully removing the pleats gave the skirt a nice full look, which is exactly what we wanted.

4. The trim: I used material from the lining from a skirt that I bought but never wore (it was also a thrift shop find, so I can be fancy and say I up-cycled it).

I decided how wide the trim should be, measured the circumference of the skirt to see what length of trim would be needed, then set to work measuring and cutting.

The trim was attached,  edges finished, and layers of tiny zig-zag stitching was used to add some pizzazz to an otherwise boring part of the dress.

5. Trim 2.0: still not satisfied with the length of the dress, I added a sheer broad ribbon, which added about 5cm of length to the dress.

6. Apron! It's just skirt lining and ribbon!

With about 2 hours of work (spread out over a couple of days and between watching episodes of 'The X-Files'), the dress was done. Lauren added a blouse, a crinoline, and some accessories. The final fitting was Thursday night, and Fan Expo was Friday. I didn't attend this year, but our friend Christina (who has an awesome doll blog that you should take a look at) posted some pictures of the completed cosplay.

What we started with, and where we ended up.

 Now to end with some parody lyrics based on Something There, because writing parody lyrics is one of my other (lesser known) hobbies:

The dress was blue,
With a white stripe
And its neckline, it was rounded
And too high,
But now it's square,
The stripe is gone,
And when wearing it,
L burst out into song

The skirt had pleats,
It was too short,
But had potential to be something
Really sweet

And so I cut,
And ripped and stitched
And made the dress look really different than before

Trim, ribbon, and an apron,
Who'd have ever thought that this could be
True, the dress was not charming
But it looks much better now
as if from the movie

Well who'd have thought
Well bless my soul
Well who'd have known
Well who indeed
And who'd have guessed the difference
That some thread could make
It's so peculiar
When you see
An altered dress
That looks like something there that wasn't there before
You know perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before
There may be something there that wasn't there before.

Maleficent

This is Lauren as Maleficent.  This costume was made for her to cosplay at Fan Expo Canada 2014, and for Halloween.

The horns and the back are what seem to draw the most interest. The horns were formed  with gardening wire, small starter pots, and making tape (all dollar store materials). From sculpting to paint and varnish, the whole horn-making process took about two hours (excluding the paint-drying time, of course).

This costume is my version of what I thought to be the most remarkable scene from the Maleficent movie; just after her wings have been burned off. Also, I didn't want to make wings (lol). The wounds were easy to make. The dress material kind of melted, and left the solid scorched bits around the edges. Then I sewed in some bathing suit liner, and painted it with acrylic paint and white glue.

Feedback from Lauren was that the top was hard to get into for Fan Expo. It is very tailored to her, so I added a side zipper, running from the left armpit down to the bottom of the blouse.

The staff is a painted branch from the garden, topped with LEDs and a substance called Goo-Hu, that is moldable rubber/epoxy which dries into a super bounce ball.

I'm very much looking forward to going out with her and my friends this Friday for Halloween!