I've been bad and haven't been posting for a while. The Ren Faire doublet is relatively finished right now, but I have to take out the lining and redo part of it. Considered it sidelined until I get back from vacation.

So what am I doing now? The Chesire Cat has pants now and the top just needs to be seen together. Jacket-wise, I'm fifty-fifty on it, while its going to be amazing, it's hot as fuck out and I doubt Ft. Wayne is going to be much better in a week. So yeah black long sleeve duck straitjacket... Sounding not cool as time goes on.

Anyway, today is pool and change oil in the car day. Yeah... you know... ;)

Quick little pic of what the Ren top looks like with the two trims I have for it. The final decision will be made Tuesday once the slashing goes in. All in all I'm stoked that its almost finished! 

On a side note, Mockingbird is getting put off for a little bit (probably Nov or Dec) due to a few more Ren Faire costumes and, drum roll, Emma Frost's 60's dress from X-Men: First Class! My husband and sister-in-law decided that I needed to make that for Matsuricon this August because I picked to be a villain this year.

My Demented Little Wonderland

Here's the sketches I mentioned the other day; they're definitely not final versions with tons of detail, just quick sketches to mainly get the silhouettes and general shapes on paper. Not to mention the faces are goofy as all get out, but it was 10am at Skyline when I did these...

The Duchess originally was going to look more like an assassin (I don't know why), but I decided more of a doctor look would suit her better since this is all about a demented asylum and military what not. Her top needs a bit more work which is why it's just this blah area. I figured it out last night, just never sketched it in. The bustier is going to be made out of some sort of vinyl or leather with spots for syringes and vials. She's actually wearing a jacket with a pencil skirt underneath, the pic just doesn't show it well. My bad, but its supposed to be similar to a harness on the top and the jacket tails come from underneath the bustier. Those lines are box pleating marks so I can remember that little detail.

She also looks a bit like Sailor Venus in the face...

The Queen of Hearts had the most thought out of these two, mainly because she was the second one I focused on after the Cheshire Cat. Thank you Once Upon a Time for the jacket idea though, ok well the underbust with long tails idea really. When I get around to the final sketch you'll be able to see that the tails make a heart shape. Additionally the corset is heart-shaped and there's a heart detail on the falconry glove.

Honestly, I don't know where the falconry glove idea came from but I like it and she also has a feathered epaulet, which I think will be some sort of flamingo homage. Oh and her pants look a bit strange but they're riding pants so the thighs are reinforced.

Obviously these two are on the Red Side of things so they'll be much darker in the final versions. The White Side will still be dark, just more pathetic than foreboding.

Quick little update and the pics will be up either tonight or tomorrow. I've been sketching out some of the characters for my version of Wonderland, so far so good. The Queen of Hearts is complete and The Duchess is on her first draft. Not super fond of her, but the main ideas I wanted to get down are there. So basically two of the Red Side are finished, none of the White and I still need to figure out what I plan on doing with Alice.

In the books, Alice is more of a neutral character in all the madness and that makes her a bit difficult to deal with in my version. By separating Wonderland into two factions with a few mercenary type characters, Alice doesn't really have a place. Ah well, I figure something out while I'm stuck at work today. I have a whole 13 hours to let all this stew in my noggin.

Side note, I may end up making all these costumes so who knows I may need to find a photographer and some models. XD

Ok, ok, I love superhero stuff a lot and I started playing the Avengers game on Facebook. Well they have this little side thing going on where you can get the character Mockingbird. Two things happened when I saw her: 1) I have to unlock her cause she looks awesome! 2) I really wanna cosplay her cause she looks awesome!

In case you don't know her, here's her newest look which I plan on making probably in August.

Yeah, I'm stoked about this one, no lie!

Finally get to start weaving after spending over a day getting these strips ready! Can I get a huzzah?!

Actually finished these yesterday with the help of my sister. They're two of the five coney suits in working on; just pre-made Halloween Hot Dogs with some fleece cheese. Easy peasy.

Cheshire Cat!

I got caught up with work a little bit so pardon the slow posting, not to mention the last post that was the pile of strips that I finally got through. Anyway here's what's going on with the Cheshire Cat as of this week and what will be premiering at Ikasucon 2012.

To give you an idea of what's going on with this design here's some back story that I'm planning on evolving further. The steampunk aspect of the original design has pretty much been dropped and I'm going with more of a militaristic style. Cheshire below has lost of the military inspired bits for a more asylum look with this jacket. 

 

I've always been inspired by darker imagery and with Cheshire being an former member of the Queen's army, I feel that she wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of someone leaving. Instead she locked him up, keeping him from helping the growing resistance, and over time she grew more and more annoyed with him and eventually had his grin sewn shut. The jacket itself will be a cropped version of a straitjacket complete with belted sleeves and straps running to the back; however, I've moved the main closure to the front and added a hood. It won't be fully functional, but the sleeves will zipper shut so that the belts can be latched in the back similar to a real straitjacket. Basically, semi-functional but cool as hell. 

As for what you can see peeking out from under the jacket in the sketch above, well that's the main part of the costume which I'm super excited about!

Its black canvas for the outside, black cotton lining, and the front is this awesome striped knit that I've had for a couple of years. The same knit will be the lining for the hood and the main strap running down the center of the jacket kind of like his tail. I'm just waiting to get some free time between projects to get this guy serged and sewn together.

As for the pants, is it bad that I'm still playing around with the design of them? I have a version sketched out but I'm debating getting a pair to deconstruct into what I want. Oh the joys of choices and being fickle!

That's only half of the strips for the good ol' Italian Renaissance garb. Must iron faster! 

Current Projects

For those who've haven't had the misfortune of listening to me since January, I'm working as the Assistant Cosplay Director for a convention in July. Yeah July, like 34 days until I can't work on anything else cause I'll be at the con. Since I'm slightly insane, or just really hate off days, I have a total three costumes I'm working on. It may get bumped up to four, only three of them are personal costumes, but it all depends on money and time. Anyway here's what I have on my plate right now:

Italian Renaissance Garb               Due: June 26th


Ah this little guy has been a long time coming. I talked with my friend about this costume last summer, but at that time it was going to be completely out of leather. This time its cloth seeing that leather is not my forte.

Here's a look at what he sent me:

He was kind enough to pick up the fabric for me after giving him the run down on the amount he would need, granted the diamond patterned section had to be changed. The original fabric was $34.99/yd, so we(he) came up with a genius idea of weaving fabric together to mimic a similar pattern.  Pretty neat stuff coming out of the mind of a fight director! Needless to say, the weaving has to happen first and boy it's a process!

For reference, each strip is 2" wide and after they've had their edges finished they'll be 1.5" wide when I finally weave them. And yes, I had help cutting out all the strips, there are 108 of them....

(Steam)Punk Cheshire Cat               Due: July 13th

I love Alice in Wonderland. Like really love it and when this came up at one of the Ikasucon meetings the whole cosplay department jumped on the chance to make our own Steampunk versions. I originally wanted to do the Duchess just so I could have a giant pepper shaker staff, but yeah... When I found out the Cheshire Cat hadn't been claim I jumped on it and after going through my giant folder of steampunk inspirations I came up with a design for the top; late night talks with my buddy Vaughn morphed that top into this.

Cheshire, at this point is going more punk/military inspired. I went a little more towards the darker side of Alice, making the Cheshire Cat an ex-member of the Queen's Wonderland military. I'll go into more detail with this costume when I have a bit more free time... right now I have a real job to get some sleep for.

First Post!

Oh geez, I started this blog back in January or February when a friend of mine suggested it (he runs Chalky Hearts!). We joked that I needed to have a place to put all the stuff that I work on so people could see, though I'm still hesitant on the whole blogging thing. For example, does anyone really wanna hear me go on and on about costumes?

Wait, yes you do or you wouldn't be here!

Aside from the posts about things that I'm working on the techniques and other random things that go along with them, I'm guaranteed to post ridiculous things. That's a promise because I'm a ridiculous person.