Post-Dragoncon 05 again

First and foremost I wanted to write about Stitch. Since I didn’t get to write about him at all while making him, since Ash wanted him kept secret.

This project has been on my mind since April, when we first came up with the skit idea while swimming at C3. I started out by finding a front shot of his face, blowing it up to the size I wanted, printing it out, and cutting it up to use as a pattern. I saved a ton of foam rubber slabs from work to make it – we used the helmet/chicken wire/batting method for Patchwork Girl last year and didn’t like that, so I wanted something lightweight, that I could carve… and plus, this stuff is free for me! We throw it away at work 🙂 So I glued several of them together, then cut the shape out with an electric knife.

From 2005: me (in my pajamas, lovely) trying on the newly carved Stitch head to show Ash. The face pieces were my patterns for the eyes, nose and mouth (and teeth).

Here’s the basic head, with the facial features pinned on. Yeah, I’m in my pajamas. Haha.

Next I cut the mouth out, and lucked out – the mouth is exactly where your eyes would be when wearing it (I thought I’d have to make eyeholes somewhere else.) So I got lucky there. Once I had finished cutting the head, I covered it in the blue fleece. I covered the “tongue” on the inside with pink fabric (I originally used leftover Hild pink, but didn’t like how that looked, so I bought something different and that’s what stayed), then cut apart my mouth pattern to use as a pattern to make the teeth (also cut out of foam, covered in leftover Padme battle fabric) and glued those in.

From 2005: Stitch's head - finished except for the ears.

Here’s the head with no ears, with the nose and eyes just pinned on.

The eyes I made of light blue fleece, stick on felt (for the “eyebrows” and the whites of the eyes), and leftover Mara Jade vinyl, haha. The nose was also foam, covered in the same black vinyl, and was the hardest part of the whole damn head. Mostly just cause I had to handsew the fabric on to make sure it was tight enough. I glued all those pieces on, then added the “tuft” of hair to the top.
The ears were tough. Originally I was going to have them as seperate pieces, because otherwise I didn’t think I’d be able to ship it (the ears make him too big to fit in any of my boxes). So after I made them out of foam and covered them in fabric (which, btw, is my least favourite part – I don’t like how I did the fabric on ears), I tried velcro, and that didn’t work at all. So, I thought, I’ll just sew them on when I get there. But they were driving me crazy, so I went ahead and sewed them on. And discovered that he DID fit in the box – his ears are a little smushed, but he DOES fit. Yay.

From 2005: Stitch's head newly completely and ready to be shipped to Atlanta for Dragoncon.

Here he is, with the ears just velcroed on. See why it didn’t work? They slump down too much.

After that it was just a matter of the bodysuit (animel jumpsuit type pattern), the gloves and the spats. Oh and the collar. The gloves and spats I made in one night, and the collar I made last minute and pinned on to her at the con. I also made a tail, but we forgot to attach it, so next time Stitch goes out he’ll have a tail.

The big point of our skit was “The Little Angel” – which is why Stitch was wearing angel wings in the skit. We originally intended him to also be wearing a robe, and a pipe cleaner halo when he came out, but we forgot the pipe cleaners at home, so he just wore the wings. They were not intended to be his extra set of arms, as I overheard someone saying, but just something to reinforce the “little angel” idea. This was doggie Stitch, not alien Stitch.
The wings were wings my grandma picked up for $1 at a church rummage sale for me. As the night went along kept getting more beat up and sad looking, which just amused us more and more. We took them off after the skit.

Leia…

My rebel uniform Leia costume from 2005.Photo taken at Dragoncon 2005.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr | Instagram

Overall was pretty pleased. Very comfortable except for the boots.
I do want to go back and fix a few things – namely the belt/holster, and the jacket. I want to completely redo the belt and holster, in leather instead of cheap-o vinyl, and have it snap in the back instead of velcro. The jacket I was originally going to remake in a different fabric, but I’m just going to leave that as is and just fix the way it fits – I think it’s still a bit too baggy around the waist, and maybe shorten the sleeve caps a bit. The shirt I need to fix, because the collar keeps wanting to get pulled underneath the vest, especially when I sit.

My Belle (ballgown) costume from September 2005.This was the original, non-upgraded version that I wore to Dragoncon in 2005.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr | Instagram

The princesses…
Very happy with Belle, except for my hair, but that couldn’t be helped (I’d worn Starfire all day, so I had wigcap flattened hair). The shoes were uncomfortable, but I didn’t have to do much walking so it wasn’t terrible. Once we got to the Marriott i took them off 🙂

My Belle (ballgown) costume from September 2005.This was the original, non-upgraded version that I wore to Dragoncon in 2005.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr | Instagram

My Belle (ballgown) costume from September 2005.This was the original, non-upgraded version that I wore to Dragoncon in 2005.Kelldar.com | My Facebook Page | Tumblr | Instagram

I think I may want to shorten the hem a little. I kept stepping on it, more than I usually do in something floor length. I think it may be a tad too long.


Snow White turned out OK – she said she shoes were very uncomfortable (no doubt, those things were way tall!) so after the masq she took them off and wore Cath’s slippers.
Cinderella, ok – I wish she’d let me put the other hoop back in the hoopskirt so it would have looked a bit more full, but she didn’t want it. I still hate her wig, haha.

Oh, best lines of the weekend:

Melissa: Did you see that guy trying to sell us drugs?!?!
Me: Um, I think he was just trying to give us a Cobra tattoo…

Cath: I was trying to think of something but I forgot.
Us: What? What were you thinking of?? What? Tell us! What was it? (etc etc, on and on)
(Emerald Rose keeps playing in the background)
Cath: I don’t know I can’t think of it!!
Us: WHAT! WHAT!
(Emerald Rose suddenly comes to quiet part in song)
Cath: (screaming, in a suddenly quiet room) I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT!!

I got a new nickname: Kelldar the Deceiver, Despiser of Younglings and Destroyer of Worlds. I don’t know. All I know is I came back to the table and they said “We have a nickname for you!” and that’s it.
I like it.