Today’s question is brought to you by the panic induced by trying to prepare for a local convention.
Getting my costumes ready for an out-of-town con and a local con are very much the same, but very different. The main difference lies in the fact that I start preparing for an out-of-town con much sooner, and with a local con I tend to think it’ll all be easy and I can just grab stuff and go. But it never is.
The Packing List vs the Pull List
These two things are exactly the same, really. When I’m going out of town, I make up a gigantic packing list. I put literally every single thing I can think of that I could possibly need at a con on this list, and as that item gets packed, I mark it off. Everything from costume parts to wig caps to glue sticks to cash to phone chargers.
The Pull List is the exact same. Sometimes, if it’s nothing elaborate or just one costume, I’ll just make a mental pull list and go from that – though inevitably I end up forgetting something and trashing the house trying to find one missing piece I forgot about. Worse than trashing the house, I make myself late to the con. Running 10 minutes late when you’re just an elevator ride is one thing, running 10 minutes late when you have to drive through traffic, find parking and find your panel room is another entirely.
For MidSouthCon this weekend, I couldn’t make up my mind between 5 costumes I wanted to wear. So I made a physical pull list for all 5. I typed it up exactly like my packing list – just without all of the excess makeup/repair/general travel stuff. As I pulled each costume, I made sure I “laid eyes” on each and everything I would need to put the costume on, from accessories to underwear.
Part of the reason I had to do (and usually have to) do it this way is because my costume storage right now is a mess. I have yet to actually put things away from Dragon Con last year – they got unpacked, but not PUT AWAY… so stuff is spread out everywhere. I would go looking for one piece, think of something else I needed to find, then forget what I was looking for in the first place. It was a little overwhelming, thus the need for the pull list.
Laying Everything Out
Unfortunately because of our crazy cat Luna, I can’t set my costume stuff out in the living room like I would have normally done, so my “ready room” is our master bath. I took up a corner here and set up my garment rack:
I got this garment rack a few years ago from Target – it was about $25 and made life so much easier when getting ready for a con. They have some that are even cheaper (like $10) so I think they’re a good investment for a costumer. As I pulled the main costume pieces – dresses and capes – I just hang them on the garment rack. My little bins with accessories, shoes, etc go next to it.
The Once Over
All of the costumes, once pulled, get a once-over. I check for any needed repairs and if anything needs ironed. In this case, I had some snaps to repair on Meg and some lines of fur on Romana’s cape to repair. In total took about 30 minutes. If I hadn’t double checked and saw I needed to do those things, that would now mean running late to my panels! And that would suck.
Usually most of my things don’t need ironed if they’ve been hanging, but sometimes longer things – like the train of my Anne Boleyn dress – will need ironed if they’ve been in a garment bag. So I try to go ahead and make sure those things are done ahead of time……… though I was bad and didn’t feel like ironing last night and I didn’t even LOOK at the train and have my fingers crossed it isn’t bad since I just wore it and ironed a couple of weeks ago LOL
Repairs & Replacements
While I don’t put any of my repair kit stuff on the pull list, and I usually don’t even worry with taking repair stuff with me, outside of an emergency safety pin, this trip I’m throwing my repair kit in the car just in case. At a local con last year, the back seam of my Peggy skirt started coming undone! I’d forgotten I’d unpicked part of it to put the pleat in, then decided to not do the pleat, and hadn’t completely put it back together. The only thing that saved me was the fact that a couple of inches up, I had hand tacked the lining to the seam. That kept it from going any farther. But I had NOTHING with me to repair it.
The funny thing is, I had a similar problem at the same con a couple of years before – I got to the con and tabard of my Ahsoka costume fell right off. Had nothing to repair it with it – except a piece of gaffer’s tape Chase happened to have on his camera. It managed to hold it, but I wish I’d had my full kit with me. You think I would have learned from that! But apparently it takes this happening twice for me to do something about it.
So afer the Peggy incident, I vowed to at least throw my repair kit into the car – but to also have a back up costume in the car. I’m planning on throwing my Donna costume in a bag and keeping it in the car, just in case something catastrophic happens and I need to change… because otherwise changing would involve driving home again.
So those are my thoughts on preparing for a local con. I guess I should go check my Anne Boleyn train…