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The Agony of Dragon Con

The Agony of Dragon Con

September 10, 2015 /

I call this, “The Agony of Dragon Con”

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My last new costume for dragon con this year was t

My last new costume for dragon con this year was this casual Rogue costume from X-Men 97. I was like, ohhh I could put that together pretty easily! I just bought the shirt, belt and belt buckle - added the X to the shirt with HTV. Had the pants and boots. Only real work I did here was the wig - I frankensteined 2 wigs together and cut and curled them.

Oh and the gloves were just my black canary gloves - not accurate but so close I just decided to go with them for now!

My other new dragon con costume… Lea (Doctor Lady)

My other new dragon con costume… Lea (Doctor Lady) from Space mutiny! I was shocked when @chasingphotography agreed to be Big McLargeHuge with me. My fav part is my belt buckle - couldn’t tell exactly what she had on it, so we decided to make the MST3k connection a little more tangible.

My other dragoncon project this year - my take on

My other dragoncon project this year - my take on Morticia from the Addams Family. I’ve had this on my want to do list for years, and when we went to LA to go fabric shopping earlier this year, I thought this would be a fun one to shop for since I didn’t have anything specific in mind. I could just look for fun black fabric. I ended up with this velvet motif on a mesh backing - I layered that over some black jumbo spandex, and added some distressed metallic chiffon and spider web lace to the skirt insets. I’m really happy with how this turned out - and it was a nice break from Padme embroidery for a couple of weekends 😹

A few weeks ago my mom found some of my grandma’s

A few weeks ago my mom found some of my grandma’s custom sewing labels - “specially fashioned by Virginia.” My “Mama Gin” as I called her, was so thrilled when I came to her asking for help making a costume. She was always so excited to see my latest costumes. She would laugh and say “I’ve created a monster!”

This is the first costume I’ve made since she passed Christmas Day last year, so when mom found these tags I decided I’d sew one in and dedicate it to her. She’d have loved this one.

There was some help from the beyond from my other grandma, Mema, in there too - story for another day, but I love that I have memories of them both threaded through this costume forever.

So yeah this is what I’ve been killing myself to finish in time for dragon con for the last 6 months - Padme’s picnic dress, a Star Wars costume I never thought I’d do, but here it is. I’ve got tweaks to do after dcon - what started out as a marathon turned into a slapdash sprint to the finish the last 2 weeks - but I’m so excited to wear her this weekend! It’s such a dream!

My Costume History, Day 177: Merida from Brave, fo

My Costume History, Day 177: Merida from Brave, for MCFC 2015

So I was gifted an entire bolt of green velour fabric. I don’t love the look of velour, but one day looking at it I thought the backside of it is plain enough I could make something out of it. Maybe Merida? So I decided I’d make a Merida costume, wear it to a con, and then sell it.

I made the basic dress out of the velour - though for the hem I turned the fabric the wrong way so the velour would show at the bottom, I dunno, I just thought it looked kinda neat.

For the “faux chemise” elements, I had enough scrap silk chiffon and cotton laying around that I was able to do these parts without buying anything - for the sleeve puffs, I cut the base shape out of the cotton and then gathered the chiffon over the top. For the neckline and sleeve ruffles, I made long strips and gathered them down to fit, and sewed them in place.

Added the eyelets in the front with a brown leather cord for the lacing. I did go buy some trim for the neckline and sleeves - found some gold and green trim I liked for it.

The belt is made out of a piece of leftover Boushh leather and snaps closed. I added some of the leftover fabric draped from the side, along with a green and blue scarf I thought looked good mixed in with it. The medallion is one I bought at the craft store, painted and put a pin back on.

Since I wasn’t planning on keeping this, I didn’t want to invest in a wig, so for MCFC I just curled my own hair and wore it that way. Also shot it on the white backdrop that way.

But here’s the thing... I ended up really liking this costume, it was comfy and fun to wear. So I kept it. I wore it to our local Ren Faire for a couple of years (and it was so humid my curls completely melted within 10 minutes LOL) and for Halloween a few times. In 2020 I finally broke down and bought a cheap amazon wig. I’ve gotten to wear it for a few events since then, so I’m glad I did this and I’m glad I kept it! LOL

My Costume History, Day 176: Historical-inspired B

My Costume History, Day 176: Historical-inspired Belle winter dress, for Dragon Con 2015

I had a dream I was wearing this pink velvet 18th century dress. I woke up and committed it to memory so I could make it IRL. As I was starting to plan it, I realized I could add some elements and make it a historically inspired version of Belle’s pink winter dress from Beauty & the Beast.

I found the PERFECT velvet for this - it’s exactly the colour I wanted. I made the basic dress, with the Simplicity patterns as a starting point but deviating quite a bit. Had a lot of fun picking out fabric and trims and things for all of the decorative bits - made the pleated trim out of a pink rose fabric.

The underskirt is some silk I had from a project that never happened - I dyed it pink and painted the roses on, then added the trim to the bottom edge. I made new stays out of some of the fabrics too - much improved from my 2011 stays.

The shoes were some “witch” shoes I covered in my fabrics - I LOVE how they turned out, they are so cute!

I made a little sash out of the scrap silk that buttons in the back, and a fichu out of some chiffon. Chase sculpted a little Beast cameo pendant for me as a necklace!

I styled the wig and added a bow, and she was ready for Dcon 2015 - where I forgot to wear my petticoat, and nearly had a panic attack at how hot I was, and how many people there were, and went and took it off. Bummer.

I really wasn’t happy with thew few photos I’d gotten of it. I reworked some of it and restyled the wig for the white backdrop shoot, and again for Visioncon in 2017, but I still wasn’t happy with it.

Finally in 2019 I sat down and really looked at it. I completely overhauled the closures on the front, which made it much more comfortable, and I finally figured out a way to bustle it that I liked. And restyled the wig again and added a flower crown. Wore this version to ABC that year, and out for a garden photoshoot - it wasn’t perfect but I was finally satisfied with it. Did a new white backdrop shoot with it last year, and now I finally feel like I can close the book on this one!

(Also threw in a pic of my “Barbie” variation I wore to dcon in 2023!)

My Costume History, Day 175: Donna Noble’s flapper

My Costume History, Day 175: Donna Noble’s flapper dress from Doctor Who, for Dragon Con 2015

I had started on this in 2014 but set it aside. Thankfully I did get back to it in 2015, though I started over completely!

The dress base is a black peachskin fabric, and each panel is basically just a rectangle. To do the designs on it, I drew up the design in photoshop, looking at as many references as I could. Then I printed that design out, laid it out on our glass top coffee table with big light underneath and traced it onto the backside of my front dress panel.

Once I had that guide on the back, I went over the whole thing with a serpentine stitch on my sewing machine. Now I had the base of the design set on the front and could start adding on. I got to do my fav thing - camping on the couch with embroidery floss, beads, the cat and Drag Race on the TV for a few weeks LOL.

I realized at the end that the big triangles at the bottom are actually see-through to the gold underskirt, so to fake that, I sewed some leftover gold taffeta to each triangle, covered in some scrap black organza. I also faked the gold underskirt - it’s the same taffeta, just a short panel of it’s tacked into place about 3 inches from the hem.

With that done I got it sewn to the back panel, lined and the straps added - but I still had the cape to make. I didn’t have as many references of the cape, so I guessed where I needed to, and repeated the process from the front. Once I had the cape done and lined, I sewed it onto the back of the dress.

Made the belt out of my scrap fabric with some beads added to the front - it’s sewn on each side seam, but closes in the back with a snap. Made the necklace out of a tassel I bought and beads. Bought the headbands, and the shoes. I painted the shoes gold and they are my 2nd WORST costume shoes, they are so uncomfortable! LOL

But I do love this costume and I’ve worn it a LOT. It was my default Donna costume for a while, I love it because it’s so much more costumey (and I put in so much more work!) than the street clothes outfits. Haven’t worn it much lately, but before I ever wear it again, I’m gonna replace those shoes...

My Costume History, Day 174: Captain Marvel from M

My Costume History, Day 174: Captain Marvel from Marvel Comics, for Dragon Con 2015

This was a reminder in how different fabrics will fit different even with the same pattern - I used the exact same pattern as the Leia outfit I posted yesterday (the Yaya Han bodysuit pattern) - Leia was made of a less stretchy knit, and this one was a jumbo spandex. This one ended up WAY too big while Leia fit like a glove LOL

Anyway, the basic suit is a jumbo spandex - and once I got the basic body of it put together I started seeing how much bigger it was on me than the Leia suit and started adjusting. I edited the upper portion of the suit pattern to make the yoke area - both fabrics leftover from other projects. Did the starburst same as my previous Ms Marvels.

I thought I’d got it taken up enough as I worked, but it still fit funny through the waist/hips/crotch. Took up as much as I could and then just had to leave it because I didn’t have time to keep messing with it.

Bought the boots, painted the heels, & covered them in red spandex with a side panel with gold buttons. I bought the red gloves (I already made one pair this year for Leia, not suffering through 2!) & just cut them off at the wrist and made the cuff section out of my fabric, with the gold buttons added. Made the sash out of the same fabric, & Chase made starbust “buckle” for me at the join. It snaps onto the side of the suit to keep it in place.

I did really love wearing it at Dragon Con that year - I wore it a LOT that weekend, because it was super comfortable! The boots were comfy, the suit was comfy and not too hot. It was great! But looking at pics afterwards I could still see how it didn’t fit right.

So after Dragon Con, I came home and disassembled the lower section of the suit, cut down the pieces and reassembled. It fit MUCH better - still not perfect, but an improvement. Did the white backdrop shoot with the reworked version and was satisfied with that. Unfortunately haven’t worn it since, besides a handful of videos circa 2020. This was the tail end of my comic book costume phase, so I was mentally moving onto other things. But she’s still here, may get her out for something in the future...

My Costume History, Day 173: Princess Leia’s “adve

My Costume History, Day 173: Princess Leia’s “adventure” outfit from Star Wars comics, for Dragon Con 2015

It’d been 5 years since I did a new Star Wars costume at this point, and seeing this look in the new Leia comics made me realize it was time to change that.

The jumpsuit is the Yaya Han bodysuit pattern - I used a heavy, natural white stretch knit for it. I did have to double it so it wouldn’t be see through AND I added a skin tone lining to the torso area, so this thing is heavy duty. At each seam line I added top stitching to create that piped look. I did the quilted patches on the arms and legs same way I’d done them on the Hoth suit and sewed them on top of the suit.

The brown fabric was a lucky find - it was a stretch twill, I think - the stretch made it so much easier to make the boot covers and gloves. I bought the base boots and covered them in my fabric, then made the upper sections separate. The back panel is quilted, and they close under the foot with some velcro. I did have the make the gloves :( and I added a stiffer lining layer to the cuff section so they wouldn’t be droopy.

Made the cape using a basic cape pattern, and then made a separate “shawl” piece that drapes over the top. Have never been super happy with that shawl piece, it ended up being kinda last minute, but it is what it is.

At the time I had BRIGHT red hair so I decided to do a full wig for this look. It’s from Arda and I added the buns. I never really loved how the wig looked, and last time I wore it for a video in 2020, I figured out how to use my own hair and various Leia extensions and I liked how that looked much better.

The belt is Chase’s Han belt - and that’s the reason I haven’t worn this costume in several years. When Chase wore his Han to Celebration in 2017, as we were getting out of the uber at the end of the day, part of the belt closure came off and we didn’t notice immediately. Couldn’t get it back. So its unwearable at the moment. I can kinda rig it up to stay on for a few minutes (hence the 2020 video) but at a con, no go. I’d love to get it wearable again sometime!

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