This morning was the first time my feet HAVEN’T hurt going up and down the stairs in our house, and I’ve regained feeling in the little toe on my left foot. Unexplained bruise, scrape on my ankle, and spots of eyeliner i still can’t get off are still hanging around, along with a non-stop migraine I’ve had since before dragoncon.
Anyway, this will not be my recap post — I’ll do that one in he next day or so – but I did want to go ahead and do my costume lookback and talk about how they all fared and what needs updated. Here they are in order of appearance…
1. Marvel outfit
Yeah I know it’s not a costume but I did make it – and wore it twice at dragoncon! I wore it to badge pick-up thursday and dealer’s room on friday. I didn’t even think of taking it til about a week before con – I realized I don’t have a lot of opportunities to wear this, it’d be great for dcon. And it was! Super comfy and great for the dealer’s room especially – AND I got a lot of nice compliments on it.
2. Padme Packing Gown
OK NOW we’ve got something substantial to talk about.
I was excited to wear Padme so yeah I put her on first. Chase was doing a photoshoot w/a friend at Hardy Ivy that afternoon, so I figured I’d tag along and get some photos too. This ended up being the only time I wore it that weekend. (I had a “rewear” spot open Sunday afernoon and it was between Jessica and Padme – Jessica won just by virtue of being the least hot of the 2.)
So overall very happy with it. But I need to fix a few things.
First and biggest is the armbands. They themselves worked fine but they wouldn’t stay in place. I’d push them up and 5 seconds later they are slipping down.
Even during the photos Chase took where I was pushing them back up ever couple of photos, they’re slipped down below the elastic constantly.
And even more egregious example:
Basically all the way down to my elbows there.
So I need to have something they can attach to to keep them in place. At the moment I’m thinking about a couple of snaps. Yall know I love my snaps.
Second and less immediately concerning but something I’ll definitely be working on — the vest fit. It was fine standing around at home, but after walking, siting, moving around, etc, I’ve decided it DOES need some boning in the vest.
The nice thing is that I did actually prepare the vest for boning. It already has the channels in. And then when I tried it all on I decided it didn’t need it. So adding it will be pretty easy. I’m thinking (hoping) I can just get away with pieces in the side seams, but we’ll see. I’m going to have to order more boning, I’m nearly out.
Also in the realm of the vest fit, there’s a weird section on the right bust seam that sits weird.
Spot that weird lump right above the armbands on my right side. When the vest is pulled down into place, that doesn’t happen, but after walking around and sitting the vest tends to ride up and I get that weird lump. Only on that side. So that’s something I need to look at.
Also I apparently should have fully ironed the skirt before wearing and not just steamed. I thought it looked ok in the room? Of course I was sitting for about a half hour before we took these photos so some of the wrinkling could have happened then.
EDIT:
OH LORD! I nearly forgot the biggest fix I need to make!!
So right before con when I was doing the last bustle points for Jessica, I used the same button cover kit I’d used for Padme’s sleeves buttons since i had a bunch – and it wasn’t working. I couldn’t get the shank to stay in the button. I had to go buy a new kit for Jessica’s buttons.
So that made me worried about Padme’s buttons. And yep, I was right to be worried. Putting it all on at con – one of the buttons completely fell apart. I had to just use some double stick tape and try to get it to stay together.
I expect more will go in the future, so I plan to re-do all the buttons.
3. Diane
Nothing new to say here. No updates since last year. Still very comfy.
4. Bespin Leia
(photo by David Skirmont)
Wore her to the Leia shoot Friday morning. No complaints or notes here except urge to remake rising.
5. Chase’s Hobo Luke costume
I was really pretty happy with how this came out from the start, but seeing in photos with all of Chase’s weathering especially to the poncho really brought it to life.
Only nitpick is that we decided he’d use some boots he already had and knew were comfortable but the brown wasn’t quite right so maybe some new boots in the future.
6. Raddus Leia
I made this in late 2019 but this was the first time wearing it anywhere. I did take her to dcon last year but didn’t wear it.
I decided I didn’t want to bring another pair of boots so I wore my Dr Crusher boots with this. And my feet were DONE after the first big group Star Wars shoot and we didn’t do any of the smaller groupings – won’t do that again. Maybe I just need to rehem it so I can wear flats with it.
Also I was SOOOO close to restyling my Custom Wig Co wig for this costume and I WILL DO IT one day. I’m just scared of not being able to get it back into the TFA “baboon butt” style. But this ill-fitting wig has got to go – it doesn’t matter what I do, the area at my temples/ear tabs will NOT lay down flat.
7. Bob & Gene
This was a lot of fun and we’re already talking about what we can do bringing them back next year.
Yes these were just silly joke costumes which is why I’m wearing a mustache on a very obvious elastic string. But some updates I want to make are a different wig – that wig is my Ripley wig and it’s not quite right.
I also want to update Chase’s burger. We need to rethink the strapping – he’s already come up with a way he wants to redo that – but I also want to make the burger lighter overall. The front bun is stuffed with batting and it’s just heavier than it should be. I think maybe adding the solid backing i tried to avoid this year would help reduce the batting and the weight. So something to play with.
8. Jessica (and Leto)
I have very few things I need to change with Jessica. Hooray!
The things I do want to revisit are all small – first up is the bustle loop on the back of the skirt. I made out of the same fabric as the dress, and it’s already starting to fray apart. So replace that with the cording loops I started using later.
Speaking of, I need to make the loops on the arm shawl smaller – they kept slipping off the buttons as I moved stuff around.
Next I think I either need to paint or replace the snap at the top center of the headpiece that holds the veil in place. If the veil slips back you can see the silver snap more than I’d like. If it’s at least gold it would blend in.
Second – shoes – the piping came off one of the walking shoes so I need to replace that.
And then just 2 “wearing” things to think about – first I need to avoid sitting in this. We were early to the Dune shoot Saturday and I ended up sitting in this for about an hour and it got quite wrinkly.
And then I also really need to look at pics again and figure out the configuration of wearing the veils. I was constantly moving them around, veils to the front, veils to the back, getting it tangled int he shawl, making the shawl come undone, over and over LOL
But overall the bustles and “walking” version worked really well. I rarely had it in full “open” mode at the convention obviously, because I didn’t want it to get stepped on nor have silk chiffon dragging on the concrete.
Leto thoughts… he wants to redo a lot of the armor which I won’t go into here because that’s not my bag, baby. I thought it all looked cool but he’s studied the armor way more than me and he’s not happy with all of this.
For my part, I want to re=visit the wig. Obviously we didn’t get this wig cut until the Sunday before con so we didn’t have a lot of time to experiment with it. It’s a lace front, so I want to try to pluck out some of the hairs on the front hairline and try to make it look a little more natural, and give it a less “round” shape on his forehead. He also wants to give it a little more wave/curl which wouldn’t difficult (famous last words). Also going to try to expand it for him a little bit so it’s not so tight on his head. He really didn’t ilke wearing this wig LOL. The beard black stuff worked really well — though in some places it was hard to hide the red tones he still has in there.
Overall I was super happy with how these turned out and we’re planning to bring them back next year.
9. Wanda
Nothing here to talk about much either. Same old costume. I should have gone through and replaced some of the little red “mothmen” that have come off since I originally made – the skirt is missing like 3 or 4.
And of course I still haven’t done the updates I had wanted to do from last year – IE finishing the back of the damn thing.
I got distracted by the MoM suit and now I want to make that, soooo
10. Padme Lake gown
I only wore this Sunday morning to take photos in front of the fountain.
I did attempt a sticky bra in this – which 100% did not work, you were supposed to put them on and then connect them in the front. First the connectors were completely overlapping in the front so that wasn’t useful and if I moved the cups further out they would have possibly been visible on the sides. And I couldn’t even figure out how they connected together anyway. So I just tucked the connectors in and taped over them.
Dress has a few snags in it near the bottom so need to be careful about letting it drag anywhere in the future.
Anyway Chase’s photos from in front of the fountain are the only thing I don’t have uploaded yet so I’ll get to those later.
11. Fires of Pompeii Donna
I did wear this Sunday afternoon to the dealer’s room but I have no pics. Not even in a mirror pic. Lazzzzy.
12. Dr Crusher
With new wig!! Yay! I was really happy with the restyled wig!
And once again totally surprised at the reception of this costume. So many people like Crusher. I want to wear it somewhere again sometime soon.
That’s all I got for now. I’ll do the big recap post in the next day or so like I said – maybe Monday. Don’t want to let it go on too long and forget everything that happened… LOL