Hey if you saw my photoshoot post from Friday you might have seen me mention I wanted to do another photoshoot day while everything was still set up…
Well we’re doing it this weekend. What am I shooting?
First up – HILD!
I’ve had Hild on my list to get shot for a looooong time because in the back of my brain I’m always like “you can’t wear Urd again until you shoot Hild because Urd’s wig is sewn into Hild’s”.
So I got her out to take stock of the situation.
Overall she’s in good shape, pieces are all there. And then I tried the dress on and… yikes. I’m a bit bigger than I was in 2004 and my ass did NOT fit. LOL
Thankfully there was a big seam allowance in the back, so I was able to take the zipper out, unpick some of the pink/yellow designs and let it out. It’s still tight but I can at least get into it now. Gettiing the pink/yellow sections rettached ended up being the trickiest part – they didn’t quite match up the way they did before due to the now wider hip section, and so they’re not as neat and clean as they were before. But it’s done and I didn’t have to cut anything, so it can all go back to original if I ever need to.
The rings on the shoes need reattached, and the wig needs some love, it’s been shoved in a bag for the last decade. I guess close to 2 decades.
I took the hair bobbles out and got it brushed out. Also removed a craft foam/duct tape bumper I’d put in the back “fan” of hair that really wasn’t helping bump it, it was really just weighing it down. Going to put a new lighter weight bumper in to hold the fan up and also sew the “hat” down a little better when I put the bobbles back in.
One question that comes up (for me) when I’m pulling out these old costumes to wear again for something like this – is how far do I take the repairs/upgrades?
My feeling is keeping it minimal and keeping it true to the spirit of the original. I don’t really want to remake pieces unless they no longer exist or are broken beyond repair – even if there are pieces that I know I could make better NOW, I want to keep it as original as possible, but also cleaned up and nice looking, y’know? So it’s a fine line.
Anyway, next up I’m shooting doll poncho Leia FINALLY.
I only wore this once, at midsouthcon 2006, and since then I’ve only had 2 photos of it. And then when I moved out of my parents’ house, for some reason I left this. Only costume piece I left LOL I didn’t go get it until I think like 2016 2017? LOL
So yeah it’s long overdue. Not a lot to this one – I still have the original boots just need to dig them out, I’ll wear different jeans. I did buy some new sunglasses to go with it like the concept art, and I ordered a $5 pair of kid’s binoculars on amazon that will hopefully work for the binocs. If they are too small I’ll borrow some real binoculars from my aunt.
Next – Wonder Girl!
Another costume I only wore once (GMX 2010 – or was it 2009 – I can never remember), and that I only have like 2 photos of.
I’ve got the shirt, shoes, chestplate, gauntlets, wig, lasso and belt all accounted for. Only thing is I don’t think I have those jeans anymore. They became comfy work pants for a longtime after that and probably stopped fitting and got donated a few years ago. Will have to see what I’ve got that will work – I know I have SOME stuff that aren’t skinny/fitted jeans just not sure what because I don’t wear them often. I DO have the stars still – they’re sticky back and were stuck to the outside of a bin LOL
And I’ve got to remake the belt buckle. The original one was made of friendly plastic and completely fell apart after this con. For years I’d find parts of it stuck inside bins but I know it’s long gone at this point. I found a printable version so gonna do that.
And last is going to be Blossom.
Yet another costume I only wore once and hardly have any photos of – the only photo of I have that’s full length is this one progress photo when I didn’t have my tights yet.
I know this isn’t like a super interesting costume or one anybody really cares about but for my own “completionist” brain I really want standalone photos of it while I can still get them.
Costume is all there, even the tights – and the super shiny wig LOL
Everything EXCEPT the shoes. I used those big chunky mary janes with my first hermione in 2001, this costume, and Tohru in 2004. I loved them but one of the buckles broke. I know I had them in my oversized costume bin for AGES… but I think when I did a big cleanout back in 2020? 2019? i think I donated them. And now I’m kicking myself because now I have to find replacements JUST for a 10 minute photoshoot. I did find something on amazon that was a little more than I wanted to spend but ah well, that’s what I get for getting rid of anything.
Also of interest – the bin that had Blossom in it was one I haven’t opened in a LONG time. It also has Teela, Yuffie and Ruby Heart in it. So I stumbled into 2 interesting things in there.
First – Ruby Heart is a melted plastic mess as expected. I thought she was wadded all up into a big ziplock bag but nope, she was just stuffed into the bottom of the bin and black pleather had melted off of it onto the bag that as on top of it. It is absolutely disgusting, it got all over my hands touching it. I’m not ready to throw it away, but I did get a garbage bag to lay over it to protect anything else from sticking to it.
Second – Teela. I got her out as a backup in case I couldn’t find shoes for Blossom, so I got all the pieces out and checked over. Everything accounted for! Except that the leotard has a bunch of weird stains all over it. Those were not there last time I wore it – which would’ve been SDCC 2004 – and I’m not sure how they got there. There’s 2 big splotches right in the front, like right in the stomach area, several smaller dots all over and one really big one on the hem at the leg at the upper hip. I tried my grandma’s stain remover last night and washed it and no luck removing it, which makes me think it’s paint. Don’t know how paint would’ve gotten on it. Gonna try a few other things before I give up.
Anyway, not much to talk about this week outside of that.
I was supposed to get back to work on wedding Leia this weekend but the photoshoot stuff distracted me. But I did take some new pics for an ig post.
Saturday night we had family game night and a little bit of leftover Christmas. It was fun, didn’t take many pics.
Ash got me this for christmas!
Excited to start on it!
Cath and Rach gave us these adorable star wars coasters which I apparently only took a pic of in IG stories and don’t have it on my phone – I’ll add one later.
And Nana and Kristie got me a bunch of frames, including a shadow box, some album hangers and these mystery babies:
Kristie thought these came from my grandmother and the babies were family members, she just didn’t know who. But after everyone looked at them Saturday night, nobody knew who they were. We even took apart the back of one (professionally framed, so there was brown paper covering the back) to see if there was a name written on it, but no luck. So they are mystery babies. Mystery Babies will soon be replaced with art! But don’t know what yet.
So that’s all I got today. Rest of the week will be finishing up getting costumes ready for photoshoot next weekend, and hopefully getting back to Leia.