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08 January 2008

Comments Off on sketchblog: belle

sketchblog: belle

sketch for my belle green library dress... i might finish this!

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Glad to finally have all of my Arwen costumes shot

Glad to finally have all of my Arwen costumes shot on the white backdrop. (Funny how the oldest costume is the most recent photo 😹)

Here’s some white backdrop content I haven’t p

Here’s some white backdrop content I haven’t posted yet - I wanted to get some good photos of these little stretch knit outfits I’ve made over the last couple of years. The Lilo and Stitch outfit was first in 2021 - it was a wearable mockup for something I didn’t end up making. I took it to Disney that year and loved it, it was comfy for wearing in the parks! So I wanted another and I wanted it to be marvel. But not finding any marvel stretch knit fabric, I made my own. Drew all my fav marvel characters and printed it on spoonflower and made it for our Disney 2022 trip. Then the 3rd version is made out of knitorious fabrics’ retro Star Wars girls print, I knew what I was making as soon as I saw that fabric! I made that one for dragoncon 2023. At this point I think I’m done making any more of these but they’ll still be showing up anytime I go to Disney or occasionally cons.

As I mentioned when I posted my white backdrop T’Lyn (Star Trek Lower Decks) photos recently, I wasn’t happy with the original wig. Just seeing it in nice photos made me realize it wasn’t what I had in my head. So I bought a new wig on Black Friday, styled it, and we reshot T’Lyn over new years. This is so much closer to what I envisioned! I want to tweak it a little more (and get better fitting ears) before wearing it again but I am so much happier with her now.

It snowed a lot here today. I will not be venturin

It snowed a lot here today. I will not be venturing out in it! So please accept this Hoth Leia pic from a previous snow. If you have a Hoth Leia costume you gotta take the opportunity to recreate the Carrie-playing-in-the-snow set photos when you have the weather for it!

I did finally get to wear Tatooine Padme with the

I did finally get to wear Tatooine Padme with the Disney cape for the photoshoot. Glad I didn’t take it to dragoncon, it was toasty!

One more 2024 recap. Looking back, we had a lot of

One more 2024 recap. Looking back, we had a lot of highlights last year, a Disney cruise, Huntsville comic expo, dragoncon, the eras tour… 💚

I’ve wanted to do this trend forever and I final

I’ve wanted to do this trend forever and I finally had Boushh on for photoshoots last night, so I squeezed this in. Can’t wait to dump more money into it as I start doing all my planned upgrades 😹 some of these old 2007 pieces gotta go!

Here’s the video recap of my “I’m Feeling 22

Here’s the video recap of my “I’m Feeling 22” photoshoots! Including She-Ra, Arwen chase dress, Ling Xiaoyu, Rally Vincent and bonus AoA Shadowcat because why not.

To cap off these rows of my “I’m feeling 22”

To cap off these rows of my “I’m feeling 22” photo sets, here’s the other costumes from 2002 I already shot on the white backdrop, and the ones I haven’t done yet.

We shot Misato (Animazement 2002) in 2017, because the pleather was starting to go. We shot Lum (Otakon 2002) in 2012 so I could sell her. We shot Eowyn (December 2002) in 2013. And Shadowcat (dragoncon 2002) was one of our earliest white backdrop shoot subjects, we did her in 2009. (And I’ve thought about reshooting her because I made updates to the costume in 2013)

Now for the costumes I haven’t shot yet..
Lulu and Lina Inverse would both need extensive major repairs, probably some new parts made too. Lulus cactaur is missing and Lina’s pleather pants would have to be replaced (they died). Urd would need alterations for me to fit it and I’d have to reconstruct the boots. Leia is MIA but if I ever find it I’m shooting it. Ocha would also need major repairs and probably some new parts made. Buffy would need pants replaced (they were the same pants as my Lina pants!) and a new wig. I’d love to shoot my first Padme lake dress but gotta think of someway to deal with the armbands - they disintegrated. Do I shoot it with no armbands, do I try to recreate the originals, do I wear the current accurate ones? (I’m leaning towards no armbands.) and my other rally Vincent costume i should’ve shot with the one I did last month, but oh well. I’d need new boots and a new tank, those are both gone, but I still have the leather parts.

This is all just blueskying, white backdrop shoot season is over now so I’m just daydreaming. I do want to get these missing costumes from EVERY year not just 2002 shot eventually! Gonna try to shoehorn more in next time we have the backdrop up.

Ok so technically this wasn’t part of the “I’m feeling 22” photoset but it is another really old costume I needed to get white back drop shots of - my Age of Apocalypse Shadowcat costume.

I made this for SDCC 2004 and that is the only time I’ve ever worn it. I intended to take it to Dragoncon that year also, but didn’t get around to it, and I ended up never wearing it again.

it’s been on the shortlist for a white backdrop photo shoot for years, since I only had like 2 photos of it - but from 2008 to 2019 I didn’t know where the claws were. Turns out I left them in my old closet at my parents house when I moved out! I finally found them when I cleaned out the closet in 2019 and at last, I had the whole costume together again.

So I finally put it on the list to shoot this time around, and when I went to put this on Sunday morning for the photo shoot, the second, I put my foot into the black suit it ripped into shreds!! 😫 (if you saw my Instagram story last weekend, you probably saw this.)

I was bound and determined to shoot this costume no matter what THAT DAY (also I didn’t want to spend any more money on this buying a new suit) so I had my Tim Gunn moment and made it work with a pair of black leggings and a black tank top with a few straight pins to tighten it up. Hey the original black suit wasn’t accurate either so who cares if it’s a little more inaccurate? 😹

Now that this is finally photographed and cataloged, I’m officially retiring the costume. Going to scrap it for parts and throw the vinyl and duct tape belt away…. Along with the shredded bodysuit! 😹😹

Next in my “I’m feeling 22” Photoshoot serie

Next in my “I’m feeling 22” Photoshoot series is my She-Ra costume! I originally made this for Midsouthcon 2002, and it was last worn at SDCC 2004. This cleaned up fairly nicely for the shoot, but it was definitely interesting looking back at a costume this old!

When I decided I wanted to do this costume, I went to our local dance store to see if they had a white skater dress - they didn’t but they made one for me! Mom glued the symbol onto the dress while it was on me the morning of midsouthcon 😹

There is so much hot glue on this thing that while ironing it, the glue melted a bit. which was great - I was able to reposition and fix things like that front symbol that had gotten a little wrinkled and/or slightly moved over the years!

Most of the other gold pieces are made of heavy marine vinyl covered in gold lamé. The gold lamé has lost a lot of color over the years and now looks mostly silver. The little wings at the top of the dress were just safety pinned on. I think when I unpinned them to iron them, it was the first time since 2002 they were unpinned 😹 I did make one small upgrade here - I handsewed them back in place instead of continuing to use the safety pins!

I think this may have been my very first pair of boot covers - as you can tell by the unhemmed edges, visible glue and holes where the pieces don’t properly meet 😹😹

The big foam tiara my parents help me make has held up really well though!

This is a costume I’ve desperately wanted to remake for years and years and years… maybe one of these days I’ll get to it!

Continuing my “I’m feeling 22” photo sets -

Continuing my “I’m feeling 22” photo sets - costumes I made in 2002 that I just shot on the white backdrop for the first time.

And this one is a bit of a deep cut - Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats. I originally put this together in early 2002, but didn’t wear it anywhere until Otakon 2002 later that year. The last time I wore this was Project A-Kon 2005.

This was made out normal clothing I bought on eBay or already had. The shoes were my prom shoes from the 90s 😹 the wig was styled with clear Elmer’s glue - I would’ve loved to brush it out and restyle, but there’s no brushing out 22 year old Elmer’s glue, so I did the best I could. Also this was the first time I ever had the holster on right thanks to @chasingphotography 😹

I always loved wearing this one back in the day, it wasn’t a costume that was done often and people always responded well to it. Plus it was comfy and had pockets! (I was really hoping to find some artifact left in the jacket pockets, but alas!)

Next in my “I’m feeling 22” series is my Arw

Next in my “I’m feeling 22” series is my Arwen Chase dress, originally made for Halloween 2002 and I think the last time it was worn was dragoncon 2003.

The only reason I hadn’t shot this costume on the white backdrop is because I did not think it fit anymore. I tried it on just to see a couple of weeks ago and 5the second that zipper fully closed - I was like oh heck yeah I’m including this in my 22 photoset. It ironed up so nicely, it’s still in great shape, just a little fraying in places.

When I went fabric shopping for this in 2002, I did not take any references with me to the fabric store, and I went off my memory. This navy blue suede looked the closest to me.😹 so I’ve always called it “my” chase dress.

One thing I try to do when I shoot these old costumes is I try to shoot them as I wore them back in the day. I iron them and clean them up a little bit, but I try not to make any huge improvements or upgrades. One roadblock I ran into with Arwen here is that I used to wear a braided hairpiece for the hairstyle. Well, I don’t have that hairpiece anymore and I did not want to buy anything new. So this is my Rogue wig, with the white stripe removed and braids added. I felt like this was an acceptable “upgrade” because it is something I could’ve done back then. Also, I did always just used a random sword whenever it took photos of this back then, because I don’t have Arwen’s sword, so that is why I have Gandalf’s sword here.. cuz I still don’t have Arwen’s sword! 😹

“I don’t know about you But I’m feeling twen

“I don’t know about you
But I’m feeling twenty-two”

For our year-end white backdrop photo sessions I decided it would be fun to pull out some really old costumes that I REALLLLY needed better photos of - and most them happened to be from 2002, when I was 22. So I called it the “I’m Feeling 22” Photoshoot.

First up was my Ling Xiaoyu 2nd player costume from Tekken 3. My mom & I originally made this for me to wear to Animazement in 2002, and the last time it was worn was for MTAC 2002. So this one had been folded up in a storage bin for a WHILE!

For my fellow Hancock fabrics mourners, this was made out of that tubular stretch knit they sold. I used that a lot back in the day. All of the decorative elements on the top are glued on, and the boot covers are mostly raw edges and just fold and pin closed in the front. Also when I went to put these now-creaky shoes on, I discovered that apparently I tucked the socks I needed to wear with these shoes in toes, probably at MTAC 2002. So these socks had been stuffed in these shoes for 22 years. 😬

Anyway, I’m so glad to finally have some NON SCANNED FILM PHOTOS of this at long last!! 😹

Ok so now let’s talk 2025 plans. I’ve gotten t

Ok so now let’s talk 2025 plans. I’ve gotten to where I don’t really like to commit to a whole lot, I like to be able to change my mind without feeling guilty 😹 but here’s 2 things I’ve spent money on already so I’m like 99% sure they will happen. I’ve had fabric for MoM Wanda for over a year, but I just bought MORE and I’m planning on finally starting on it next month. For Troi I’ve bought a pattern, now I just need to start swatching. My mom’s gonna be Lwaxana so I gotta start swatching for her too!
I’m also planning on a new Belle costume but haven’t nailed down exactly what I want to do yet. Once I do that I’ll start ordering swatches. Swatches is prob my least favorite part of costuming… 😬

10 years ago today I lost my Indy. When I think

10 years ago today I lost my Indy.

When I think about love and loss I think about this Star Trek quote a lot:

Wesley Crusher: I’m never gonna feel this way about anyone else.

Guinan: You’re right.

Wesley Crusher: I didn’t expect you to say that.

Guinan: There’ll be others, but every time you feel love, it’ll be different. Every time it’s different.

Wesley Crusher: Knowing that doesn’t make it any easier.

Guinan: It’s not supposed to.

One last 2024 wrap up post, I wanted to show all t

One last 2024 wrap up post, I wanted to show all the Minnie ears I’ve made this year!

First pic shows the recent Taylor Swift themed ears I’ve made - the Lavender Haze ones are mine, made of my leftover costume fabrics. The TTPD and Midnights ears belong to @lindenash - the Midnights ears have a reversible bow so you can have the scallops or moonstone side facing forward. Had so much fun stoning these and I love how they turned out! It’s hard to see in photos but TTPD has a sequined velvet bow and headband.

Second pic shows some ears i made for myself with my leftover retro Star Wars fabric - Leia and Padme are on the front, Rey and Ahsoka are in the back (hm maybe I need to make this bow reversible too). Then 2 more pairs of Taylor Swift themed ears that were a birthday present for a friend for the Disney cruise! The bridal ears were for @kitkatmemphis - they’re made out of the remnants of her shortened wedding ceremony dress so she could wear them with the matching dress on the cruise! And finally the last 3 pairs were also made for family for our Disney cruise as well. The Winnie the Pooh ones were my fav - my leftover Star Trek skant fabric went with the Pooh fabric really well!

I have one more pair in progress, you can see part of the headband in the retro Star Wars pic - making a pair using my leftover Tatooine Padme fabric. Should have them done in the next couple of days so keep your eyes on my story for finished pics (now I just need to figure out how to do packing gown Padme ears…)

The 2024 Costume Roundup! This year I made: My

The 2024 Costume Roundup!

This year I made:
My retro Star Wars dress, a Disneybound Scarlet Witch dress and pirate Ariel for our Disney cruise
Honeymoon Leia for HSV expo
Mara Jade, T’Lyn, Lavender Haze Taylor Swift, Tatooine Arrival Padme and Shin Hati for dragoncon

Plus lots of Minnie ears, and some updates to older costumes! If you want to read more about my projects this year the wrap-up post is up at my blog!

My costumes turning 20 next year! 2005 was one of

My costumes turning 20 next year! 2005 was one of my fav costuming years, these are all still some of my all time favs, especially Belles ballgown, Arwen’s blood red dress, Huttslayer Leia, and Queen Amidala’s parade dress.

Merry Christmas! (I really need some new Christma

Merry Christmas!

(I really need some new Christmas Day costume content to post)

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Teela

Teela He-Man/Masters of the Universe Made for Dragoncon 2003 Also seen at: SDCC 2004 Status: Inactive

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