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sketchblog: notes

Blog, my art, sundowner

sketchblog: notes

February 15, 2001 /

taking notes in class

and a qudiar

art old sketchblog sundowner

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My Costume History, Day 196: Cinderella’s peasant

My Costume History, Day 196: Cinderella’s peasant gown from the live action Cinderella, made winter 2018

My mom was directing a Christmas play. It was a version of A Christmas Carol, but with fairy tale characters in the rolls (ie, the Big Bad Wolf was Scrooge). She needed more people. Thus, I was Cinderella/Mrs Cratchit - and that meant I had an excuse to make a costume.

I decided I’d do a simplified version of Cinderella’s peasant dress from the live action movie - I headed to the fabric store and found a nice robin’s egg blue cotton with small white polka dots on it. Close enough for a play costume!

Tricky thing here was that we were living with family at that time - we sold our house over the summer, put everything in storage and house-hunted through the fall. So I didn’t have all of my sewing stuff with me... but I did have this one pattern that I thought looked close enough, except that it was the wrong size. “I can work it down to fit” I told myself.

Anyway, got to work, got the top constructed and it was way too big, even after cutting it smaller. Took it up. Made a large gathered panel for the center front. Added the skirt panels and painted the flowers on with fabric paint. Added some trim at the neckline. Bleached some red cotton down to this pink and made a basic gathered apron. It was done in time for me to give it a test spin at the Ren Faire - where I absolutely hated how it looked in every photo. It simply did not fit.

Back to the drawing board - I totally deconstructed the top, took it up WAY more, and also changed that front gathered panel, removing the lower half. We weren’t going for accuracy here, so I decided I’d just do what I thought looked best, and removing that bulk around my waist was needed.

The revamped version was done in time for the play, and I ended up being pretty happy with it after the fixes! It’s pretty and comfy. I unfortunately have never worn it anywhere except the play performances and that one Ren Faire outting - we did do the white backdrop in 2019, but otherwise, it’s just been in storage. I need to wear it to something one of these days.

Well I was going to post something else today, but

Well I was going to post something else today, but why not make it a Padme row…

I didn’t share a lot of progress here of making my picnic Padme costume for dragon con, so here’s a quick recap. As always I have a much longer, more in depth write up over at my blog.

Had some fun playing dress up with all of my Padme

Had some fun playing dress up with all of my Padme costumes and my dressforms a couple of weeks ago. Fun to see my whole current collection with the new addition (picnic dress). Wish I still had my Mustafar and battle suit 😭

Photoshoot day!! We are doing white backdrop shoot

Photoshoot day!! We are doing white backdrop shoots earlier this year than normal - for a multitude of reasons, but especially because I didn’t get a lot of pics of my picnic Padme costume at dragon con that I was happy with, so I wanted to get it shot ASAP!

My Costume History, Day 195: Queen Amidala’s Post

My Costume History, Day 195: Queen Amidala’s Post Senate dress, for Dragon con 2018

When I was doing my Padme art project, I fell in love with this black & gold art deco robe. I decided I’d make it for Dcon 2018.

I got this fluffy fabric from Joann - it’s SO heavy! But so soft, I love it. Originally I had wanted to do this as a robe and an underdress, but the black-on-black silk floral fabric I got for the underdress was very expensive, so I decided to just do it as a faux underdress attached to the robe to save some money.

I used Simplicity 5840 for the basic robe shape - I made the sleeves bigger, the overall length longer and moved the opening more to the left side. And left two openings in the back for the insets. I lined the sleeves with black satin, and also backed the two inset openings in the back with the satin so they wouldn’t open more than I wanted. I added the insets made of my silk fabric to the back and the front, and added the undersleeves as well. The whole robe closes with a series of snaps and hook and eyes - it’s very easy to take on and off, which was a godsend at Dragon Con LOL.

I made the collar a separate piece - it’s built onto a black tshirt I wear under the robe. All of the appliques I made out of felt and satin and beaded and embroidered - I basically gave myself 3 weeks to finish those which wasn’t great, but my mom helped me finish them up and get them sewn on.

For the wig I had to change course at the last minute - at the time, I had my hair dyed dark brown, so I was intended to do this wig as a partial wig and work my own hairline into the front. Well I ended up having to dye my hair back to red (long story) so I had to make do with what I had because I didn’t have time to order something else. Built the wig shape up with foam, covered in hair, with a piece Chase made for me in the front. It turned out ok but I’m still not all that happy with the shape, want to redo it again one of these days.

Wore it Dragon Con, did the white backdrop shoot, and I’ve worn it to a few events too. Its a good easy Amidala costume to bust out because it’s so easy to get in and out of. Just wish the makeup didn’t take so long!

My Costume History, Day 194: General Leia from Sta

My Costume History, Day 194: General Leia from Star Wars: TLJ, for Dragon con 2018

Next in my Leia mission I wanted to do the Crait look. This was my fav of her sequel era costumes. Went to Atlanta for a weekend earlier in 2018, so I picked up all of my fabric while I was there.

The underdress was the easy part - I used the same pattern I’d used for remaking my TFA underdress the year before. I used this black and silver glitter open weave fabric - I lined it in black cotton so it wouldn’t be see through. I love the glitter sparkle effect on it.

For the robe, I did a couple of mock-ups first, because I only had a set amount of fabric that I’d bought in Atlanta. Once I was happy with my mockup I took it apart to use as a pattern... and I didn’t have enough fabric. Oops. I had to add a back seam and change the shape of the sleeves to get it to fit. I interfaced the front panels and lined the sleeves with a dark grey satin. I was... decently happy with it but I was already plotting version 2.

The wig I 2 grey wigs I bought online, sewed together and styled. Initially I did the back as a row of buns and the way I did it was very heavy. I also wasn’t happy with the bright silver of the wigs, and tried to darken it with markers before Dragon Con but it didn’t do much.

So I wore version 1 at Dragon Con and was... meh about it. I had a horrible migraine that morning and the wig was killing me, I wasn’t happy with the robe, it wasn’t a great experience.

So the next year I made version 2. I found a new fabric - this one has a much better weight and didn’t need all of that awkward interfacing. I used my original mockup pieces as patterns where I could and for ones I’d lost I laid out my version 1 robe and copied the shape. I’m REALLY happy with how version 2 turned out. It’s heavy AF but it looks much better.

I also took apart the wig, got it dyed to a colour I was happy with, and restyled it to be lighter weight. Huge improvement! Brought it back to Dragon Con 2019 and then did the white backdrop shoot later that year. I’m very satisfied with version 2 and glad I went ahead and made myself do the upgrades right away!

My Costume History, Day 193: Kate from the B-52s L

My Costume History, Day 193: Kate from the B-52s Love Shack video, for Dragon con 2018

The first concert I ever asked to go to was the B-52s Cosmic Thing tour. That video is imprinted in my brain. So one day when I saw the video out in the wild, I was like, I should totally make Kate’s little orange fringe outfit for dcon.

I bought an orange satin at Joann, and a ton of fringe online. Once I had them both in hand, they didn’t match, and I felt like my satin was a little too yellow-y orange (like a high vis safety vest orange LOL) and I wanted it to be warmer. So I dyed the satin with some DyeMore and it came out perfectly. I then dyed the fringe to match as well - it just needed to be a little more red.

I made the top using my fav bodice pattern, Simplicity 5006, adding straps, bra cups, boning and a lace-up back, lined in cotton. I made the shorts using Simplicity 8196 - these worked great out of the box!

Then I sat and sewed fringe on - I did a lot of it by hand - I think the only part I was able to do on the machine was parts of the shorts.

I had a friend style my wig - it was huge, I loved it! After its first outing at Dragon Con it was pretty beat up though, and I felt like it was a little too long on me, so since I needed to recurl it for the white backdrop shoot, I also took a couple of inches off at the same time. The earrings came from the wig store, and the shoes - oh the shoes LOL

So I found some shoes I liked for this at the thrift store. I painted them gold and they were good to go, right? Well guess who never tried them on before dragon con? Got there and they were like boats on my feet. I tried to wear them and they would not stay on my feet LOL So when we shot this on the backdrop, I wore my Donna Noble gold shoes with it instead. I hate those shoes - but they at least stay on my feet.

Did the white backdrop shoot after Dragon Con - and I haven’t worn this since, except for a costume video back in 2020 when I was bored one day. I keep saying I’m going to bring it back to dragon con, but it never makes the cut. I’ll drag it out of retirement one of these days.

My Costume History, Day 192: Carrie Fisher for Dra

My Costume History, Day 192: Carrie Fisher for Dragon con 2018

I don’t know, I just got it my head that I wanted to make a giant Gary purse, and I could put together a Carrie look to go with it for a comfortable Dragon Con costume. I picked this outfit she wore on GMA and started shopping. I found a basic black knit dress that worked fine (and is super soft and comfy!), and a pink button up sweater. Bought some rose appliques and added them to the sweater. Used tights I had and I ended up picking these black shoes with silver glitter to wear with it - it’s not exactly what she was wearing with this, but I thought the silver glitter was too cute to pass up.

I bought the wig online, cut and styled it - more on that later. Bought the glasses and painted them.

Gary was the biggest part of this project though. I sketched up what I wanted to make, then glued together a few blocks of upholstery foam and started carving. Once I had his basic shape, I covered it in black felt. I added some details like his ears separately - also made of the foam covered in felt. Then I started needle felting in the details. I’m not the best at needle felting and it was a lot of ground to cover, so I just did my best. I bought the eyes online, and Chase sculpted the nose for me. Added his tongue and the pink parts of his ears, bought the collar and had a tag made that said Gary.

As I mentioned, Gary was supposed to be a purse. But when it came time to carve in the space for that... I just couldn’t do it. I decided I’d do it later. Of course I never did. Gary is just a big prop and incapable of carrying my phone LOL

I had fun in this at Dragon Con -it was a great late night costume. The next year I wanted to bring it back, but I decided I wanted to upgrade the wig. I’d had great success dyeing my Crait Leia wig earlier that summer, so I decided to repeat it for this wig, to give it some more dimension and look more natural. Well I totally messed it up and had to find the original wig and buy and new one and at the last minute before dcon quickly cut & style it again LMAO Did NOT attempt dyeing it again!

Anyway, this was a fun one & Gary is now the guardian of my costume closet.

My Costume History, Day 191: Garth from Wayne’s Wo

My Costume History, Day 191: Garth from Wayne’s World for Dragon con 2018

I have no business letting this costume have its own dedicated post - it should’ve been in the last “casual costume” round-up I did a couple of weeks ago. I do not know why I set this up this way a year ago when I made these, but I’m locked into it now because I don’t have another “casual costume” post coming up to stick this in!

Ash and I decided to do Wayne and Garth as a fun late night costume duo at Dragon Con that year. I got the jeans at goodwill and ripped up the knees. Bought the plaid shirt online and the t-shirt on etsy. And when the shirt came, they accidentally sent me the wrong size - they sent me one way too big. I let them know, and they sent me the correct one... but never asked for the wrong one back. So now I have two identical Aerosmith shirts in my dresser, one for this costume and one I sleep in LOL

I used my some black glitter Converse I’d already bought for another costume (talk about that tomorrow), and the wig was a cheap costume wig — it was originally the live action Alice from the Tim Burton movies LOL. I trimmed and teased it. Bought the glasses online. I also sewed a weft of hair to the inside of Ash’s Wayne hat so she wouldn’t have to wear a wig LOL

These were really fun to wear at Dcon. SO comfy and the pockets on those jeans are insane. They are men’s jeans, so the pockets go all the way down nearly to the knee?? I can fit so much dragon con swag and random stuff in there LOL Because of that I ended up taking it back to Dragon Con several more times as a late night costume. (And because nobody recognizes me in this, which is fun). I’ve also worn it for Halloween several times and it did get a white backdrop shoot, even though I made nothing here except styling a wig and tearing up some pants LOL But I do also think it’s nice to show that you can spend months working on one costume and then sometimes you just buy a bunch of stuff and it’s equally as fun. All costumes are valid!

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