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when i was in chicago

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when i was in chicago

August 31, 2001 /

Shut up! I’m in Chicago!

I’ll be back Tuesday 🙂

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Dragoncon 2019 State of the Union – July Edition

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July 2, 2005

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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!

My Costume History, Day 190: Princess Leia version

My Costume History, Day 190: Princess Leia version 4 from Star Wars, made in spring 2018

My Leia was overdue for a remake. My 2006 dress was really starting to look like the “trash compactor” version and I wanted to a more accurate one. Picked a bunch of jetset at Joann and got to work.

Folded by fabric over to have the fold at the top and used my 06 dress as a pattern to cut it out, with the dress sleeve/shoulder set at the fold. Cut out 2 layers like this, then got them sewn up the side seams. Sewed the lining and outer layers together at the bottom hem first, then pulled the sleeves through the neck to sew them together there. Finished the keyhole in the back and added the hood and collar.

This version fit much better - this jetset was much thinner than my 06 jetset, which helped, but I also brought the side seams in and up through the torso, I’d always thought my 06 version was a little too wide and the sleeves started too low. This new one was more accurate and much less hot to wear LOL Although it meant I now had to figure out what to wear under it - my 06 dress was not see through at all and this one definitely was!

I had planned to make an entirely new belt and retire my 04 one, but I never did. I bought all the stuff, and it’s still just sitting in the closet in my sewing room. I’m going to get on that soon.

I did finally upgrade my boots, though — twice! I’d still been using my 04 boots up until this version. I got the Leanna Ellie boots from amazon, which was a great budget option and looked much better than my 04 boots. Then year before last, Chase got me custom Leia boots. They need some work, but they are comfortable and I’m glad for them. Need to take them to the cobbler soon for the fixes they need.

I’ve worn this a lot since 2018 - and since getting the new custom boots I’ve worn it even more because I felt like I need to get my money out of them LOL But it’s almost time for a version 5. This one is starting to look a little beat up - it IS almost 10 years old. One of the last things I bought at Joann was enough jetset to make one more dress, so it’s coming eventually

My Costume History, Day 189: Tinkerbell from Peter

My Costume History, Day 189: Tinkerbell from Peter Pan, for MidSouthCon 2018

I never planned to make a Tinkerbell costume - but Kevin wanted to be Peter Pan, so I decided it would be fun to do my own take on Tink.

I used my fav bodice pattern, Simplicity 5006, and lengthened it to turn it into a mini dress. I made the base out of a couple of layers of green cotton, with spiral steel boning and a lace up back. I cut the bottom into the “leaf” shapes. Now onto the fun stuff.

My main fabric for this was the silk crepe de chine from Edith that I had mis-dyed. I soaked it in some dye remover and this time it worked perfect - I re-dyed these into a light to dark green gradient, and let them dry twisted up for a crinkle effect. Once it was dry I draped it over my base dress, gathering it and shaping it until it was the look I wanted. I found some sparkly green netting that I added partially over the top and distressed it, and then added a ton of green beads across the top, as well as some little white flowers.

The dress itself was done - but I still had a lot of my dyed fabric left. I decided to take the excess and sew it onto the bottom of the dress in tiers - I really love how that turned out.

Still had one huge panel left, though, as well as lot of my sparkly netting. I decided to make a sort of side bustle out of it - it snaps onto the side so I don’t have to wear it if I don’t want to. I added a neat art nouveau style brooch at the top of the bustle piece.

Dyed the shoes and added the puffs - my wig is from Arda and I made the little bun band and added the flower. Chase was the mastermind behind my wings - we upscaled the basic Tinkerbell wing design and he used that as a guide to make the metal base. He also added fairy lights built into it. I covered them in some sparkly green organza. They connected to a wing brace that slides down into the back of my dress.

I also made Kevin’s Peter Pan costume. We had so much fun wearing these - and I LOVE how my Tink turned out. Like I think it’s one of my fav things I’ve ever made. I wore it to Dragon Con later that year and we did the white backdrop - need to get it out and wear it again sometime soon.

My Costume History, Day 188: Lucy’s Showgirl costu

My Costume History, Day 188: Lucy’s Showgirl costume from I Love Lucy, for Dragon Con 2017

I wanted to make a Lucy costume and I thought this would be a fun one. First up I made the bodice as a base - then I decided I needed some little pocket hoops to achieve this skirt shape, so I made some using scrap materials.. Got the skirt shape figured out by draping my satin over the hoops on the dressform - cut it off into a high-low skirt and now it was ruffle time!

I bought a ton of pink organza, cut it into strips, hemmed & added my silver sequin trim to one side and gathered the other. Then I started layering it onto the skirt. As I moved down from the waist, I cut the organza strips a little wider each time, so they ended up pretty big at the bottom.

Next i made the two silver sequin appliques out of sequin fabric - sewed them onto the bodice, and also sewed some of my sequin trim around the edges of them. Added the straps & sequin trim to the neckline, & the little “puff” of organza on one side.

The headdress was a source of drama & did make me cry at least once. I started out with a giant stuffed novelty crown as a base, deconstructed it, added an interior structure made of hooping, and covered it in my satin, organza, and silver sequin fabric. Added the big pearls to the side and draped off the top. The feathers I bought online - I had to link them up together to make them long enough, and I added some white floral “branches” that have more pearls linked between them. All of these things insert into a floral foam base in the top center of the headpiece. Bought my shoes and painted them.

I made a mistake at dragon con. I had stuffed the inside of the headdress with batting, but at the con, I decided I didn’t need it and took it out. So my headdress was listing the entire time I wore it! I put it back in as soon as I saw photos LOL It was fun to wear anyway — but I did the white backdrop as soon as I could (with the headdress looking the way it should)!

I haven’t worn this since. The headdress really is just a lot... like, I get it Lucy. I did think about bringing it back to dcon this year, but didn’t have the energy. I’ve GOT to wear it again one day.

My Costume History, Day 187: General Leia from Sta

My Costume History, Day 187: General Leia from Star Wars, for Dragon Con 2017

It was time to start doing Leia’s sequel costumes. I started with the blue dress for one good reason — I got this incredible wig from @custom_wig_co ! My husband helped me make a little plastic wrap/duct tape dummy of my head, we got it sent off, and a couple of months later I had this AMAZING wig in my hands that fit my head PERFECTLY. Literally it has spoiled me on all wigs before or after.

So onto the costume. The outer robe is a linen - and this is fabric number 3 after multiple dye mishaps, including accidentally setting my dyed fabric it in a puddle kitchen bleach cleaner on the counter!!

Wasn’t super happy with it but by that point I was fine with good enough. I got it lined in a scrap satin I had in my stash - I did the star shape at the neckline by having Chase make a pattern for me, traced it onto the (interfaced) lining, stitching over my traced lines and cutting away the excess. Turned out ok.

Now time for the inner dress. And more dye mishaps! My first fabric ended up being one of the oddest dye outcomes I’ve ever seen. I had panels that dyed perfectly, panels that didn’t dye at all, panels that dyed perfectly half and half like one end wasn’t even in the dye. That was at the 11th hour, so I had to scramble to find new fabric to get this project done in time for Dragon Con. (I was SO over it at this point!) I ended up with a silk that was WAY too lightweight and shiny, but I scrambled to get the dress made... only for it to end up too tight. I had to awkwardly add another panel in the back (out of a different fabric, because I was out of the silk!) and just go with it. I think it was literally the ugliest thing I have EVER made LOL

I wore it that way at dragon con, and for my white backdrop shoot, because despite the outfit issues, I still loved it thanks to that WIG! Not long after I did remake the inner dress, out of a much better fabric and I made sure it actually fits right his time! I threw the first dress AWAY!

I’d still like to remake the outer dress one day — it’s in the back of my mind for a lazy project one day.

I cannot wait to get some more pics of Morticia so

I cannot wait to get some more pics of Morticia soon. I really wish I’d carved out time to wear her twice at dragon con - but having to redo my makeup is always a big ask for me 😹

Also if you missed out on my dragon con stickers, I have them up for anyone now! You know the usual places to look.

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