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The Agony of Dragon Con

The Agony of Dragon Con

September 10, 2015 /

I call this, “The Agony of Dragon Con”

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My Costume History, Day 164: Donna Noble’s Pompeii

My Costume History, Day 164: Donna Noble’s Pompeii dress from Doctor Who, made for Dragon Con 2014

So for Dragon Con 2014 I had planned to make Donna’s beaded flapper dress from the Unicorn and the Wasp. I bought everything for it, and got started... in August. I very quickly realized there was NO WAY I was going to get all of that beading and embroidery done in less than a month, so I put the project on pause, and decided I’d do an easier Donna costume.

Headed to Joann and they had a beautiful soft heathered purple stretch knit that was a decent match for Donna’s Pompeii dress. I modified an empire waist dress pattern for this, making it a little longer and a little fuller in the skirt. Otherwise it was a basic, quick project. I had some gold braid trim on hand so I used that at the neck and bust seam. Wore it with my Wonder Woman sandals.

Fun fact, I fell while wearing THIS costume (and not something more complicated??) Was walking down the (carpeted) stairs in the Marriott at Dragon Con that year and those sandals have NO grip on the bottom, and my feet just slid out from under me. Thankfully it was 8AM Sunday morning so NOBODY was out and about at Dragon Con yet and nobody saw it, not even Chase... he was in front of me and turned around and said, “did you fall?” And I was like... no, I just decided to sit down for a minute LOL

After Dcon 2014, I decided I wasn’t happy with that gold trim on the bust seam. It was very wobbly looking. I had picked up another gold trim at a swap table at GMX and it worked great for this - it was much less stiff than the first braid and sat much nicer! Got the white backdrop shoot done later that year.

I did meet Catherine Tate while wearing this one. She’d already seen me in another one of my Donna costumes earlier in the day, so when I walked up to get her autograph in this one, her assistant asked “Which Donna is this?” And she said “It’s my Pompeii dress, don’t you pay attention to my career?!” It was so funny.

I don’t have any more recent photos of it, despite the fact I’ve worn it a lot - it’s a great easy thing to throw in as a comfy costume, it never needs ironed, I can use my own hair... I’m glad I made it!

My Costume History, Day 163: Megara from Hercules,

My Costume History, Day 163: Megara from Hercules, made for Momocon 2014

I wanted to Meg as far back as Halloween 2004 - but I did my first Leia costume instead. (What a diverging path that was LOL) Decided to do it for Momocon 2014.

I made the base dress out of a purple fabric I got at Joann - the upper part of the dress has some more structure added with some cotton panels, boning and a lace up back.

Once I had the basic dress constructed, I made the chiffon layer — it’s a silk chiffon I gradient dyed, then gathered down to fit the neckline of the dress. Once I had it attached at the top, I started tacking the gathers/pleats down into the upper section - I think I redid this 20 times. It was really annoying, and if I don’t have the dress laced up exactly right or slouch or anything else goes wrong, the pleats don’t sit right. Annoying.

I left the bottom hem a little angular because I like how that looked. Took some of the excess I did cut off in the back and added that draped at the neckline w/some braided straps.

For the sashes, I found this deep purple chiffon at Joann. It wasn’t exactly the colour I wanted, but I fell in love with it. The upper small band is backed in some satin and is sewn in place. The lower sash also has a satin backing - it closes with a snap on the side, and it attaches with a hook and bar at the upper point to keep it in place on the dress. I also added some decorative stitching my sewing machine had onto both pieces. Then I took what was left it draped it down the side, sewing it onto the wrong side of the sash.

The wig is from Arda, I added a foam bump to attach the ponytail to to make it sit higher, and made the gold band out of a cardboard tube and ribbon. The sandals were my Hippolyta sandals.

Debuted it at Momocon and had to go back to my room and sew a comb into the wig to keep it on my head. Glad I had one in my kit because it fixed my problem! Loved wearing it and brought it back to Dcon later that year, and wore it to a few more cons over the next couple of years. Still have it - had it out for a video not that long ago. Not sure I’d construct it the same way today, but still love it anyway.

My Costume History, Day 162: Leia Skywalker from S

My Costume History, Day 162: Leia Skywalker from Star Wars, made in ????

Ok so I have no idea where to place this costume in my history. The photo is from 2017, but all of the costume parts - the tunic, the belt and boots, are all from 2006. So I just kinda met in the middle of stuck it in 2013 LOL

So as you may know, my cousin Kevin has been the Luke to my Leia for decades now. I’ve made or brought him several Luke costumes over the years, but the first one I did for him was the farmboy look for MidSouthCon in 2006. I made the tunic out of a cotton blend, using that one Simplicity “Jedi” pattern. The belt is leather with some found pouches and a belt buckle from Tandy. The boots are offbrand Uggs, painted and weathered, and the upper section has gone through multiple variations and upgrades - currently it’s a bunch of strips of a khaki stretch knit sewn onto a base and it velcros up the back.

At one point I thought it’d be fun to put on all of these pieces with my Leia buns to do an alt-universe “Leia Skywalker” costume. I paired it with some khaki pants I had, and yeah the tunic and boots were too big but it was fun. I wore it late night to some con at some point? GMX maybe? Some con Kevin went with us to. But took no photos, until I put it all on for the white backdrop in 2017.

The photos turned out cute and I’m glad I did finally slap it all together so I had it documented. Would be fun to actually remake this to fit me one day - but I need to get Kevin’s properly upgraded and fixed first! I’ve been saying that for years!

My Costume History, Day 161: Romana I from Doctor

My Costume History, Day 161: Romana I from Doctor Who, made for Dragoncon 2013

@lindenash had told me at Timegate 2012 “You should make Romana’s big fluffy white cape” and I said, “ok. “ I’m glad I did, because this was a fun project.

For the dress I used the basic white jetset from Joann people have used for Leia for years. I used Simplicity 9891 which was a great starting point for this - changing the shape of the sleeves a bit. The pleated panels I made separately - I sewed them onto the top of the dress then sewed them down into gathers until they fit. From the waist down I added an extra set of gathered panels for some more fullness. I was so happy with how the dress turned out!

For the cape I went with a white faux fur. I modified a cape pattern, leaving openings in the side seams for my arms and make the hood extra huge. I added some lengths of marabou to the body of the cape, and trimmed the hood with an ostrich feather boa (that was all my budget could allow for LOL). I had to wear a mask while working on this, otherwise I was constantly breathing in faux fur and feathers, it was icky!

For the boots, I took a pair of silver knee high boots and drew out a guide to cut them up to look like hers. Turned out ok. Bought the wig. The “buckle” or brooch on the dress I sculpted and Chase cast for me. I glued some fabric onto the back, slightly larger than the hard pieces, so I could sew it onto the dress instead of glue or snap. Easy to remove or reposition.

Got to debut this at Dragoncon that year, along with Chase’s remote control K-9 back again of course. Got some great photos, and wore the costume again later without the cape, where I got called Princess Leia several times LOL. I’ve worn this quite a few times since then - it’s a fav, it’s comfortable and pretty. Haven’t hard it out in recent years because that faux fur I used for the cape has yellowed and it looks weird, which is disappointing. Could still wear it without the cape though!

My Costume History, Day 160: Donna Noble’s wedding

My Costume History, Day 160: Donna Noble’s wedding dress from Doctor Who, made for Dragoncon 2013

I wanted to do another Donna costume, and I wanted it to be something more obviously “costume” and not street clothes. Out of my options I decided the Runaway Bride wedding dress would be the easiest option.

Headed to the fabric store and got a basic white satin and white poly chiffon for the dress. Nothing fancy here. I found an empire waist dress pattern in my stash and used that as a basis - I basically made 2 dresses, one of the satin and one of the chiffon, then overlaid them and sewed them together. Once I had them at that point I realized that the dress was not as full as it needed to be, so I opened the side seams in both layers and put in a godet to widen it. It was not my neatest work by far, but it got the silhouette to where I wanted.

But that brought to my next problem, it really needed a petticoat, and none of my fit the shape of this skirt. I needed something with no bulk around the waist and hips but flared out from there. So I ended up having to make the petticoat - it’s made out of leftover satin from our wedding aisle runner and some tulle I had on hand. It’s kinda shaped like overalls LOL with straps that go over my shoulder, fitted down through the hips and then flaring out with layers of tulle for poof. Again it was a little messy but we got there in the end.

I added all of the beading to the top of the dress - I ended up having a really bad cold for like a week straight that summer, so I called out of work for a few days and sat on the couch and did this beading LOL Can’t let good couch time go to waste.

I bought the veil and tiara at Michael’s and added more pearls to it, and got the shoes at the thrift store.

Debuted it at Dcon and it was fun to wear! Though I realized, my hair is getting way too long for the Donna down-dos. So after Dcon I got my Donna wig, dyed it and my hairstylist friend cut it for me. I waited til I had that done to do the white backdrop shoot - love how those photos turned out!

Haven’t worn it much since - it doesn’t fit great anymore. I could probably let it out tho. It’s already messy so who cares... LOL

Princess Leia art project part 22 - Cato Neimoidia

Princess Leia art project part 22 - Cato Neimoidia gown

Another one heavily influenced by my own costume right down to the sparkly fabric 😹

Princess Leia art project part 21: Leia’s Jedi tra

Princess Leia art project part 21: Leia’s Jedi training flashback outfit from ROS

I put a poll on my story last night asking what I should post today - more of my interpretations of costumes she wore in The Princess and the Scoundrel, or more post-ROTJ costumes? Post-ROTJ won out just barely so here is her flashback Jedi training outfit. again, heavily inspired by my own 😹

Princess Leia art project, part 20 - Leia’s weddin

Princess Leia art project, part 20 - Leia’s wedding from The Princess and the Scoundrel!

I was soooo excited to get to the wedding dress in this project – and yes it is heavily based on *my* costume version of the wedding dress (like everything I did for this art project 😹), with the details I did for mine and not necessarily exactly like any of the reference images, but I am so happy with it. It’s one of my favs from the project!

Also I will have a tiny amount of sticker versions of this with me at dragoncon - I’ll be trading my stickers for swag, so track me down if you’d like one! I’ll for sure be at the Women of Star Wars photoshoot Friday morning.

My Costume History, Day 159: Glimmer from She-Ra,

My Costume History, Day 159: Glimmer from She-Ra, made for Dragoncon 2013

Chase & I got to be part of a big He-Man/She-Ra group. The idea was to do the characters in a realistic/GoT style. And I picked... the bright pastel pink and purple character to try to translate into GoT vibes LOL

I started out making a bodice out of cotton & canvas, the outer layer is some purple suede I picked up at Tandy, and I added some art nouveau-esque embroidery to the side panels. The front “armor” panel Chase made of worbla. We carried that embroidery motif I did on the bodice onto the hard pieces - it’s repeated on chest armor, belt and shoulder pieces. The shoulders are also worbla, and snap onto the straps of the top. The belt is leather with worbla details. The gauntlets are wet-formed leather. I made the briefs & leggings out of a milliskin I dyed, and added embroidery down the side.

The boots were a pain, trying to cover them in this thick purple suede. We made the front section out of worbla, though we could not get it to stay in place over the ankle curve. After Dcon I just cut it in half so I just wouldn’t have to fight with it anymore!

The tiara is heat-formed plastic with worbla details, & my wig is from Arda - it was originally pink, but I dyed it lavender. I love that in some areas you can still see some pink so it’s got some dimension to it!

I waffled on the skirt. Did I want a skirt like the action figure or no like the cartoon? I made it removable so I could do either. I took some silk gauze and dyed it a gradient, then let it dry crinkled up. Gathered up a long strip and velcroed it to the back side of the belt, cut it into shape and beaded it. Did the cape the same way - it attaches to the inside of the bodice with a snap. Was really happy with how those parts came out so I never wore it without the skirt!

Chase made my staff and it does light up! Childhood goals! LOL

Our group was awesome, but sadly we’ve never worn these together again. I did take Glimmer out again to GMX later that year, but that was all. It’s not in great shape anymore, but nothing so bad I couldn’t clean it up to wear again if anybody wants to get the band back together...

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