October EXPO 2015

I've had to take a break from updating regularly because everything got a little hectic for a while. I was scrambling to finish my cosplays for October MCM EXPO and keeping on top of university at the same time, this resulted in me waking up to work on my Marian Hawke cosplay before university, going to university and then coming home and doing things until midnight when I fell into bed. Let me tell you, spray painting armour black in a dark garden at midnight is no easy task.

The convention was really wonderful, very different to previous cons because of the people I was hanging out with. I've made a lot of new friends in the last year and I mostly spent time with them, basking in how wonderful they all are.

On the Friday I cosplayed Susan Sto-Helit (sometime called Susan Death) from the Sky adaptation of Terry Pratchett's book 'Hogfather'. I don't have any proper photographs of her yet because I want to finish the gigantic sword that I couldn't get done in time for the con. So instead, have a photo that my mother took before I left and a photograph from the con floor.

Yes I did the same pose in both.

Photograph by Ramptopsman (on facebook)

I had so much fun being Susan, I was very comfortable all day and I felt really quite powerful with the huge cloak sweeping behind me and the wig giving me so much extra height.

On Saturday I was part of an huge group of cosplayers from many different countries cosplaying from Dragon Age, all three games were represented and everyone looked absolutely amazing. There was plenty of singing since Ingrid has a beautiful voice and there are bard characters in the games and many wonderful songs, we filmed a cosplay music video, got Starbucks, took a lot of pictures and generally goofed around all day. It was absolutely incredibly.
I cosplayed Marian Hawke, the female variant of Hawke from the second game, and my little sister joined me as Hawke's little sister, Bethany.

Photograph by Starbit Cosplay

Photograph by https://twitter.com/SynbiosTael

Ruby (my sister) did so well with her Bethany cosplay, it looked so accurate and suited her wonderfully.
You can see photos of just some of our group over on my friend Ida's tumblr account, she took some seriously gorgeous photos of us and they're to die for.
We were also filmed for a video by Shades On Cosplay which can be found here on youtube.

On the Sunday I cosplayed Alak Tarr from the little known TV show 'Defiance'. Alak happens to be an alien so I had fun with stage make up to make my skin completely white, pink contact lenses and a white wig.

Photograph by Emiliadressesup

This costume was incredibly comfortable after wearing Hawke's armour all day the day before and I felt super cool wearing it. Alak is quite different to the characters I normally in that he kind of starts off as a bit of a... Tool, for want of a better word. But then character development happens and he grows as a person.

I was so happy with all my cosplays from this weekend, it's quite a novel feeling, to not be focusing on the things I want to change, update and fix for once.
This coming weekend I'll be attending Brighton Film and Comic Con but I don't think I'll write a post about it because I won't be cosplaying anything new.
Normal posting should resume soon, I'm pretty busy with university but I still have more to post with regards my stays and past projects so keep any eye out for that.

Of warlocks and pirates

A couple of weekends ago I attended London May MCM EXPO, it wasn't the best con I've ever been to but I won't get into that, what I will get into is who I went as!

You are all familiar with my Tessa Gray cospaly, if not then you can find more about it here.
I went as Tessa on the Saturday with my sister cosplaying Cecily Herondale from the same series of books. Her costume was originally going to be made by her with a little help from me but she only managed to get the petticoat done and the skirt pieces cut out before procrastination set in and exam season started, so I finished it off. I did most of the sewing in the space of three days, around university, so it's not my best work but I'm certainly very proud of it.
Ruby also took some lovely photos of my Tessa cosplay with me actually in it. Victorian
sisters-in-law kicking demon butt together!

This photo was taken by my friend Emilia

Ruby's dress is made from faux shot silk taffeta and some left over black cotton velvet. The bodice is flatlined with black polycotton and the buttons are all metal self cover buttons that Ruby covered on her own. I draped the bodice pattern myself, it's loosely based on a couple of bodices in Janet Arnold's 'Patterns of Fashion 2'. The skirt was inspired by some simpler skirts found during google images and pinterest searches. It was meant to be cartridge pleated at the centre back but I didn't know how to do it properly when I made the skirt so it didn't work. Underneath she is wearing a (ebay) corset, bustle pad and ruffled bustle petticoat.

Onwards to Sunday!
I managed to finish my Elizabeth Swann cosplay in quite a leisurely amount of time but I am just not destined to have a relaxing build up to EXPO because I spent the last week before the con madly rushing around trying to finish Ruby's costume and my wigs. Everything worked out in the end though!

The Thames looks nothing like the Caribbean but lets pretend it does, shall we?
I wore my American Duchess Kensingtons all day and they were super comfortable, even with bare feet! Not exactly accurate since they're nothing like Lizzy's shoes but closer than anything else I own so I wore them. The entire costume was really comfortable. I basically got to wear pajamas all day but they were really, really elegant pajamas. I can't wait to cosplay her again.

The nightgown is made entirely from a pair of muslin Ikea curtains so it was actually incredibly cheap (only £15) to make. It took me forever to finish it because I kept putting off doing the smocking across the front but after doing the smocking on the sleeves of my Loras shirt I wasn't so frightened of it anymore and decided to give it a go instead of chickening out and gathering it. I'm glad I did smock it because it looks so pretty.
Underneath the nightgown I'm wearing a slip made from two cream coloured primark vest tops, you can just about see its hem in the last photo.
The bedgown is made from 18th century reproduction printed cotton from Colonial Williamsburg, a nightmare to get hold of since I'm based outside of the US. I've got 5 yards of it in red too because originally I was going to use that but didn't order enough so had to buy more in blue from Renaissance Fabrics. I think I ended up using about 7/7.5 yards. It's those damn watteau pleats on the back, they just eat fabric. It's lined with lightweight calico, also from ikea. Along the front edges are sewn tea stained satin ribbon roses with green embroidery cotton vines linking them together, the sleeves are cinched up by braided loops of embroidery cotton hooked over normal (shankless) plastic buttons that I covered with the printed cotton fabric. It's a surprisingly heavy costume.

Next up, the bonnet I made for university!  

Past Projects: Louis de Pointe du Lac waistcoat

Firstly... Sorry? Expo and my last term of university got a little bit on top of me and I had to sort of sign out and focus on sewing and essay writing for a while. But I'm back now, as university begins to wind down (only a couple of weeks left, eek!), so here's the promised post about my Louis waistcoat.

I took virtually no progress photos of this thing. When I get really into a project I'm usually rushing and when I'm doing both those things I don't ever remember to take photos.

Here is the one progress photo I did take.

Here you can see a finished pocket, finished buttons and some of how I kept track of where I was supposed to be putting the embroidery (in the form of messy chalk lines).
I made several - I think - interesting decisions style wise when designing Louis' waistcoat. Firstly I wanted to make it softer than Lestat's, both literally and metaphorically. It needed to be more natural and gentle and I wanted it to have a connection to the earth and the land because when we meet Louis he is (regrettably) a plantation owner. That and the fact he has lovely green eyes are where my colour choices came from. I found a warm green silk that also happened to be less crisp than the fabric I used for Arthur's Lestat waistcoat, it's the kind with the tiny deliberate runs and catches in the fabric, a small touch that I thought perfect. The beading and embroidery I also kept in warm tones, I was originally going to use copper coloured embroidery thread but felt that I needed to lift it a little so went with gold instead. Gold incidentally looks very fine with green eyes. 
Another decision I made was to cut the waistcoat in a slightly older style. The slanting front hem of waistcoats was pretty much phased out by the mid 1790s, if it was there it was in shorter waistcoats and it was very slight. In the 1980s Louis is a bit of a tramp, not a tendency one picks up out of nowhere so I assumed he would never have cared overmuch about fashion trends.
The embroidery was my final 'earthy' stylistic choice. I wanted to imply fields and nature and at first I looked up the indigo flower which is the crop the Pointe du Lac plantation grew but I couldn't think of a way to stylise it and incorporate it and so my love affair with embroidering wheat began. 

Gasp! An unedited photo!

My one gripe about this waistcoat is that I wasn't paying attention when I drew out the criss-crossing lines down the front so they all swoop in the same direction instead of coming together at the centre front and then apart again but I'm dealing with it.

The waistcoat is backed and lined with brown polycotton. The front, collar, pockets and facings are of green silk. The buttons are metal self cover buttons which I decorated with bronze coloured glass beads, arranged in the shape of a wheat sheaf and the embroidery was done with brown embroidery cotton and gold foil covered/metallic thread.

And that concludes my posts about our Vampire Chronicles cosplays because I refuse to talk about my breeches until I re-vamp (pun totally intended) them in the future. In celebration, have some of the photos we took!

 

 

All photos bar the progress one are by YukinePhotography.

Past Projects: Claudia's bonnet

Second in my 'Vampire Chronicles costumes' series.

This bonnet is... A serious bodge job. I had some vague ideas about how it should be made, half remembered tutorials I've seen over the years. Needless to say, the base of this bonnet is an actual mess. You can't see any of that though so I still call it a win!

You guys don't get to see this inside, it's unspeakably awful what's going on underneath the fabric, so no progress pictures.
I started with a cheap, fake straw hat from Amazon and then I butchered it into a bonnet shape. This was done by unpicking things, cutting things, putting stitching in very odd places (like the join between what I know now should be called the tip and sideband) and a lot of hot glue. I used incredibly thick wire on the brim to keep it in shape. I then lined it entirely, something I rarely do with anything, out of a desire to hide all my sins.

Close up of the flowers I used to trim it

I should really have backed the top fabric, since the light shines through the "straw" and the straw can be both seen and felt through the silk.

And a picture of Erin wearing it

Despite all the things I did wrong though I'm still very proud of it. It can also be accredited with launching my love of millinery.

Next up, my waistcoat.

Past Project: Lestat de Lioncourt's waistcoat

My original title for this post was 'silly vampires and lots of embroidery' but then I decided to go for something more... Obvious...

This will be a whole series of posts about the costumes that me (with a bit of help from my friend and sister) created from Anne Rice's books 'The Vampire Chronicles'. I don't know why I haven't posted about these costumes before now, I worked on them for months. Many, many, incredibly stressful months and Louis is (I say 'is' because I am so not done with that idiot, more costumes to come!) actually a dream cosplay of mine.

I have wanted to cosplay Louis de Pointe du Lac ever since I saw the movie 'Interview with the Vampire' when I was thirteen. I mostly forgot about it for around five years, giving up on ever feeling skilled enough to make what I wanted to make but then when I finally started reading the books at the beginning of 2014 I discovered that I still very much wanted to cosplay him and that I actually felt confident enough to make the costume. My decision to finally get him done was helped along by one of my friends saying that he'd always wanted to cosplay Lestat. I roped my little sister in so that we had a Claudia and then began sewing.

These costumes are a collaboration between three people, I made a large chunk of them but Arthur also made his own shirt, neck cloth and breeches with my help and Erin made her reticule and altered her underdress (I hesitate to call it a chemise because it really isn't). Erin's dress (and the underdress) for Claudia were made for me by my Grandma years ago, I've always thought they'd be perfect for Claudia and they were.

I made Arthur's Lestat waistcoat for his birthday. I started in July and had it finished by late August, working on the embroidery everyday, almost all day. Even whilst ill on a camping holiday in France. It was the first piece that I finished.

Here it can be seen with my shirt and neck cloth

It is entirely hand sewn, hand embroidered and hand beaded (my shirt is entirely had sewn too, the neck cloth though, was not. I did not fancy roll hemming 111" inches of fabric by hand).

I did hand worked button holes, covered the buttons myself and also created the pattern. The pockets are unfortunately fake. I only remembered that it needed pockets after I'd completed a lot of the embroidery and so it was a bit too late to put them in, fake pocket flaps then occurred. The back and lining are of royal blue polycotton (should have used linen but didn't, oops) and the back laces, for some extra adjustment, through hand worked eyelets.

We decided to cosplay from a point in the first book ('Interview with the Vampire') shortly after Claudia has been made, which would set us sometime in the mid to late 1790's. I took some artistic (and sometimes accidental) license when working on these costumes but they are thoroughly researched and designed according to that time period. I could certainly make them better if I tried again now, a few months later, but I'm still incredibly happy with how they all came out.

Next up, Claudia's bonnet!

Loras Tyrell's embroidered shirt of doom

Seriously. This shirt killed me.

At the beginning of last year I decided that I loved Loras from 'Game of Thrones'/'A Song of Ice and Fire' enough to want to cosplay him and so plunged headlong into making this outfit.

Far as I can remember I left myself about two months to make it, along with finishing off my Ariel cosplay. Ambitious, yes? Overly so, I was to find out.
I never managed to get the shirt done, I didn't even finish one sleeve. Instead I opted for making a plain cream shirt and telling people I was cosplaying from this deleted scene.
It went okay, only three people recongised me which was a bit eh, but oh well!

Lots of a sad Loras mourning Renly were taken.
Photo by YukinePhotography

Then, for London Super Comic-con this year I decided that instead of recosplaying Arwen I should try and finish the embroidered shirt. It was the only part of the cosplay I needed after all (I did have his brooch for May EXPO but took it off for photos since he doesn't wear it in the scene I was supposedly cosplaying from) and I fancied a new embroidery project. I was in for lots of crazy evenings madly sewing in front of the tv, embroidery on the train, in my lunch breaks, in the morning before university. Embroidery everywhere. It was ridiculous, but I managed it!

Making all the photos in this post super large so you can see the details
Photo also by YukinePhotography

I am insanely proud of this shirt and I had an amazing time at LSCC hanging out with all the super wonderful Game of Thrones cosplayers that convinced me to join their already massive group for photos (and then later officially on facebook, I feel very special, like I'm part of an exclusive club!), many of which there were. I also got to meet some really amazing Norwegian cosplayers who I've admired for aaaages. Including the stunning Santatory who looks as much like Natalie Dormer in person as she does in photos.

Photo by Starbit Cosplay

Some progress/close up photos of the shirt...

 

It took me a month of intense sewing to finish the shirt and I was still working on it the night before but I think I learned a lot. Smocking which had been a complete mystery to me before is now just a bit pesky and my patience is generally improved. My love for embroidery hasn't waned either, I thought it would but instead I seem to have become addicted to it. I've spent the last few weeks trying to train myself out of feeling guilty if I'm not making something while I watch tv.

Past Projects - Tessa Gray evening gown

 I thought, while this blog is getting its sea legs, I'd go back through some of the things I've made and share pictures and write little posts about past projects that I finished before starting the blog.

First up is my Tessa Gray cosplay from Cassandra Clare's 'The Infernal Devices'. I decided to make her dress from the front cover of the last book, so I of course had to do a bit of ad libbing where the back is concerned. This mostly came about because I wondered on a whim if I could find any similar fabric on ebay and when I immediately (we're talking in the space of five minutes) found some it seemed like fate.

 

 I started by staring at this image for a long time, I then sketched the dress as I imagined it would look from other angles. I don't normally have to draw things out but I find that it really helps for cosplays where there is less reference, I suppose it's a way of creating my own. Then followed about a five weeks of sewing on and off before I got this... 

There are some little things on it that bug me, such as how wrinkly the bodice is but overall I'm incredibly proud of it. I learned a lot of new skills and did some things that previously scared me.

I also made the undergarments that help give me the right silhouette. I skipped out on a chemise since it's so off the shoulder and also didn't feel the need for drawers, so underneath I wear a corset; lobster tail bustle, bustle pad and a ruffled bustle petticoat. I made the corset at uni and took a little more out of the waist than we were supposed to so that I could get a more late-Victorian shape from it. The bustle I made a couple of years ago following American Duchess' great lobster tail bustle tutorial and the petticoat and bustle pad were made in a weekend, they're based on pictures of extant examples that I found on pinterest.

I made a conscious decision to offset the buttons down the back. I wanted to extend the fantasy weirdness that we get from the rose bertha down into the bodice a little, it also has the added bonus of giving me a little more breathing room size wise. Since I'll be wearing it all day at a convention I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to lace my corset as tightly as I did when I took my measurements. Unfortunately I realised this halfway through the making process so I had to get a little creative with button placement.

My little sister helped me with the roses, there are twenty three (I think) on this dress, twenty one to make up the bertha and three hidden in the bustle, we made about half of them each.

It's a really magical dress to wear, I get quite giddy every time I try it on. I think it's because I've wanted to try wearing bustle era clothing for as long as I can remember and to finally get to is just amazing.

I'm going to be doing a bunch more posts like this before I get underway with posting about new things. I feel I need to clear the decks of the older things that I'm really proud of before getting on to making brand new stuff.