Local Comicon Achievement Unlocked!

Well, with only getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night this past week, I was able to get my costume done for comicon this weekend!  Here are the results:

And here are some of the others that were in my category.  The girl beside me is a tier 4 warlock!  She made her imp and she was super nice =)

I won the best in show for the Professional Masters category on Friday and then won in the Masters category on Saturday too.  I even got a little trophy hehe.

Tragically (but also tragic comedy I suppose), on the way out of the con on Friday night, my cloak got caught in the escalator!!!!! D=  I have some repairs to do as it has some rips and grease stains.  We had to emergency stop the escalator to get it out... thankfully it wasn't worse though =(

So, there are some repairs and some last detailing I need to do before leaving for blizzcon.  These things include:

-fixing the one moth that stopped working shortly after arriving at comicon

-parts around tassels having off back

-armor accents on boots

-redo wings (i'm not happy with them... they were a last minute shoddy job)

-cleaning and repair work from damages from this past weekend.

WOOOOOOO  BLIZZCON SOON!!!!!!

2.5 weeks to go to make it for comicon

Eek - I'm planning on entering the local comicon costume contest with Maghda (it's the weekend before Blizzcon).  The main reason for this is that there's a best in show prize of $500... which if I can win would partially offset the cost of making this costume -_-  I'm not sure if I even have a chance of this, but I probably have more of a chance here than at Blizzcon, even though I'm making it because of Blizzcon =)

Anyways, here are some update pics:

Head pretty much done.  Just needs grey accents along the base and gold tip pieces on the horns.

This is what the inside of the horns looks like:

It's like this in efforts to stay lightweight.... and I'm not entirely happy with the lumpiness of the final, but I'm not sure if I have time to figure out a solution.  I may or may not come back to that.

Starting painting.  Here are the arm band pieces:

Also started trying to figure out the process to make the wings flap.  Had a friend over to look at our arduino board and give us programming help.  Here's a cute little motor:

Well, I have a fallback prop...

So, if Maghda fails..... I have TURTLE SHELLS:

I'm just kidding... I won't let Maghda fail!

Here's what they look like with the belt:

The shell pieces won't be "hard attached".... I originally was going to do that, but they're just too confining that way.  They'll be suspended under the belt so they can move out and in as I move.

Oh ya, and here's a pic of more of the "belt":

Some successes, some failures

Successes this week:

Here are some of the arm cape bracer parts, all golded up too:

Also, horn gold accent pieces (yay for gold spray paint):

All of these gold things will get more paint shading/highlighting.  The gold is the base though.



Other success:  Bracers!

I did these today and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I was concerned that mixing mediums of fabric and thermoplastic would look bad, but I think it'll work.  Paint job to come when I paint all the other stuff.



Failures:

I got this fabulous pink shiny fabric which was to be those parts on the horns.

To give it some dimension, I spent loads of time sewing pleats and then I sewed the pleats in different directions.. (sorry, not really sure how to explain it).

After all of this though... it ended up looking pretty crappy.  There's just too much crinkle and reflection in this fabric for this pleating style to work...  Alas, back to the drawing board for this portion.  I put the helmet aside while I try to think of a new idea =(

Boooo RL getting in the way of crafting

So today my goal was to get my headpiece completed (in line with my calendar goals).  I usually work Tues-Sat, but this week was a Mon-Fri week.... buuuut I didn't realize that until a text arrived from a coworker at 9:40am asking where I was.  Oops!  There goes my helmet completion deadline =(

I did work quite a bit on the "horns" this weekend though.  Mapping out square-ish shapes on curved horns is more difficult than it seems.  I pinned on the shapes and practiced my tetris skills in the process:

I then created horns to go in these horns made of cotton batting to kind of give it a bit of poofiness.  I sewed between all the shapes.  Sadly my sewing machine could only really do the bottom couple rows and the rest was hand sewing.  Hence each one taking like 5 hours.... -_-

I attached that black trim I used on the arm pieces to the sewing lines and next is making the pink pointy parts and painting the square gems that go in each of the segments.  Wow.. this sounds confusing when I try to explain it.. oh well -_-

To-Do List: ftw or ftl?

So I was away from home for the last 3 days so I wasn't able to work at all on the costume; so instead, I made a to-do list to get an idea of how much is left.  It's two pages long....

And in efforts to not feel totally overwhelmed I put mini-deadlines in calendar form:

Oh, and you'll notice Comicon the weekend before Blizzcon.  That's because I'm making that my deadline if I can.  There's a comicon in my city that weekend and I think I'm going to come out of the closet in my home-city and wear my costume there.  That way, it'll be sort of a test run in timing of how long it takes to get on, makeup done, etc. as well as if there's anything that needs work before Blizzcon.

Right now I'm sitting and hand-sewing the square sections on my helm -_-

Curse you, Blizzard!

It's Blizzard's fault I haven't made any progress this last week  >.<

And this is why:

Yes, I got into the closed beta.

It is way too freakin' fun and addictive.

I promise to do more costume work this week =(

Too Big? (that's what she said?...)

I finished my first arm cape bracer.....

Obviously, it's not painted and so it's a little hard to fully visualize what it'll look like when it's done... but I'm thinking it might be too big/bulky for my scrawny arms =(  I might redo in a lighter material... blah... Thoughts?

And this is my living room.....

D=

As you can see on the floor though, I've been working on the top part of my arm capes.  Today I promised Dan I'd clean up my crap a bit though -_-

Arm armour changes

I did the arm armour (that sounds dumb.. I know) today (minus the gold pieces on the top).  At first I just did bias tape edges, but either I'm not very good at it, or it just didn't work with the shape... maybe both! So ya, I wasn't very happy with it....  (yes, that's my adorable kitty, Kali)

Sooo... I switched it up and attached a corded trim thing along the edges.  Yay trial and error.  It seems that everything I do I make/remake 2-3 times at least =(  Oh well... practice makes perfect!

Tomorrow I'll work on the top gold parts.  I did a rough sketch of it... I'm not totally happy so I'll probably modify it more and figure out what materials to make that part out of =P

Collar complete!

So this morning I went to the fabric store and picked up these two atrocious fabrics!

I'm sure the people there were judging me.  I sure was.

but ANYWAYS, I used the slightly less ugly of the two to made ruffles.  Lots and lots of ruffles.  So my day consisted of folding, pinning, folding, pinning, folding, pinning, occasional measuring, folding, pinning, folding, pinning, etc. to do this:

which resulted in this!

Yay!  So, pretty pumped I have another piece finished.  Tomorrow I tackle the helmet again!

poppin my collar.. sup

My priest t10 helm had a "popped collar" and Maghda has one too as well (sort of)!  Man, I'm cool.

So, today was working on the neckbrace/collar as you can see in these pictures (Note: none of the edges are finished.. i know i know):

I'm super happy with how the neckbrace looks... BUUUT I'm not happy with how the popped collar is connecting and how it sits.

Therefore.... I'M DOING THE WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN.... that's right.. i'm scrapping this all and trying again with a new pattern I just made (neckbrace and collar will be long strips.. not two separate sections). /sigh

Hopefully tomorrow it'll be done.  I'm also going to go to the fabric store and look for the gold accent-y stuff for the frilly edges to the collar.

I really am working, I promise!

So this summer has been CRAZY at work, but I have now begun a much needed 2 weeks off from work that are getting filled with costume work!  I haven't completed a new piece today or tomorrow, but I have been working more on things I've started.

For example, did the primer on my boots:

Also, I think I've figured out how to stabilize my helmet "ears".  Instead of just stuffing which I fear will weight them down too much, I made a slightly smaller foam replica of each side and then will stuff around that to make it more rounded.  I *think* this'll work.  It's all trial and error!

I tried to work on the base of the helm and my initial thought to use stabilizer, but was kinda a bust =( and so I just made it with the normal fabric:

And I found a trim I like with the purple... I ordered decorative nail things off the interwebz for the square goldish things on the "ears" as well. yayz!

 

Oh em gee finally

Yesterday I seriously spent 8 hours trying to get the shape of the "horns" for Maghda's headpiece.  I didn't even bother to take pictures of my failed attempts out of paper, cardboard, foam, test fabric.  In all it took about 6 tries of different templates to get something I'm happy with.  I'm simply not good at making flat objects (fabric) into 3 dimensional shapes that not only go out, but also go back (the horns stick out, but also flay backwards).

I only have the first one sewn... and I have no idea yet how I'm going to get it to keep it's shape while being lightweight enough to stay up and on my head.. but I have ideas!

However, I'm too excited with this little victory that I can't help but sharing:

Now, onto the second one!  (And then the detailing, the interior supports, the rest of the helmet for it to attach to... etc etc... YEESH!)

p.s. this is what my foam head turned out to be, which ended up being pretty helpful:

What better way to get a headform than to make it from your own!

So, it's difficult trying to create patterns off of my own head without suffocating myself and Dan doesn't have the patience to do it for me, so I'm creating a replica of my head to pattern the head piece off of.

Cardboard frame (yes, I did put my head upside down on the floor to trace it):

And then covered it with expanding foam!

I did this a couple days ago and I just foam the bottom half my head just now.  Tomorrow when it's dry I'll carve it =P

Then, the plan is to use that to make my pattern both for the skull cap thing itself, and the large protrusion things that are part of the helmet.  The balloon/bag method wasn't working out too well for me =(

No costume progress, but I became an apprentice leatherworker

I was at camp for work this past weekend (and will be there next weekend too) and our crafts for the guys was to make card/money holders out of leather (cut, carve, stain).

Here's the one I made!

Also, I was going to make one for Dan, but my coworker (also Dan's friend wanted to make another so did it for him).  He's a protoss player in SCII  ;D

Hopefully more costume progress updates this week!

One leg armor down, one to go!

Progress pic, yay!

No, boots won't stay brown, don't worry.  Details on these pieces will come later.

I thought I was done with eyelets/rivets... =(

This last week I've been working on the other black/grey pieces (shin coverings and the part that hangs down in the front from the waist).

Here's the hanging down part; it's in front of some white tights I found... it kind of looks weird.. but oh well (it won't look wrinkly like that on me).

The leg parts were a bit more tricky.  I used the pattern I made with duct tape over my leg a couple months back, but I couldn't decide how to affix them to me.  

Some options included attaching it directly to the tights, velcro, a zipper, elastic hidden under the front section, etc... but I decided on going the rivet method again... which is a TON of work... -_-  buuuuut I think it'll work the best and asthetically tie into the bodice/corset since it's done up like that too.

So, I've begun the process... but doing these stupid little holes takes multiple hours and sore fingers.

Oh ya, and then I still need to do this for the left leg D=  Oh well, I'm pretty pleased with how they're turning out, although I won't have a complete idea how they look on me until I'm done and can tie them up.

Also, I keep checking the Blizzcon site multiple times a day so I can get my entry submission for the costume contest in like asap so I actually get in this year!  Wish me luck!

Headdress beginnings

Hey, so I've not really done much costume work for the last 3 weeks =(  I've been stupidly busy... and I'm also one of those people that has a hard time getting back into the swing of things after I've taken a break (good thing I didn't take a "year off" after high school).

But alas, I did some work today.  I wanted to work on a piece that would feel significant upon completion so my next part to tackle is the headdress.  I have some black spandex that I worked with to make a tight cap to go over my head.  Took a couple tries and the opening of the back, but I have something that works now.  I might redo it though and loosen the neck as I'm not sure if wearing it all day will start to choke me >.>

The next part was working on the patterns for the crazy parts of it.  As I don't have any sort of mannequin or styrofoam head, I improvised with this balloon.  I felt the smiley face was appropriate ^_^

I swear I wasn't trying to make it look angry.  That's just for the black part in between the pointy purple parts!  The red balloon is to give a base shape to work with for making the pattern for the pointy parts as seen below:

I still need to work a bit to get the shape exactly how I want, but I'll then make pattern pieces from that to translate to fabric.  I have a good feeling about this!  A TON easier than my priest tier 10 helm!!!!!!

Not really an update...

...but here's a picture of the paper-craft ceiling cat I just put together and taped to the ceiling of the "nerd room":

Real updates to come hopefully soon ;P