Costume-Con 33 Roundup, Sunday

Still playing catch up from Costume-Con 33.  On Sunday, they had the "Miss Ellen's Portieres” competition, where entrants made costumes out of curtains.  I entered wearing my shower curtain short gown, paired with a teal cotton petticoat and my perpetual work in progress, the whitework apron.

Showing off my grandmother's sewers union pin from when she worked at a men's pants factory in the 70s. 

Sunday night was the Historical Masquerade, to which I wore Maria Carolina's court gown.  Kristen was kind enough to help me with my presentation, wearing her own jacket and petticoat combo to serve as a chamber maid.

Our presentation was a comical nonsense number that was basically me getting my maid to help me find my dog.

A portrait of Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily, by Giuseppe Bonito, c. 1770s.

I still have a few yards of this red silk left, as well as some fur.  I'm thinking that one of these days I'm going to make myself a court train to hook onto the dress, even through one wasn't present in the source painting.

I'm particularly proud of my wig, which I carted onto the plane in a gift bag as my carry on.  Well, it made it!

Ridiculous staged costume portraits.  It's was friends are for.

Kristen and I with our roadies, Bethany and Lauren.
(the gals pulling the strings to make our dog move on stage).

No awards for this one, which just goes to show how hit or miss this kind of thing can be.  Ah well.  We had a hell of a lot of fun back stage and I'm proud of how the costume turned out.  Now I just need to figure out where on earth I'll ever wear the thing again.

Costume-Con 33 Roundup, Saturday

Opps!  Going back through the drafts, I've found a few posts that really should have happened before now.  For a bit of a throwback, here is the roundup from Costume-Con 33 (LAST year) for Saturday day, which I found sitting around waiting for captions to photographs, but otherwise ready to post.

I pretty much spent the entirety of Saturday running around without a bra on.  It was AWESOME!  I started the day in my black and brown sideless surcoat with the linen kirtle, then lost the surcoat in the afternoon for rehearsals (so I was pretty much running around in my underwear.  Yay for historical costuming!)  Then put on the white overdress at the absolute last possible moment because white and me, we make messes together.  There's just something about a white dress that makes me want coffee and spaghetti sauce.

I was a part of a group for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Masquerade that was based on the fantasy novels by Garth Nix.  Super fun costumes, but I was only able to make myself read far enough into the books to be introduced to the group of characters that my costume was to represent.    We did well, too.  A presentation award for best literary adaptation and Best in Show for Workmanship.  I'm not even going to pretend here, the BiS was about 95% earned by the crazy people molding leather, printing tartan and smithing their own jewelry.  My outfit was fairly simple by comparison, with nothing terribly special beyond a bit of dye work and embroidery.  But I think it was well made and Bethany came up with an awesome design for the overdress that we worked together to make, so there you go.  I'm happy with 5% of that ribbon.

The white characters in the back row were all representations of various vocations
of Clayr, a sort of academic and future-reading sort of group.  I was personally set
to represent a merchant, with my money pouch and key.

Blonde, lol!  I am totally digging the way that light green pairs with my skin tone, though.

Stay classy, people.

Costume Con 34 in Madison, WI

*le flop*  We got back this evening from driving up to Madison, WI for Costume Con 34.  By far, one of the most fun Costume Cons I've been yet.  Major kudos to the team that put it together.  The overall con theme was "The Wonders of Nature," which I didn't personally find super inspirational, but meh.  I hardly had time to put together much of anything new this spring, so it worked out just fine.  I had a lot of costumes that were completed in time to wear to Costume College last summer, so that's mostly what I brought out here.

Friday morning I wore the 1950s Avengers wrap-around dress, minus a lot of the accessories.  I kept it simple and comfortable, since I was going to be spending the majority of my morning in ICG board meetings.  That afternoon, my costume bestie and I teamed up to present Practical Considerations for Costumers," which I thought worked quite well.  We're a good team, B and I, not the least of which because we are so damned different in the way that we go about things.  But it was funny and informative and the audience had good participation.

Friday evening was the social and Single Pattern competition.  I had picked up the pattern in time to use as a basis for my Chambord Fairy from the booze fairies group at CoCo last year, so the Honey and I worked on putting together a nicer set of wings to take along.  I brought a bottle of Chambord along to judging as my documentation.  And then found several nice people to help me drink it after the show.  

A better picture of the wings.  Each is a layer of silk gauze over habotai, spray painted in two
shades and sewn together to make a channel along the tops, through which the wires run.

Saturday was a busy day. I started in stage blacks to help with the run through for my costume bestie's entry for the Science Fiction and Fantasy masquerade that night. Tech rehearsal accomplished, I changed into the 1890s seamstress to wear for a spin around the vendor room. I picked up a hall costume award for this one, as well as a ton of compliments. People were really digging on the vintage sewing accessories I had dangling from my belt. Ooh! And there was a vendor selling vintage and damaged kimonos and kimono materials for $10/lb. That was a dangerous booth. I ended up with three little bolts of indigo and white cotton intended for yukata, as well as one damaged silk kimono with a small gold ivy leaf motif on a read background that I'm thinking of turning into an 18th century jacket of some sort. With my wallet lighter and luggage heavier, I hit a workshop on costume rendering.

I'll keep working on it.

Then it was up to the room to help the bestie paint herself black from the waist up.  A good time was had by all who got to witness her getting slathered in cold paint, and it paid off for her when her Lolth took an award for Best Group.

I'm totally in this picture.  Those are my feet as I stand in the back and hold up her giant spider butt!
See what I said about being the polar opposites of costuming?

Sunday was a fun day, with the theme for hall costuming being "peasants", I put together an 18th century costume from all the odd bits that I'd been working on over the last couple of years.  Several old Historical Sew Fortnightly challenges that hadn't really worked into anything, such as the petticoat made from poorly dyed linen and a shift with sleeves too long to fit under my other gowns.  I also got to wear the quilted waistcoat for the first time and it was SUPER COMFORTABLE!  Also, hella boosting for the bust, which was a bonus.  While packing, I realized that I couldn't find my simpler rough linen cap, so I ended up cobbling one together utilizing the extra bit of ruffle that I had cut out of the neckline of my chemise a la reine.  Since that bit was already hemmed, all I had to do was cut a crown and gather the two together, sewing them on the machine on the underside.  Quick and easy like that.  Then I realized that my only apron was the one I've been doing white work embroidery on, so probably a touch too dressy for a peasant.  I hacked up the skirt of a Regency petticoat that was made out of a bed sheet, so a super thin cotton apron was achieved.

Sunday night was the Historical Masquerade.  I waffled about entering this right up until the last minute.  What sold it for me was that, in ten years together, the Honey and I have never entered a masquerade together, outside of large groups.  So I cobbled together  close enough for stage outfit for him that he then proceeded to distress the hell out of.  Not gonna lie, I got a little weepy when I first saw that waistcoat covered in black smudges.  I wrote up the documentation in the hotel room on Thursday night and away we went.  It must have been worth it, because we took home a Best in Show for Workmanship.  TOTALLY didn't see that coming.  I expected maybe a lesser award for presentation, since it was kinda funny and I thought we did a good job of showing off the costumes without feeling like we were just spinning in a circle on stage.  I tried to make fun of the ridiculous poses you see in some some fashion plates, but then only sorta serious presentation gets 'interrupted' by a zombie shambling across the stage.  I guess all of the meticulous hand-stitching on the bodice of the dress, as well as the cap and chemisette paid off.  I *cough*  did not take the Honey's outfit in for workmanship judging, not only because it was filthy, but because the shirt and waistcoat were made on the fly out of non-period-appropriate materials, sewn almost entirely by machine and with tons of short cuts, such as unfinished button holes, non-functional buttoned bits half-assed finishings throughout.  The trousers were an older pair that was made with the intent of serious wear, but that he hates the fit of.

*sigh*  How could I refuse that face anything?
Also, am totally digging on the red shoes with this outfit.

Emo zombie.  Only historically accurate in the impression,
but I'm still submitting it for the HSM April Challenge.

Monday's theme was pijamas, and I won a hall costume award for my 1930s Lounge PJs.  SO comfortable.  I think these are going to be the go to hall costume for every con from here on out.  I did a lecture on 18th century fashion terminology, which was surprisingly well-attended for first thing on Monday morning.  I promised the class that I'll put some of the information from those slides up here, and I'll do that just as soon as I figure out a somewhat easy way to get that info off of the power point slides and onto the blog. Then all of the sudden, con was over.  I picked up a video of the masquerade, then spent the afternoon being a tourist.  We hit up Gayfeather fabrics while she was unloading from the con, then the Mustard Museum, a chocolatier, a coffee house, and I got hooked up with some Laotian food hot enough to make me cry.  It was a good day.

ASL

A bit late getting this out there, but a few weeks ago, I got to do an impromptu road trip out to St Louis for Anime St Louis.  Now, anime cons are not my usual cuppa, but I had friends competing in the qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit and I agreed to come out as moral support/gopher/roadie, etc.  The WCS, for those who've never heard of it, is a competitive thing for cosplay duos from a whole slew of countries compete to get a trip to Japan to represent their country in competition.  It was facinating to see costuming with a different purpose than what I usually get up to.  These were artists who really focused on embodying their characters and telling a story.  I'm more of a celebrate the craft of it kind of person, and only have a few character cosplays for the fun of it.  Don't get me wrong, there was pleanty of mad skills being represented, they just take it that one step farther.  All of the teams had elaborate props and stage setups, as well as well-choreagraphed presentations including everything from dancing to fight scenes!

Aren't they just amazing?

It felt like a bit of a waste to drive all the way across the state and not compete, though.  So I took a look at ASL's Masquerade info and they actually had no rules prohibiting non-Japanese source costumes.  Score!  So I brought out my Queen of Hearts costume and entered it.  A local friend also happened to have plans to be at the con, so I batted my eyelashes and G agreed to dress up as the King with me.  Now, these were never intended to be competition costumes, so I was unsuprised that out of 80 or so entries that we didn't get anything.  But it was fun as hell to play dress up for a different kind of crowd.  One thing I noticed that's different from my usual haunts was in how the average person interacted with me in costume.  Usually, I'd get someone say something to the effect of complimenting me on my costume by name in order to show that it was recognized.  But amongst the anime fans, I was addressed in character.  Like, to the effect of people holding doors and bowing and saying "Your Majesty."  Such a treat.  Note to self: more cosplay of royalty.  

Tsk, tsk.  Trying to pawn off the wrong color of roses.

Project Summary: 1920s Poison Ivy

The first costume I want to talk about from our group of Batman villains is Poison Ivy.  This was by far my favorite character of all that I worked on.  I love this color and I love this character.  Poison Ivy is a villain who wields her sexuality as a weapon.  It was a super easy choice to assign that character to my bff, V, as it is my personal goal in this life to find her costumes that show off her super long legs.

The theme for our group was 1920s reinterpretations of the characters as they were presented in the Batman movies that came out while I was growing up.  Poison Ivy was featured in Batman and Robin (1997) and was played by Uma Thurman.  

Even though her cape here appears to be a burnout velvet, I really loved the light, fluttery hem of it.
It was this hemline that helped me chose how I wanted to realize this costume.

I loved how this character was done up in such a way as to take advantage of the long, lean lines.  She wasn't super busty or showing a lot of skin.  To capture her look, I went with a long, dropped waist dress with a handkerchief hem, which reminded me of the hemline on her cloak.  I started with the following pattern:

Folkwear #264: the Monte Carlo Dress

 For period inspiration, I found this little vintage number for sale on Etsy.

I used a silk chiffon, and flat lined the bodice with silk habotai, both of which were dyed emerald green.  The only adjustment to the pattern was to change the way the straps were put together.  The bodice is covered in tiny little o-shaped arrangements of gold seed beads and the neckline was outlined in alternating seed and bugle beads.  There is also one narrow sash of beading and embroidery that hangs down from the right hip.  I dyed up a scrap of silk velvet in a darker green, and used it to make ivy leaf appliques with couched gold silk beading thread for veins.  These were placed on the left shoulder and right hip.  The idea was to be balanced, without being symmetrical.  Litlle dangly bits of beading hang from the appliques on the shoulder.  

I also cut out an 8x80" strip of chiffon with angled ends for a scarf.  I didn't want to try to pair a lot of jewelry with this dress, as I thought the beading was rather taking care of the bling factor for us.  But her neck just looked too naked without something there.

For the hand bag, I just sketched out a rectangle on a piece of habotai that I dyed gold, then machine basted it to a piece of interfacing and stuck it in an embroidery hoop.  The pattern I just made up after looking at too many art deco designs.  I sketched on four horizontal lines and had V start beading them.  The rest just sort of developed as we went along.

The gloves were white nylon gloves bought from the party shop.  Everything on the internet said that nylon dyes up just like silk, and they were right!  We set V up in a pair of latex gloves to protect her skin, then put the nylon gloves over them and started painting.  The idea was to replicate the purple and red fingers on the characters leather gloves in the movie.

The shoes were simple enough.  A pre-owned and well worn pair of strappy heels were given a new life with a coat of gold leaf.  Simple, yet elegant.  Her hair pin was salvaged from this retro iron work peacock thing that my mom has hanging on her wall.  The thing had this blingy rhinestone bit stuck to the top of it's head, and she hated how out of place it looked.  It had obviously fallen off and been hot glue back on (poorly), so I spent a fair bit of time picking glue out of the settings before soaking it in vinegar and baking soda, then giving all of the metal parts a touch up with gold leaf, as well.

Woo, look at that hemline.  I think that's my single favorite part of this dress.
Eight sided skirt, with round about 8 yards of hem, all hand stitched rolled hem.

On stage, with the Joker.

Almost Got 'Im: 1920s Batman Villains

So, Arisia (a Boston regional sci-fi/fantasy/et al convention) was last weekend.  The spousal unit and myself go every year, even though it's halfway across the country.  I've been a panelist for several years, and was on Registration staff before that.  But this was my first year as a track manager.  I shared that title for the costuming track with one other person.  I absolutely loved it.  Planning out the programming offerings really played into my compulsion for planning and details.  While I went into it thinking that being a track manager meant I could put myself on whatever panel I wanted, it turned out that my sense of civic responsibility won out.  I ended up sitting out on the panels I'm really passionate about (historical costuming, costuming to body type), and instead took one for the team and sat on panels that were short on willing participants, yet I still thought were important to be on the schedule (references & sources, OMG!shoes and documentation).  Although a bit boring, documentation is one of those things that I feel that I do really well.  So I was probably well matched for that one.  And I think I brought a lot of good ideas for the sources and references panel beyond the 'my favorite books' and 'where to buy fabric in Boston' topics.

The other big thing that happened this weekend was that I headed a group entry for the masquerade.  Now, the Arisia masquerade doesn't usually get my full attention going into it.  Following so closely after the winter holidays where I'm preoccupied making costumes for the Yule ball and gifts for family and friends, I just usually don't have a lot of time left over for a stage-worthy costume.  I was determined to change that this year, and was lucky enough to have recruited a whole slew of my locals and convention buddies into giving Arisia a try.  I'm a big fan of costume mashups that take a familiar comic book character and re-do it in historical dress.  I'm also quite partial to the Batman movies that came out in the late 80s and into the 90s.  While the movies themselves left much to be desired, I've always loved the iconic look of the villains.  And thus a cracktastical idea was born: 1920s Batman Villains.

We took these villains and reimagined them in otherwise historically accurate clothing from the 1920s.  Each of our villains took on a different style of dress, and all of them looked freaking amazing.  I got to loose myself in months of research and a frankly ridiculous amount of detail work.  As with all big groups, the major accomplishment seems to be getting everyone there and dressed at the same time.  Whereas my personal strength lies in documentation and workmanship, my weakness is in stage presentation.  Mostly, I just keep it short and simple; kind of a chance to say "Look, I made a shiny!" and then tottle off.  Luckily, I had help.  Our Two Face and Poison Ivy were remarkably helpful at brainstorming presentation ideas.  And Catwoman was stellar at setting us all up.  Have a look:

I'm writing up individual posts for each of the costumes that I was responsible for (The Joker, Poison Ivy and Mr Freeze), but until then, I'd like to share a few of my favorite shots of the group:

photo courtesy snarkyman

photo courtesy snarkyman

Oh, and since it is a competition, I suppose it's worth mentioning how we did.  I took home a ribbon for excellence in tailoring for the Joker's suit, and our group overall took Best in Show.  Not too shabby, that.  :)

And some other, more candid shots:

photo courtesy snarkyman

photo courtesy snarkyman

photo courtesy snarkyman

photo courtesy snarkyman