20 posts tagged “costuming”

Jared and I were invited to a Halloween party last night (my first ever, actually) and you know I never turn down an offer to play dress up.  It was a perfect opportunity to make something that I had been wanting to make since the game came out.

Splicers.

Well, originally, I wanted to make a Big Daddy suit but that doesn't really work all that well in a party atmosphere.  But making outfits fashioned from the 40's with masks and listening to old-timey music is just as good.  I wanted to be a lead-head, but unfortunately, I found that no costume or toy shops carry plastic guns any more.  I know that California law says that they have to be some retarded color, but I guess nobody wants to bother jumping through hoops for a bright orange revolver.

Lame.

So we both opted to be thugs with pipes.

And here they are on the dress form with better lighting.  We rolled around in dirt.  Not really.

Theres still some little things to tweak, but they came out really nice for me having made the majority of them yesterday.

Okay okay, I'm far from "pro" at these sorts of things, but I learn by doing (usually the wrong way).  So I thought I'd pass on what little knowledge I have.  If a retard like me can do it, then so can you!

So we first want ti make a mold.  I'm sure most of you have made things with Sculpy or even Play-Doh, so you shouldn't need me to show you how to sculp something.  So, after that's all baked and ready to go, you have to make a mold out of it.  I have a bunch of little things with a bunch of little details so I chose to paint the rubber mold on instead of pouring and wasting a bunch.

The mold I used was specifically just for little things and it says to brush it on, blowdry it, brush on another layer, ect.  I brushed on a couple layers before I lost my patience and just globbed it all on.

..You probably shouldn't do that.

It stank.

While we wait for that to dry, let's cast from some molds that we made a couple days ago.

Oh Noes.

Uh oh.   It seems that the heat that we've been having in my town sealed up my little container.  Well, there was only a little bit left, so it'll be okay to destroy the can.  Luckily, the resin in unharmed.  So let's get to it.   Mix and pour, baby.

Setting up.

Okay.  Now go off and sew some.  You got a costume to finish in four days.

Ta da

And there you have it.  Paint it, stick it on, show it off.

Granny Polka

While my Grandmother did teach me to sew, I find it hilarious that I'm sitting down and using old crocheted lace and blanket stitches on my latest costume.  Haw haw.  Old lady techniques.

I'm not sure if I like that my costume is looking so..  homemade.  Even if I'm putting in a lot of work to make it look that way.

Jared and I decided that since I was killing off PUGs, we'll just go all out with the Xbox titles this year for AX.   So we're going to be doing one really awesome costume and one totally off the wall costume.   The latter involves a fishbowl sitting atop my head.

Since it's fabric, that means I'm back in my element and will be able to whip these out in no time (provided that I stop blogging and actually get in front of a machine).  And Chief gets to help now.  For those of you that don't remember Chief, he's the awesome little kitten that was born in my dad's Monte Carlo engine.  What sets him apart from the other cats is that he was born with thumbs and has proven to be a tremendous help with grabbing and holding down fabric.

He thinks he's people.

Chief takes over.

And Momo has been helping in her own special way.

No cats allowed

I may be stupid and stubborn, but at least I know when to throw in the towel.   Project: Unicorn Giggles is not going to happen for AX.  I know when I'm beat.  

Today I tried to put the fibreglass on it.  I spent 20 minutes outside doing this before I nearly passed out from the heat.  No thanks.

After AX and after it cools down a bit, I'll pick it back up.  But for now, there's no sense in killing myself over something that may of may not happen.

Now the only problem is deciding what we want to do to replace it.   Trusty Bell, for sure.  But what else?

When I decided on making Project: Unicorn Giggles, I didn't think that it would all boil down to making Origami.  It's looking great so far, but man, is it a lot of work.  Unfortunately, Jared and I don't have the same measurements, so I can't save the pattern that I've come up with.

D'oh.  That means there's going to be a lot of time spent with thick paper and scissors this month.

What's even more unfortunate is that Jared and I are a couple hundred miles apart at the moment.  So I'm on my own with this.

Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming.

If I pull it off, it'll be more than worth it.

Project: Unicorn Giggles

There.  With this last costume, Fanime is done.

Jet

I'm not too happy about taking on commissions.   I've never been a fan of it, and doing it scares me because people are so picky about their clothing and I can't take the measurements myself.  But I need the money and tips have really REALLY sucked lately at the bar ($28 last week?  No thanks).

So here's one of them.  It was done for a friend of Jared's and still needs the pants and gloves to be finished.

Something from Nanoha A's

For whatever reason, someone or something doesn't want Jared and I to cosplay Deathnote.  Last year we couldn't due to him forgetting parts of the costume and now this year, I've managed to lose (or rather, someone threw it out) my lace and sewn two different fabrics into the shirt without noticing.

In my defense, they were folded together.  I thought that I had just cut off a yard or so for whatever reason.  In inside light the look exactly the same.  The texture and everything match.  but when I took it outside, I was able to see that one is a different shade of white.

D'ohhhhhhhhh

So tomorrow I'll be soaking it in some deluded bleach and hoping the colors even out.  Until then, heres what it looks like right now.

Misa

Today while I was putting the finishing touches on Murasaki, I kept hearing this loud little scream.  I brushed it off thinking it was bird doing it's horrible, unspeakable business with the bees.

But after letting it go on for a good 20 minutes, I finally got fed up with the annoying sound and went to investigate.  Imagine my surprise when I found that the sound was coming from my dad's old Monte Carlo and when I bent down to take a look, a kitten fell out of the engine.

Chief Twenty Toes

I picked him up so he'd stop crying and waited around for the mother to come back and when she hadn't (and she still hasn't), I called my Gramma up and we went and got a bottle and some formula.  He's special.  :]   His eyes aren't open yet and he still has his nasty little umbillicle cord.  But he's also got 20 toes,  5 on each foot.  So it looks like he's got gigantic feet.

I've already fed him a bit and made him use the restroom, so now he's back to sleeping in a little box with pink blankets.  :]

Every time I go in to visit my good friend Jen who owns a costume shop, she asks about making props / armor.  So since I'm going to be doing a lot of both pretty soon, I thought I'd document my process.

In this one, I'm using casting resin to make the armor for Jet's belt.

Set up.

Here I've got my stuff all set up.  I've got a little boundary made of clay that they resin will sit in, the curve that I'm going to form it over and my mixing cup.

I don't suggest using a plastic cup or a straw to mix it in (it'll melt).   A paper cup and a popsicle stick is best but I didn't have any around.

Casting.

Here I've poured the resin into my little boundary.  Some of it leaked out, but it's okay, we can trim it off.   Once it sets up enough to move it, we're going to form it over our little cardboard curve..

Forming.

..Like so.   Once it started getting harder, you're going to want to tape down the edges or else it'll try to straighten itself out.   When it's all done, break it out of the mold and sand off the excess (wear a mask.  You don't want to be breathing any of that in).   Then paint and assemble how you like.  :]

Heres what ours came out looking like:

Finished product.