Cosplaying Missy: Planning Stages

One of my upcoming projects is Missy from the Doctor Who series. Luckily for me, there's been a lot of research done on this costume by many costumers, including a friend, BritGeekGirl, who has been a Doctor Who fan all of her life. She created two specific Pinterest boards for the Season 9 and Season 8 version of the costumes:

• Season 8: Missy Costume Pinterest Board
• Season 9: Missy Costume Pinterest

Because there's been so much research into the costume --- the lines of the outift, the trim, buttons, etc., --- I can just concentrate on making the outfit without worrying too much that I'm missing "something". However, I still have to do my own legwork in finding the appropriate color wool for her outfit, a suitable left-facing cameo, and other accessories.

But, first, I have to figure out what pattern I can modify to be close to the Missy costume, which is an interpretation of a late Victorian/early Edwardian clothing. Luckily for me, I have fair number of historical patterns.

So, I went to my historical pattern bin and looked through many of them to see what would work for Missy. I came up with three possible candidates for her jacket.

All three would require modifications, but they are a good basis to start and do the modifications as needed. For now, I might start with the Truly Victorian pattern and make alterations. Why? Because the Truly Victorian patterns are really good patterns, whereas Rocking Horse & Reconstructing History patterns are often quite difficult to decipher their instructions.

For the skirt, I have a Victorian gore skirt from Laughing Moon that should work well enough with modifications for Missy's outfit.

Now, it's just a matter of creating the mockups and getting it to fit correctly and look close enough to the screen version. I still have to look for the appropriate wool for the jacket and skirt, but the mockup should fit well first. I have several months for Gallifrey to finish the outfit. It shouldn't be THAT hard? :-)

Cosplay Planning Stages

I'm starting to plan out my next set of cosplay outfits for the upcoming year. There are a number of conventions and events that I'll be attending next year, so I have an extensive list of costumes that I need to be created with specific time frames -- about 8 full costumes and several smaller costume pieces (not including props). What costumes do I have in mind, you ask? Well, you'll find out soon enough as I post my cosplay diaries. :-)

As part of my preparatory work, I started going through my fairly large collection of patterns -- both commercial patterns (such as McCalls, Simplicity, etc)...

...and speciality patterns (such as Truly Victorian, Reconstructing History, Folkwear, etc.)

I usually buy my commercial patterns from big box stores when they have their sales where patterns are anywhere from $0.99  - $2.00 per pattern.

While I'm fully capable of drafting out my own patterns, I don't like having to do it. Although I have drafted my own patterns since there was nothing even close commercially. I try to use pre-made pattern whenever possible. 

Eventually, after some consideration, I found the patterns that should work the costumes that I need to make, with some modifications.

I also dug through our extensive Fabric Stash (TM) and found appropriate fabric for use for a December event.

Now, it's time to wash and iron muslin to create some cosplay outfits!

FO: Lava Socks!

I realized that I had been so busy posting about my cosplays that I have completely neglected posting anything about fiber arts as of late. Although, admittedly, I haven't had much in terms of a lot of finished objects. Plus, as I am knitting a lot of solid color projects, it almost seems like there's no progress on some of them.

However, for now, I shall give you this one! I finished this last month (yes, I know, I'm super late in even posting about it). I bought some self-striping yarn at my LYS. They had this colorway specifically made for them -- they wanted something with fire. The dyer came back with this beautiful colorway called "Pele" -- after the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano.

It's a lovely dark grey (for the rocks) and a variegated striped section of yellows, oranges, and reds. I love the combination of self-striping and variegated colors. Plus, the yarn is really a delight to knit.

As a precaution, I took a page out of the Knitmore's playbook, and performed a citric acid soak on the socks, as a precautionary measure. It was well worth the 5 minutes of extra time to perform this little task to ensure that the colors don't bleed, run, or fade.

Then, of course, I realized that these are also the colors of the Gryffindor House from the Harry Potter Universe.

I'm okay with that.

Yarn: Berry Colorful Yarnings - Saturated Sport, Self-Striping

Colorway: Pele -- special custom dye from Purlescence Yarns.

Cosplaying Hawkingbird: Best in Show

ConVolution 2015 has come and gon, and we had an awesome time. There were a few people who recognized the cosplay, but many actually confused it with the Huntress (which is another cosplay that I want to do.) It was okay, and I didn't mind the confusion. There weren't a lot of comic book fans at ConVolution. I do hope to wear it again for Fanime, where there are a lot of Marvel geeks who attend or maybe even SDCC.

Overall, the costume was pretty comfortable to wear. I wore it for the Masquerade, out to the Dance, and for some of the parties afterwards. However, I did ditch the bow for the dance and parties, just because I didn't want to have to carry a cumbersome prop around with me in close quarters....or where I could potentially lose it by setting it down and either forgetting or someone taking it. After all, I did use my real bow for the Masquerade. I'm also really glad that I opted to not carry the sword with me as well. It would have been really too much to haul ALL that stuff around.

---

The Making of....

• Overview
• Kate's Dress
• Battle Staves
• Belt
• Mask
• Bow & Arrows

---

The Masquerade - Best in Show

It wasn't our initial intention to enter the masquerade with our costumes, but we decided a few weeks before the Con that we would.  It was a scramble to figure out an appropriate skit -- ideas were bantered about for a while we figured out what skit we wanted to do, determine what music would be best, then record voice-overs and intros appropriately. Even then, I had to put together the audio file for the masquerade late Friday evening (as the actual masquerade was on Saturday.) My Viking acted as our physics-defying ninja, but we also had to find a willing vic...errr...volunteer to help us out on stage, merely as an extra.  Things got a bit hectic in trying to organize everything, but it was well worth it.

Our skit went off with minimal issues. First, I totally forgot to wear my gloves on stage. Then there was a few missed cues as we didn't quite do extensive practicing, but the audience laughed at the appropriate times so no one really noticed. Overall, it went about as well as to be expected, so I was happy it it overall.

We won Best in Show for our skit, Too Many Archers, as well as winning a workmanship award for Best Accessories. The presentation judge told us that he nearly fell out of his chair as he was laughing so hard.

 

(Photo courtesy of Baron Law)

I honestly can't wait to see the skit on video, because I'd like to see it from the audience perspective. I was too busy concerned with not screwing up any more cues so I wasn't paying too much attention.

Here are the characters that were cosplayed by BaronLaw and I.

And final photos just after the masquerade.

 

It's not too shabby, even if I do say so myself. I will post the videos once they are available online for anyone interested in seeing our skit.