Building a Suit for SDCC: Lazarus

Now that SDCC is over, I can finally reveal the cosplay that I had been working on two months leading up to SDCC.

Our group was doing a tribute to David Bowie at the SDCC masquerade, and I was going to be his final incarnation, Lazarus, from the Black Star album.

It's not your typical cosplay outfit, but one that I enjoyed making. I'm a big fan of David Bowie and making this outfit was somewhat cathartic.

Insofar as costumes, it's not the most difficult one I've ever made, but it was time consuming...as three-piece suits generally have quite a bit of tailoring. An added benefit is that I'll be able to wear this outfit outside of any convention.

• Slacks
• Waistcoat
• Jacket
• Shirt 

In addition to his suit, there were a few other things that I needed to create --- his hair as well as the blindfold.

The hair was a bit of a challenge since Bowie's hair is shaved along the sides. I thought some of that could at least be mitigated using the blindfold. I purchased a lace-front wig from Arda Wigs and did a bit of styling -- mostly to have the hair standup along the crown.

The blindfold was a bit trickier only because I needed to be able to SEE well enough on stage to walk around and perform without falling over. I found some light weight gauze at the fabric store that I cut into a long strip.

After wrapping my head while wearing the wig, I marked out where the "eyes" should go that would look about "right" but still allow me to see well enough on stage.

The last thing I needed was the Black Star "bible" that Lazarus carries around.

It looked to be about the size of a trade paperback. So, I took one of the books on my "To Read" stack and drew out a paper template, and traced it on some leather that was in my Leather Stash. My intent was to make a book "cover" that I could use for any book the size of a trade paperback.

I used some matte board to stiffen the sides, and used BARGE glue to attach it to the leather.

After making the book cover. I drew a perfect 5-pointed star, transferred it to suede leather, and attached it to the front of the book.

I'll have a few more posts on our group, video, and other photos.

Building Suit for SDCC: Waistcoat

In planning this costume out, I thought that the smallest piece of the suit --- the waistcoat --- would be the most straightforward to sew first. After all, I've made myself several different waistcoats and they all follow the same patterning. It was just a matter of tailoring it to my measurements.

For this character, I needed to make a waistcoat with lapels. I decided to use a pattern I've used before, except I had made the versions without lapels.

Previously, I had already copied the main pattern pieces out to brown butcher paper and needed to copy the patterns for the lapels and collar.

I decided to make a mockup so I could better understand the collar and lapel structure. I played around with different lapel sizes to find a size preference.

In the course of following the pattern instructions, I realized that the pockets in the front of the pattern were FAKE! I was severely disappointed by this fact and decided to turn the faux-pockets into real welt pockets.

Once the fashion shell of the front half of the jacket was completed, I cut out a suitable pocket lining and drew the welt lines on it. Basted down the welt flap to the fashion shell.

Added a suitable pocket lining and redrew the lines. 

Sewed along the drawn lines and then CUT in between.

Pushed everything through hole I cut and then sewed the edges of the welt along the side. I was left with a 3.5" deep pocket. (On the inside, I sewed the edges and bottoms of my pocket fabric)

If you want to learn how to make a welt pocket, check out this tutorial. Mine is slightly different, but the concepts are the same.

Here's the final waistcoat. I still have to add buttons for it, but I want the buttons on the jacket and waistcoat to match so I'm going to wait until the jacket is also completed so I can just do a production run of buttons.

For a complete list of elements for this outfit:

• Slacks
• Waistcoat
• Jacket
• Shirt 
• Final Props

Building a Suit for SDCC

It's nearly time for San Diego ComiCon, and I've been working diligently on my latest cosplay outfit for the Masquerade. Much like previous years, it's a SOOPER SEEKREET project, but I can give you details without giving away the surprise.

This costume is going to be a change for me, because unlike previous cosplay outfits, I will be able to wear this outfit on a regular basis, even for work. Additionally, I don't have to do a lot of extra custom work because I've already made parts of this outfit for other costumes, which means no unnecessary mockups and I just need to follow the pattern instructions and my own notes.

FIRST, the costume: The "costume" be a three-piece suit, which won't be quite matching in style, but I'll be using similar and matching fabric. Photos of the character seem to indicate this is the case.

SECOND, the patterns: As mentioned previously, I've already made much of this suit for other purposes, so I don't have to actually do much in terms of mockups, custom alterations, etc.  I will have to sew 1.5 items that I haven't created before, so there will be some work to do.

For the waistcoat, I've previously made the non-collared version of the pattern, but for this new one, I'll be adding the lapels. The only pattern I haven't yet made is a button-down shirt. I'm using this McCalls pattern for it.

LAST: the fabric! For this particular outfit, I'm going with a linen blend, because photos of said outfit appear to be linen. However, I chose a linen blend because I hate ironing linen --- it wrinkles if you look at it wrong.  Also, I'm choosing two different types of black linen because photos of said character show a slightly different texture/light reflection between the coat and pants.

For the jacket, I've chosen a black hopsack linen (55% linen / 45% rayon). Hopsack is a type of weave that looks like basket weave, and is not as "formal" as a plain weave. It's used for more "informal" blazers and jackets especially light summer blazers.

The next fabric is for the pants and waistcoat, which is a 53% linen / 47 % rayon, which I'll be using for the waistcoat and matching pants.

The last bit of fabric that I'm going to be using is for the shirt:

I've already washed it twice in hot water and it's turning into a very soft fabric and will make a lovely shirt.

MORE TO COME....

Phat Lewts: Loot Crate For Fan Girls

While I was at San Diego ComicCon this year, we might have done a bit of shopping and got some phat lewts while we were there.

The most epic was the LootCrates for Fan Girls with a Her Universe exclusive. I'm a big fan of the Her Universe line of clothes, so I just had to get this, especially considering the price!

The price of the box ($65 USD) was well worth what was inside. They claim there's about $100 USD worth of merchandise, which was about right.

First, there was a small, but cute pin that went right onto the lanyard. It's a nice little warning that a FANGIRL! is at large. :-)

Then, a small DC bombshell figurine of Wonder Woman...so cute. I actually want to collect all of them now, and I'm haven't collected figurines in a long while.

Another item was a coloring book for fangirls, along with some coloring pencils. It has several types of fangirls, from the gamer girl to a gear head girl to the Whovian! 

Coloring books aren't normally my thing; I was going to give this to a friend, but all the drawings and subjects were adorable that I just might keep it for myself. When I started flipping through it, I found myself laughing at many of the quips and quotes inside (as they were so true!). The LARP-er girl cries out, "FOR THE HORDE!", which warms my little Warcraft heart.....

There were a few minor trinkets as well, including a Walking Dead charm bracelet and some nail gels. (Not exactly my fandom, but fairly nice)

Oh, and there was this SWEET Star Trek clutch. Perfect for a night out with your friends. Of course, you could also use it for make-up too, if you were so inclined. I'm going to just assume that the red is for a command officer, instead of being a red-shirt. I would have preferred a blue or yellow (ala ST:NG), but red IS my favorite color.

And then the jewel of the box, which was this awesome dress that has the Marvel super heroines, including Ms Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and so many many more! I love the fit. :-)

The dress is well worth the price of the box, so you could just consider buying the box for the dress and getting a bunch of free stuff thrown in for that price.

If you missed out, there are still a few left at: https://www.lootcrate.com/limited-edition-crates/loot4fangirls-crate

I'm looking forward to any more Loot Crates for Fan Girls, especially if they are all of this caliber.

SDCC Masquerade 2016: The Addams Extended Family

The primary reason we went to San Diego Comic Con this year was to compete in their yearly masquerade with our cosplay group, which numbered 14 people.  The theme was the Addams Extended Family.

But, you might ask, "Why 14 people? There are only 7 in the Addams Family!" (It'll make sense once you see the video.....)

Organizing 14 costumers is no mean feat.  Our wonderful group director (who played Morticia) managed all of the aspects of our group skit / presentation --- including putting together our choreography, arranging our music,  scheduling our many, many rehearsals, and coordinating with the masquerade staff. On the flip side, each individual is responsible (more or less) for their own costumes and props --- although we all chip to help whenever it's required.

Over the course of many months, we got to know our music arrangement and rehearsed our skit. (You didn't think we just made costumes and strut them on stage, did you?)

As our group was scattered between northern and southern California, we had to arrange last minute rehearsals with the entire group once we arrived at SDCC. Some of us had practiced by watching the rehearsal videos.

 On the day of the masquerade, there was a lot of preparation.

It took about 4 hours to do our last few rehearsals, the "final" rehearsal on the secondary stage to show the masquerade staff, AND then finally, to get into our costumes --- makeup, any prosthetics, and finally our costumes. We all helped each other get dressed and ready.

Some of the group had to change from their day cosplay to their actual masquerade outfits.

There was a total of 35 contestants. We were #23. So, we had a bit of a wait before we even got onstage. The curtain went up around 8pm.

We were not allowed to wander the hallways in our costumes, so we stayed in the Green Room along with everyone else. It was a bit of organized chaos. :-)

While we waited, I took a few photos of the contestants. There were some amazing costumes.

Fortunately, the masquerade show let the contestants view the rest of the masquerade from the green room.

Uncle Fester, Lurch, and Cousin Thing watch  the MCs announce the next act.

The presentation before us was a couple who played Kylo Ren & Rey. Their skit was the fight scene from the movie. However, unbeknownst to "Rey",  "Kylo" got on his knees and proposed to her on stage! It was pretty amazing and she said YES. I bemoaned to my fellow group members that we had to follow THAT act......

When we finally went onstage, it seemed that everyone got the jokes inherent in our presentation. At least one person loved our skit so much that they tweeted this......

Here's the full video.

Here's how it was shown on the big video screen. I kinda like see'ing the MC (Phil & Kagia Folio)'s introduction.

(Can you name all of the Adams?)

The end of our presentation didn't mean the end of the masquerade. We had to wait for everyone else to finish. We couldn't get out of our costumes, but we did chill for a bit.

Cousin It playing with Grizzly's beard.

Eventually, the winners were announced.

We took home a medal for the Most Humorous (and given the laughter from the audience, I did think we nailed it!)

(From the next day's newsletter)

Ecstatic, we stumbled out of the convention center after midnight. We were exhausted as it had been 8 hours just for the masquerade; happy with our presentation and our win.

Photo - ©Ryan Orange. LA Weekly