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

Addams Family Cosplay: Making a Doll Accessory

For my cosplay, I needed a very specific accessory. My character is sometimes seen carrying a headless doll, so I went to my local thrift store to find an appropriate doll. I found some plastic dolls at about the right size, but I dislike plasticky dolls, so I got this Cabbage Patch Kid (CPK) instead.

Growing up, my sister loved CPKs. She had at least 3 of those things. Me? I wasn't very much into dolls, preferring stuffed animals and action figures. Gleefully, I asked my Viking to decapitate it. He was more than happy to oblige.

The stitching on these are very amusing, from actual butt cheeks to a belly button. While the original CPK was dressed as a boy, this particular doll is getting a gender change. Luckily, it was already androgynous.

But, first, I had to ensure none of the inner stuffing came out. I made a red pillow to sit in the empty neck cavity as a "bloody neck stump".

I measured the circumference of the neck and used a protractor to draw out the circle (plus added seam allowance), and then stuffed it with fiberfill. I sewed my little round pillow right into the neck cavity. I might cut out some felt to simulate more of a cross-view of the neck, but that's for later.

For the costume, I used this pattern for the doll, plus I also used the adult version as a base for my costume with a lot of modifications.

Doll patterns are extremely small, but very quick to actually sew. There were only three pattern pieces for the doll's tunic. Unfortunately, because some of the pieces are so small, I also had to do a lot of handsewing, especially setting in those tiny, tiny little sleeves. Luckily, handsewing such small pieces is quicker, but it's still handsewing.

I also had to modify my doll pattern pieces a little bit, as the pattern was made for a shorter doll with skinnier arms. I had to lengthen the tunic as well as add additional width to the sleeves.

 Using left over scrap fabric from my costume, I finished the primarily tunic in an about 1.5 hours. (Yes, I already finished the primary costume, which I'll discuss more in another post!)

After I made the basic costume, I used my new skills at creating collars & cuffs.

I cheated a little bit on making proper cuffs and a collar, because, well, it's a doll and these pieces only need to look like the real thing and they are also sewn down to the tunic dress.

Afterwards, it was a matter of attaching buttons.

The last and final step for the doll is making the stockings. I picked up a cheap pair of tights at a local Japanese dollar store.

My Viking reminded to sew first, then cut. I pulled the tights onto the doll, and pinned the seam line, ensuring that there was negative ease (so as to get a nice stretch). After testing the new seam, I cut off the excess parts of the leggings.

As a nice bonus, I ended up getting a pair of long arm warmers. :-)

The final doll looks pretty darn good! She's missing shoes, but I'm going to scour the local thrift stores for something appropriate.

Viola! One finished doll accessory! Her name is Marie. :-)

Addams Family Cosplay: Making Separate Collars & Cuffs

I'm starting a new cosplay (sooper seekrit stuff). My costume requires separate collars and cuffs, so I'm learning how to make them.

Separate collars and cuffs were developed  (read the history) in the late 1800s by a beleaguered housewife who didn't like having to deal with the "ring-around-the-collar" of her husband's shirt. They were used extensively throughout the Victorian era and persisted until just after WWI.

So, I got out my books and my drafting tools -- protractor, French curve, rule, and a pencil, as well as looking things up on the Internet.

First, I made a paper mockup of how I thought I wanted the collar to look on my costume. When I had an approximation of the correct angles, I started to draft.

The Burda website (link below) was probably the most useful on how to draft a collar, and walks you through creating a collar stand and actual collar using the measurements for your shirt.

I had to make several different versions of the collar with various "angles" to see which one would actually lay correctly on the costume. The steeper the angle, the more the points of the collar flare out (think 1970's collars), so I went with a fairly sedate angle of 7 degrees.

While making the 2-3 mockups of the collar, I learned a few things:

Tip 1: One of the keys to getting a really nice crisp edges and points is to make sure to press it well, which can be hard, but this tailor board really helps in pressing those hard-to-reach places.

For example, using the "tip" of the tailor board, I can effectively press the fabric down. so that points are easily pressed.

Tip 2: It also helps to sew and press only one seam at a time. For example, for the above collar, I seamed the top of the collar first, pressed, then did the side seams.

Tip 3: Use a point turner to help turn the points and to press the seams.

You eventually get a nicely turned collar.

For this cosplay, the collar didn't need to be super stiff so I used only a light interfacing on the collar. The rest of the stiffness comes from the linen.

Then it was onto the cuffs, which required a similar, but different design. This piece was a bit harder, as I couldn't find a lot of information. At first, I tried to actually make the cuffs just like the collar (in two separate pieces), but the mockups didn't look right. The cuffs shouldn't have that middle seam.

After ruminating on it for a day or two, I turned to costume.org for the book,  The Cutter's Practical Guide 1893-1898 by W. D. F. Vincent, which had some good illustrations of the various types of cuff and collars, which was extremely helpful! (Cuffs are the bottom 3 illustrations).

I took the cuff pattern pieces I made, which was close to how I wanted it to look, and combined the two of them, aligning them at the bottom seam allowance.

Here are the mocks (from bottom to top), the collar, the first attempt at the cuff, to the final version of the cuff.

The final mockup looked pretty darn good, so I made the final ones in my linen.

Normally, cuffs and collars are buttoned into the piece of clothing and have button holes created for them. However, I decided to not use that function, but instead opted to carefully tack down the collar and cuffs for a slightly permanent fixture so that I wouldn't have any wardrobe malfunctions on stage.

More on this cosplay at a later date.

Resource Links:

• History of cuffs & collars
• Burda instructions on collar drafting
• Costume.Org - 20th Century Detachable Collars & Cuffs