Sneak Peek of some current projects....

Updates on Night Fury Project

As usual, school has been taking up most of my time, but I've been slowly progressing on the finer details of my Night Fury costume. I've been doing a lot of fun things with paints and leather overlays. 

Below is a template for the back design. It will be on both sides, but it's much easier to make things symmetrical when you start with just one side!

Here is a tinier leather overlay, for the front of the bodice.

I hand painted the pocket covers. This design was based on a pin I found at a thrift store.

And because I am going as Toothless, I of course had to have the viking dragon "stamp" on the red part of the skirt. I eventually outlined it black to make it neater, but you get the idea of how it looks.

Quick Thrift Store Alteration

For as much sewing as I do (and love to do), I still do a lot of thrift store alterations. For things like jackets, it's soooooo much easier if I can adapt something already made and just tailor it to what I want. Here is a quick and dirty example of what you can do with a thrift store coat. 

Exhibit A: gorgeous beige and cream brocade winter coat. At this point I had already ripped out the lining and the (shudder) shoulder pads, but you get an idea of what it looks like. Cute, but an awkward length for Victoria, and just small enough on me that it doesn't really fit my hips. 

Exhibit B: CUT THAT BUSINESS OFF. Seriously. When you get a good cheap thrift store find, don't be afraid to take scissors to it. Here, I cut the length of the jacket to about my natural waist, leaving enough material to fold under to create a nice even hem. I decided I didn't really like the sleeves, so I cut those off too. I simply flipped the lapels out and added a leather brooch I had made, and voila! Now, I could have stopped here, but.....

Exhibit C: ADD MORE STUFF. The thing that can take a steampunk outfit (or any outfit for that matter) is adding more trimmings. Play around and have fun. You can see here that nothing is permanently attached at this point - the trim is just draped, the leather bits are just pinned on. Put stuff on, leave it for a while, take stuff off. There was nothing wrong with the photo above. But adding simple things like trim and appliques can take a costume piece from pretty to WOW. 

Quick photo from Grand Rapids ComicCon!

Art from GR Comic Con

One of my favorite things about going to any convention is buying crafty items from local artists. At comic cons, I particularly like buying art prints. Here is my haul from this year's Grand Rapids comic con!

Halloween 2014

Ahh, another Halloween has come and gone. This year was relatively low key for me (no huge parties, had class, etc), but I had fun with the costumes I wore and the event I did attend. 

First up, I went to a rather impromptu "Hocus Pocus" watching hangout with some friends, so I decided to throw together a last minute Winnifred Sanderson costume. It's not movie accurate, but the colors and hair and crazy lipstick help make it. 

My "real" costume this year was Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon 2. I went with the 2nd movie outfit, because the costume had "more" - a fur skirt, arm bands, face paint, etc. It was really fun to make - I bought a bunch of scrap leather from Tandy to make the skirt and headband and arm wraps, and a bunch of fake fur from Joanne Fabrics to make all the fur pieces. I used my David Bowie wig and braided it. 

The real dragon was nice very excited about my costume ;)

So I used a fake Stormfly instead - it was a hit at the Children's Hospital, where I did facepainting.

This is full outfit! If I wear it again for Grand Rapids Comic Con, I might make a few changes, but overall I am very happy with the costume.

Headdresses!

Sorry for the lack of updates - medical school has been, well, taking over my life.

However, I have some AMAZING photos of myself and a new headdress I created to wear with a bunch of clothes I had created and my Shoptroll leather. Thanks to the ever fabulous Russ Turner Photography (all rights reserved - please do not remove his watermark), I have photograph evidence of what I've been up to!