Snow Queen Headdress

Pieces are stiff interfacing, silver cotton for backing, and Japanese silver brocade from fabric swap on the front. I made the headband from electrical wiring scrap that I stabilized with painters tape and covered the top with silver brocade and the inside with cotton flannel from a nightgown. The painters tape seemed like a good idea at the time (it was fast and easy), but when I was sewing things onto and through the headband, the needle would pick up some of the adhesive sometimes and get a bit tacky. Manageable but kind of annoying.

Dragon Con 2015 - A few thoughts

Family matters and other things led to a busy summer and I fell behind on costuming. I ended up not doing Sun Lee, although I'll see if I can do more on that this winter/spring. A lot of struggles and setbacks trying to work on that... I think I'll continue with the parts I have at this point, but in the future I may work with different materials. I have some thoughts on armor - smaller pieces, anyway - but it's going to require me to do some experiments.

I worked on the Snow Queen cloak on the road, which was okay. It's a long drive and I can't read books aloud to L for 16 hours straight anyway.

What I wasn't happy with was having to bring a glue gun and all the possible bits for working on the Snow Queen headdress. It didn't really add to the amount of luggage we had, but it did take up time at Dragon Con and made for a more stressful time.

***

I'm also looking at either not making anything for sale to folks at the con next year or at least not in chocolate. It's a challenge keeping chocolate at the right temp for a long drive and then over several days in GA, while trying to get people to pick up their goods. If I do bring something next year, I'll set one or two definite times and places, and people either get their stuff or they don't. The nice thing about food is you can always eat the leftovers on the trip home.  I'm contemplating maple-coated pecans...

***

The hand fans worked well with the costumes and it was nice to be able to cool off as needed.

***

This year, I'm already well on my way to finishing one of my costumes. Cinderaptor has a dress, plain black choker, head, and wig. I've just about figure out how I want to do the arms and hands - and will likely attach them at the shoulder to the under-dress, which means I'll probably need L to help me put on the over-dress, but we'll see.... and I need to make slippers.  Haven't decided on if I'll have a tail or not.

I think the slippers will be next, and then start work on the Azure Dragon. L still hasn't made up his mind on what he'll be for Chinese Mythological Creatures. I'll give him until February....maybe. It can't be pulled out of his existing wardrobe like most of his previous costumes, so no waiting until next summer :D

So that's two costumes for me for sure, and one for L. I should be able to do Sun Lee this year....I feel like I'm forgetting something....sigh. Well, besides the possibility of doing an Amidala.

Dragon Con 2015 - Part 4 - Twisted Disney

Also on Sunday.

Not New:
- Dress I got as part of modeling for Goth Fae a few year back.
- Net hose (same I wore for Cyclops).
- Slipper shoes from a local clothing swap - like new, so guessing they didn't wear them much or 
  wasn't right size; cute and comfy.
- Jacket - Goodwill find. Cut the sleeves off but saving them for Sun Lee. The jacket is open in the back, laced up with a strip of faux leather through large grommets. This was perfect for putting my wings through
- Wings are from a set of wings I wore for Halloween some years ago, as the Economic Wishful Thinking Fairy. Originally three lobes for a butterfly look, I took out one set of lobes, re-using the straps and part of the joining structure. Had to add more felt to re-build the structure from stash.

Mixed:
- my hair ornament was an old fake weathered butterfly from a floral arrangement I'd made for my mother-in-law years ago (yes, she got a new arrangement this summer), plus jeweled chain I got at Wolfie's (place that sells new stuff but I think a lot of it is past trendiness or something), some new skull beads I put on with wire, and a couple of "leaves" I cut out of scrap from "Shiny". Attached to new alligator clip. Color in photo isn't good -- butterfly is actually blue and silver.

- Weapons and leg sheath. The icicles are used, from eBay. The straps are from L's old ninja uniform. The sheath is from one of my kitchen knives. The two new things are the light -- a little led switched light I stuck in the bottom of the sheath -- and a glue dot that I used to keep the icicles in place.

New:
- Bought the gloves, used them for this costume and also Snow Queen.
- Temporary black hair spray. I totally regret this purchase, should have just gone with my hair unaltered. That stuff got on everything, I had a wicked time cleaning up my skin before getting dressed, and it _NEVER DRIED_.

Even though I enjoy the fancy costumes, it was nice to have one that wasn't too much work (hair color spray aside).

Dragon Con - Part 3 - Steampunk

Sunday!

Steampunk:

Bought shirt online. 

The jacket is modded from a used clothing shop find - cut bottom half of sleeves off, opened upper sleeve to add clock material, reattached lower sleeves and covered seam with decorative stripe on stripe.  Changed out brass buttons for silver ones.

Underbust corset/girdle is made from faux leather, backed with linen, boning is plastic, so it's really more of a fashion thing, but I put a lot of it in. I'll try to take pictures of it later, as it was a kind of weird design I suspect, but I like it.

Skirt is all-new fabric, except for some of the black bias tape, which I got in fabric swap or was left over from a quilting project.  I bought the clock material a few years ago, when we were starting to get into going to Steampunk events. I'd made a vest from a variant on this design (brown as well as black and white), and gotten "helpful" comments from someone at SPWF and put the rest of the fabric into storage. But I love the clock fabric and decided I didn't give a damn that some people might think it was a novice fabric for Steampunk.

The mini-bustle needs some more work; winter project.

The spats I made earlier this year and I use them around the yard when I'm gardening and have worn them hiking as well (tick protection). Two decorative button at the top outside on each, matching the buttons on the jacket. The actual closures are a long velcro strip, because I wanted to optimize tick protection. The buttons do still serve a purpose, in that they inform me as to which leg each one goes on. Linen, lined with tight-weave cotton, both from stash.

Bloomers are up-cycled from a skirt I used to wear for doing garland dancing.

Two hair ornaments. The upper one is made from new organdy and scrap "silky" fabric from the girdle book supplies, pleated onto a piece of felt from a friend's scrap stash. The red jewel is actually a clip-on earring I got from Ocean State Job Lot some years back -- I cut a small slit in the felt and put the clip part through, that's it.  The other ornament is a bow made from some bits I decided I didn't need on the mini-bustle and had trimmed off, plus a bit of silky scrap that I put over the middle -- some type of pleating I think -- attached with a bobby pin run through the stitching.

Close-up of ruffling on the skirt.  Pretty happy with the pleating and the black and white layering; wish I'd made it a little lower down on the skirt.  Perfectly comfortable for a long drive in a car with it's sloped seats, but have to sit closer to the edge of the seat if I'm sitting upright on a regular chair.





I've worn the jacket and skirt since, working 7+ hour days standing at a cotton candy stand, and they function well as clothing.

Dragon Con 2015 - Part 2 - Snow Queen

Saturday:

In the morning we saw the parade and I managed to get a pic or two of Leah Lloyd and the Obscurus Crusade crew. We should have gotten there earlier than we did -- if I go to the parade again it'll either be because I'm in the parade or with contractor stilts on. Still, it was cool seeing Nichelle Nichols:

I think we went to Comic Book Alley in the afternoon? Not sure.

At night was Snow Queen, solo. Too bad that I couldn't get it together for the afternoon, then I could have seen Leah in-person instead of through photos. But I did get to meet a new person, Ivy Star, so that was good.

I should do a separate post on the hat, and will try to do so later. Mostly from scrap and stuff I saved from getting tossed from neighbor's greenhouse, plus the jeweled fiber optic barrettes I made last year for "Shiny".

The cloak is out of the train from my first wedding dress, cut and draped, with little fur "tails" I made from some fake fur -- more of which you can see on the hem of the dress.

The fake fur is trimmed like an ermine or mink coat, cut to have "rows" of fur. Since the skirt is more or less a circle I had to cut the fur in short pieces and cut the sides of each piece at an angle to keep the "rows" going horizontally all around. 

The dress is my first wedding dress. I removed the sleeves, opened the sides and put in strips of elastic (I'm not the same size I was then), and cut off the train. The over-dress is organza and silver lace. I beaded the edges of all the skirt panels as well as frost designs on some of the panels and on the snowflakes on the sleeves, plus a few simple ornaments on the silver trim of the neck opening. The snowflakes I made from pieces of the silver trim.

Foundation is a petticoat. Not bad, but I think it would look better with a stiffer foundation, to make the skirt go out more -- the fur weighed it down quite a bit.

The gloves I was able to wear both for this outfit and for Silvermist the next day. The fan I already had.

Overall I'm not unhappy with this costume, but I'd like to "ice" it up a little more. I'll have to think about that at some point down the line.  I'm pretty happy with the dress modding though, and keeping it separate from the over dress means I have the possibility of using it with some other costume in the future as well.  Oh, and the bow from the original dress became part of the mini-bustle for my black-and-white Steampunk outfit, so not too much waste from this up-cycle.

Dragon Con 2015 - Part 1 - Cyclops

Almost forgot to do this - been busy this autumn, between the house, barn, traveling to CA to help and visit with my mother, and more.

This year we just chilled on Thursday. I was behind on my Snow Queen, so I did a bit of work on that, and set up all the costume accessories for each costume so I could find them each day.

Friday was the Marvel Gender Bender Shoot:

Rockabilly X-Men:

Me and my sweetie:

Close-up of my spiffy shoes:

And one of the full outfit:

I ended up buying a dress, but not for too much. Also bought the shoes (on sale), and gloves. Fishnet stockings I already owned.

The shoes have buckles across the toes that unbuckle, so I made the rosettes with elastics on the back and slid them on and buckled them.

Made the belt and "buckle". The belt's actual closure is hooks and eyes. The "buckle" again has elastics on the back so I could slide it onto the belt and position it over the closure. Close-ups of the rosettes and brooch are in an earlier post.

The glasses I chose for the style and firey lenses. I put paper and painters tape over both sides of the lenses and painted yellow.

The wig is one I bought in the 80s. I set it in curls earlier in the year, tweaking it now and then, and then sprayed and pinned the heck out of it in August. Being an old wig it was kind of set in its ways, so I did have to adjust my original style to one the wig wouldn't fight so much. I couldn't get a completely smooth finish -- the hairs are kind of wirey -- but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I included a purse as well -- can't really tell in the picture, but it's red and black. It's a circle if you open it all the way, and would look like the X-Men symbol. The inside is blue -- I made it reversible so that I could also use it with my Twisted Disney Silvermist costume. I wanted to have a fan with my costumes this year, and that's where I kept it when I was posing in those costumes.  Some folks really liked the idea of a fan -- I just painted one black to go with both costumes -- might see a few more fans at D*C next year :D

I like this outfit more than I thought I would, and it was nice that I could wear it for more than one shoot.

Wings and other aerial structures

I had a few random costuming thoughts last week. I was messing with bamboo stakes for hanging some Chinese calligraphy pages and was thinking they might not be bad for supporting a wing structure of some type - they're pretty strong and lightweight, also cheap. They do have joints, but depending on the type of wings, fins, or other aerial-type structure, they could definitely work. Then I was thinking about how if you're traveling by plane/bus/train, how would you make them smaller for travel...

So, for something that doesn't require permanent attachment to the frame, one could make the pieces shorter and use joiners to assemble the pieces and then slide them into pockets. Which led to the next idea -- tent poles. You know, the ones with the shock cords joining all the pieces? You can buy them separately at some camp places, but might be something to keep in mind, if you have or acquire an old tent that's no longer serviceable for whatever reason. With a little care you could even take some lengths of pole out and shorten to desired length.

Also, depending on what you're doing, you might be able to use the shock cord poles without using slider pockets, like if you were doing something with lacey or stretchy fabric.

Rockabilly X-Men Accessories

Been working on some accessories for Cyclops...

Spray-painted the sunglasses frame. Taping over the lenses  (both sides) was a picky job. I did light passes from different angles, taking time for drying between passes, and still missed a few things. Had to re-tape and paint again. Better lighting while spraying would have helped, but I did most of the spraying in the basement to keep the fumes out of the main part of the house. They'll do.

Large X is a "brooch" and has a clip on the back. Used old mat board scraps for the X and back board. X is cover with faux leather, as is back board. Black gems are adhesive-backed ones from JoAnn's beading/jewelry section. Red on that and the smaller X'es is adhesive-backed holographic paper (scrapbooking section, I think?). I'd been thinking something like tail lights would be cool, reminiscent of the car-racing for pink slips, and saw this paper.

I think the clip is an old chip clip or clothes pin? Strong spring action but is basically made from a heavy wire that's vinyl-coated.

The smaller X'es are on large buttons (button backs were flat), out of my mom's old stash of buttons. I'll be making rosettes to put them on, and then they'll go on my shoes. I took the photo at this point to show that I cut the holo paper so it was slightly in from the edge of the button -- to avoid having the red show outside the circle of black I'm outlining with gems.

The fit for the gems around the outer edge was a little too tight but in this case having plastic gems was a good thing. I clipped a tiny bit from the edges of a few of them to get them to fit, and you can't really tell even holding them in your hand. Way down on the floor on my shoes, they'll be perfect.

Snow Queen - Ruff/Collar

Hm, I suppose I should post about the sleeves, since I worked on those before the ruff, but I still haven't taken decent photos of them so...

This ruff is currently able to worn on its own, and will go on over the collar of the organza bodice that is still in-progress. I may decide to leave it stand-alone or I may decide to attach it to an overcoat/vest type of thing I have in the planning.

The foundation of the collar is leftover scrap from my new ironing board pad - thick but soft. I should probably line it, but since it isn't going to be in direct contact with my skin, I'm undecided on that. The wire is floral wire, which I bent so the ends all point up and out, and sewed onto the fabric. Both the bending and sewing around the wire in several places along the length of each bend keeps it in place remarkably well.

Here's a couple shots of the lace going on. I had to start at the bottom since that's where the fabric is, but I wanted to overlap the top of each lower row over the bottom of the next row, which meant remembering to leave each row unattached on the top half of the trim, attaching the next row, then going back and securing the top of the previous row to it.  Mostly, I remembered to do that...

I also was periodically inserting a pleat, both to ease the trim around the curve I was creating (the wires go up, out, and away from each other), and to create a more dimensional piece.  Although the human tendency is to create patterns, I purposely did not keep track of specifically when I was pleating or not, to try to give it a more organic look. 

Working around the wires was kind of a pain, but overall it went pretty well; didn't poke out an eye or anything! 

Once I had the trim all sewn on from the outside perspective, I put on a couple more rows on the inside, as the trim has a definite front and back, and the upper edge of the collar along the sides and back will be seen from both sides. This part I was able to attach working from the top down, which was a good deal more sane to do than the outer layer.

Next was attaching some plastic rhinestone mesh I got last year, on sale in the floral section of JoAnn's.  The collar is fastened with three snaps -- I'd first thought to use velcro but I only had it in black, then remembered the snaps on my old wedding dress -- part of the over-train, which has to come off anyway.

I also did some securing between the inner and outer layers and stitched some of the gathered trim into tighter pleats to create a little more depth and texture. I'm afraid I didn't get a photo that really shows that, but here you can see it on me.

Oh, and I glued glass faceted beads onto the ends of the wires so it's safe and pretty.  I'm not sure where they came from but I'm guessing an old broken necklace maybe?  I've been storing them in an old allergy tablet bottle that expired in 1986, so it's anyone guess at this point.

Death Bunny

Inspiration piece:

http://www.skullspiration.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Skull-salt-and-pepper-shakers-3.jpg

This is for playboy bunny contest/party at D*C.  I have fuzzy pink bunny years I bought years ago, a black corset, and a black tulle skirt already.  I'm going to see about re-doing the skirt, as I think it's a little too long, plus I want to use an elasticized waist instead of the tying system it has currently.

A friend shared a site earlier this year that had some skull-y things, including a scarf I liked that you got for free if you ordered X amount of stuff.  Well, I liked some tall stockings/hose that were black with pink crossed bones on them so.... then I learned about the contest/party, looked at the hose, remembered the ears I have and the salt-and-pepper shakers, and voila!

These shakers have the bunnies wearing ties -- I'll have to think about whether I want to do this type of tie or not. I was thinking I'd like to make a standing collar with a mantle, so a tie could be worked into it without too much difficulty...maybe.  We'll see what happens :D

I'll also need to make a mask -- domino/half mask type.

Hm, do I need a wig? Probably not. Maybe just put my hair up in a bun...

My costume will be more black than pink, but I think it will be cute, and definitely fun.

Warhammer 40K - Rogue Trader

Seriously considering doing a Rogue Trader, likely based on Lady Sun Lee. I guess I need to look at more pictures of Rogue Traders, armor, etc., since the picture I have of her only shows the front and that not down to the feet.

Found these at Goodwill today, for $2:

These are little kid shin guards. Actually, they're pretty short, even on my forearms, but I can always add extension materials.  They aren't the same shape as the ones in the picture but I like that they're padded, so I'll make a cover for them.  Not craft foam if I can help it, since I don't have any, but we'll see, when the time comes.

I was hoping for more used sports equipment (like shoulders and elbows), but no luck this time.  Considered a pair of ski boots for $7 because they were nice and bulky and armor-like, but couldn't stand how rigid the soles are.

Inspiration piece for Lady Sun Lee:

Oh, and for no reason at all, got this too:

Faux leather but has a nice hand for all that, and only $5. I'm sure it'll come in handy for something.

Sleeve Progress

Gotten a little further on sleeves for Snow Queen. Mostly I work on it as a break from doing other things, so it'll take a while to make, especially over the next few weeks. I'm also working on curtains for the bedroom (yes, still), as well as rearranging things all over the place. And the porch has been pretty much eating my time up in large chunks but I think I'm finally done with that for a bit. Well, except for decorating the tree, but that can wait.

Anyway, here's a picture!

The lower part of the sleeve is rows of lace sewn together. I then added a row onto the bottom of the upper half of the sleeve. Then I made the snowflakes.

Well, then I made some small pleats while attaching the lower and upper halves.

These are mostly from new materials. I found a place online for the lace at a good price, and the fabric was on sale at JoAnn's.

The snowflakes are made from pieces I cut off while getting the lace matched up for the long cuffs, so a reduction in waste there.  They're beaded with blue glass rocaille and bugle beads, and also white pearl beads. The glass ones I bought new last year, the "pearls" I bought new as well, back when I was doing a lot of pearling in the SCA.

***

I wanted to have a coat with this, but then the dress would be hidden -- okay in a costume contest where you can walk around, take off the coat, and walk some more, but terrible for a hall costume.

I also thought it would be nice if I could wear the coat outside of a convention so...what I'm going to try to do is make a sleeveless coat/robe that I can attach sleeves to for actual outdoor wear. I have a lovely plush grey velour and also some white fake fur that I've been using for extra warmth in the bedroom, which should look great!

***

Originally I was going to have a blue skirt and in fact it's mostly done. But as I continued to do research I realized that the bluer winter beings like Snegurochka are a winter-into-spring theme. I want to go icier, so the deeper, more intense blue is now out. No worries, I'll wear that skirt with something else!

I have another option now -- my first wedding dress. I had it kicking around because I was thinking I'd remake it into something else and never got around to it. I think it'll be a fine base for the snow queen, and the light blue organza looks good over it. Now I have to decide if I want to keep the train or not...

Quick Post on Snow Queen

Wanted a change of pace last night, so I started work on sleeves for Snow Queen.  Yeah, Dragon Con is a ways from now, but these are going to take a little while to make...

The straight edges go fairly quickly, but futzing with joining the pointed ends takes a little longer. Liking the look so far!

Organizing a Costume

Still a work in progress, and of course it depends on what the pieces are for a given costume, but I found that bagging and/or hanging the accessories together before going to Dragon Con made it easier for me to keep track of all the parts.  Below is a hanger with clips with my Miskatonic U accessories -- socks on one clip, pom poms on the other, and pony tails hung on the hook part. I took it to Dragon Con this way too, as I had no idea how to pack crin without crushing it and my brain was working on too many projects to figure it out. I should probably go through my empty boxes and find one the right size, but for now it gets hung up.

Before D*C, I had it hanging next to the cheerleader outfit, and shoes on the floor. Easy to eyeball and see if anything's missing.

Other costumes had multiple small things, so I put them in one of those zippered bags that sheets and pillow cases sometimes come in. Those are great! Clear, sturdy, and usually have a hanger hook on them so you can hang it with the costume.

Overall, this worked well for me.

This didn't work in the case of my wig for Batgirl (which got left behind), but I think that was because even though I had it grouped with the costume, it wasn't hanging up.  The floor was a bit chaotic and I think it blended in with the chaos.  So I'll have to work on a better staging area for next time.

Currently I am working on putting nearly all the wigs in one place in the house. I think I only need to find homes for a couple more -- good thing I don't have a ton of them... I have a few hats in that spot too, so perhaps I'll move the hats elsewhere, in order to get all the wigs in one place.

A Bit of New Fabric

Friday, went shopping at JoAnn's with my 50% off all thread coupon and ended up buying some fabric too -- 50% off or more, please and thank you.

- Silver sequin fabric -- real, sewn-on sequins, not the glued on dots.  Hoping to make that into Agent May's dress from Season 2 Episode "Face My Enemy".

 - Faux black leather from the discounted area, all of which was on additional sale discount, for making Agent May vest in the style of Season 1 (she has a couple of them). Not going to go crazy "authentic", but I felt the jacket vest should be somewhat fitted, standing collar, longer line than anything I've seen so far, and zip up the front.

- Slinky silver fabric with spider web pattern. Um, just because.

Agent May's Boots and Cyclops' Shoes

Found boots for Agent May, at JC Penney:

I missed the really good sale ($69.99) but still got them for $99.99 -- regular price is $115.  They look like boots Agent May would wear (she has at least two pair in Season 1, one low, one knee-high).

I don't like single-use items much, and I wanted boots with leather uppers. My feet are hard to fit, so I need shoes that I can break in -- that means real leather. I'll be able to wear these boots for every day, not just for a few hours. They were a little tight at first, but after walking around in them for about 10 minutes, maybe less, they warmed up and started the re-shaping process to fit me better.


That's actually a wee problem with the yellow shoes I got for the Cyclops -- faux leather, and just a tiny bit of pinch. But they have a functional buckle across the bridge, so I'm considering modifying them -- open the solid part, add in fabric, and then the buckle will have a real function.  Also, I'm going to try to make buckle covers for the real buckle, that will make them look like the X-Men buckle; just a nice little extra detail.

Cyclops Belt

Looking at different options for Cyclops' belt. Found this while looking to see if wide belts were a 1950s thing (they were):

I like the idea of the sash, because I was trying to figure out how to deal with Cyclops wearing a blue body suit with yellow briefs.  Thinking I can just subsume those into a wide belt or sash.  The sash would do the job of carrying the yellow downward.

Costuming and Environmental Costs

Well, that's a tough one.  If you get into certain types of costuming, like makeup or wigs for instance, you want to use new cosmetics and it's difficult to get used wigs that are still in good shape, so those are usually new as well. This is one of the reasons I'm happy when I can use materials I already have, or can get used stuff for my projects.

There's a cost to anything you choose to do, wear, eat.  For instance, we used to travel across the valley nearly every week for choir practice, which you would think was better than driving to Dragon Con, which is about 2,000 miles round-trip for us.  But in fact we drove more miles going to the weekly local gathering.  Even better from some environmentalists' view would be to do neither, of course.

I really enjoy the creative outlet of costuming, which has given me more enthusiasm and energy for creating and making in general, so more things are getting done close to home as well.

I was thinking about the costs as I was getting dressed a few days back, and realized the shirt I was putting on was probably 20 years old.  Yes, I have quite a few tops that age, and a few sweaters that are even older, and some skirts in the same range. Only one or two pair of slacks, the good ones.... everything else usually only lasts 5-10 years. Some clothing I don't know the age of because I got them from my mom or the local clothing swap. Shoes and undies I buy or make new.

So, that helps balance things a little. I used to not go to cons because I went camping instead, which seemed to me to be lower impact, and I got to hang out with friends and do fun things, but as the Society has matured, it has gotten higher maintenance, at least at large events like Pennsic, so the difference gets a little smaller between large events and a convention.  We are always balancing between one choice and another -- I think probably what's most important is acknowledging what you're doing, what the effect is, rather than trying to reason things away.

 I'd like to go to D*C again, and at the moment that's what we're planning on for 2015.  We also would like to go to a kung fu seminar in FL next spring possibly...likely that would be driving down with some other folks.  And my uncle C has been bugging my mom about when I'm coming out again. *sigh*

Well, so we're working on fixing up the barn and carriage house, setting up a greenhouse, winterizing the house porch, and adding some creative insulation -- the house is fully insulated, but it was still effing cold during the worst part of the winter, so I'll be making cushioned half-walls to put where possible on outer walls.  These will mostly be filled with spare comforters and blankets, maybe some off-season clothing, or fabric that hasn't yet been made into things. I'll also be making wall hangings for a few walls. I'll try to post pics of those things here -- it isn't clothing, but it is sewing, so I guess that counts.

And starting research into the possibility of solar power.  I'm also going to get back into research about hugel kulture and trying to do some of that here. If we're going to use fossil fuels to travel, then we need to use less of them at home.

Shoes for Cyclops and...

These are the shoes I got for the Rockabilly X-Men Cyclops costume.

http://www.heels.com/womens-shoes/lucca-yellow.html

I don't expect to do much more on this costume for a while, but I saw the shoes when they were on sale, and when opportunity knocks....

The sunglasses should be coming sometime in the next few weeks.  I'll be keeping everything together with the dress that I'll be re-tailoring, so I can find it all next year.  Still haven't picked the spot in the house for doing this -- right now everything's in the living room but that won't do over the holidays.

***

Separately, I have some cool gold pintucked fabric that I bought ages ago, and I've been contemplating what to do with it. Since we moved to our new house, I've been working away at using existing materials, to reduce the amount of fabric in storage (in theory), decorate and insulate the house, and have more new clothing to wear.  Well, and now more costumes, apparently.  I did have to buy some fabric this year, especially for Shiny, but am going to try to do less of that this coming year.

I'm contemplating doing a phoenix costume, inspired by the mythical creature, not the Marvel comics character.  The colors we're most used to in the West are red and gold, but there are other options...I'm thinking this gold fabric would make a splendid gold coat though. Fitted in the body, with a nice big flared skirt.

And I'm thinking of making a hat to go with it. And a standing collar.  Just putting these bits down for future reference, since I don't have time to do anything about it right now.

***

I'll also be working on the Snow/Winter Queen over the next year.  I'll see if I can put up some photos of what I have so far; not sure when that will happen.

Dragon Con 2015 Rockabilly X-Men Update

Okay, so opted for Cyclops instead of Dark Phoenix. Ordered some cool sunglasses -- will probably have to paint the frames, but they're cat eye and the lenses are a firey red/gold.

I have a blue dress that should work, with tailoring, and can still use the gold tights.

Need:
- yellow/gold shoes
- red belt
- yellow/gold gloves
- maybe a gold sash for that splash of yellow in the middle?

I can style my own hair instead of a wig because Cyclops is a brunette.

***

I might still do a Dark Phoenix, but go a little more Chinese than I was planning before -- altho' the cheongsam was popular in the 50s, interesting enough...