Leia Rebel Scout - Star Wars IV - Poncho

The second part of my Leia costume--let's talk about the poncho! I think this poncho is probably what makes this costume somehow so cool and so dorky all at the same time. I really love the neat cowl neck hood and the free flowing back as design elements. This is perhaps the most underrated Leia costume there is.

I hope to do a photoshoot of this later this spring out in the woods somewhere. For now you will have to settle for crappy mirror pics, as I don't even have convention photos of this costume yet...

To see how I styled the wig, go here!
















After patterning and mocking it up, I then cut out the pieces in the real fabric and laid them out. I used watered down fabric paints and splattered and sponged on some different tones in mixed greens and browns. I actually really like how the camo pattern turned out.

You can see below the difference between when it was wet and when it dried.

My one difficulty here was that my brown paint had expired and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. The paint kept separating and actually added some extra unintentional texture.

Right you can see the hood pieces laid flat. The hood is made of 4 "C" shapes that make up the outer rim, 2 rectangles (not pictured) that form the centre top of the hood and that one super weird piece the forms the sides of the hood and wraps around the front of the collar. The goal was to not have a seam up the front of the hood because there isn't one in any of my reference pictures. I think I managed to recreate it pretty accurately.

After everything dried, I ironed it to set the fabric paint and then sewed it together. 

The actual construction was super straight-forward--and unfortunately I didn't document it. 

I faced the side edges of the poncho and hemmed the front and back. The hood was first pieced together and then attached to the poncho neck hole. 

Some pictures of the finished poncho. 

The last step was to add the holes for the belt. Which secures the poncho in the front only. I faced and reinforced the hole. The process was similar to starting a welt pocket. 

January Update

Hey all! I guess it's been a while. Happy New Year!

2016 was not a very productive year on the cosplay front. That's primarily because I've been getting more work in my industry but also due to me taking some time to step back from my projects a bit. I have not been as active on this blog as I would like, but that's partially due to a lack of finished material to post about.


For me this has been a year of learning and career progress.

I finished 2 costumes this year from my ongoing projects list and completed several more smaller projects (mostly hats!).

The first was Presea. This one was in progress and then on hiatus for several years--with the bulk of the work having been completed more than 3 years ago. I'm glad I was able to finally complete the battle axe this year with my current skill-level in painting. :)

The second (and final) costume I completed was Princess Leia from Return of the Jedi--her Rebel Scout outfit. I've been a Star Wars fan since forever and Leia and Han were always my favourite characters. It was nice to finally cosplay from that series. And also to step-up my wig game.

I still need to get some finished shots of this costume--aiming for late spring to do a photoshoot in the park behind my house.

So, what does 2017 have in store for me?

On the cosplay front: Completing the last 4 costumes I have left on the go! Plus 2 new secret projects? Secret mostly means I haven't quite finalized the list yet, and I don't want you guys to hold me to any promised future costumes. Hoping to complete the top row in the first half of the year, and announce my 2 new costumes halfway through the year.

On the personal front: Well, I have some product ideas that I am taking off the backburner. I've been working on some designs for a while and need to finish prototyping. Looking at debuting some things to sell early spring.

On the blog front: I'll try to keep up! Haha

That's all for now folks! Looking forward to 2017 with a positive mind! Gotta get back in the groove!

Leia Rebel Scout - Star Wars VI - Wig

Hey guys! Lets take our first look at my Leia Rebel Scout costume! I won the "Best of Thursday" award at the FanExpo Cosplay Craftsmanship Contest 2016 with this costume.

I've wanted to do something Star Wars for a long time, but I was undecided what costume to do. I was interested in doing Leia, since I enjoy her character a lot (though not as much as my undying love for Han Solo). But as far as costumes go I thought her most iconic outfit is kind of bland and "slave Leia" is really not my kind of costume. I did however find the rebel uniforms pretty neat and really loved those bizarre ponchos they wear in the forest on Endor, so I thought I would do the most un-cosplayed Leia costume there is. Enter, Leia Rebel Scout!

This wig was a bit a leap for me in terms of wig skills--I have never worked with a lace front before this. So I was worried it was going to turn out awfully. My fears were unfounded though! For my first lace-front I thought the application went pretty damn smoothly.  Especially since my boyfriend Blayke was my assistant for the first trial run and we know how he likes to do cosplay (hint it involves using only staples).

But I got quite a few compliments on my wig! Most people were fooled into thinking it was my actual hair and praised my hair braiding wizard skills. If they were fooled, it must have worked? ;D

My base wig was from Arda Wigs--because they sell good quality lace-front wigs for cosplay. I got the Matilda in warm light brown. I was a bit disappointed to discover that it looked more ginger than I wanted, so I actually toned down the colour with a brown sharpie before I started styling it. What this means is that I took individual fibers/small bundles and coloured them in, this gave it a more natural look of colour variation that helped to darken it a bit.


This style involved next to no cutting--it was primarily sectioning the hair and braiding it. I sheared off a few strands at the front to create the wisps of hair that hang down at the sides of her face and give a more worn look to the hairstyle--like she has in the Endor scenes.

This style involved next to no cutting--it was primarily sectioning the hair and braiding it. I sheared off a few strands at the front to create the wisps of hair that hang down at the sides of her face and give a more worn look to the hairstyle--like she has in the Endor scenes. I straightened these later because they were a little too curly.

The two braids that come up and over the head start one on each side. As they passed the halfway point hair from the front hairline was french braided in to extend the length. Then they were tucked in and pinned in place.

The bun at the back is made up of 6 sections. There are 2 braids that take most of the top section--these were held off to the side at first. I took the next two sections--which are fairly close together at the center back--and twisted them into two small buns. Then I took my next two smaller sections and braided them. 

The first two braids were crossed below the buns and then coiled around the bases. They were pinned in place there. The smaller braids were then coiled around the two buns in a figure eight--turning the two separate buns into one larger bun.

I trimmed the excess lace at the front down to less than 1/4".

The application process went fairly smoothly but took a hell of a long time. The wig actually has a comb clip in the front, which I hooked onto my own hair (I french braid my bangs when I wear wigs) to keep it from sliding. This wig is fairly back heavy.

I started at the center of the hairline and made sure it was sitting in the correct place. Then I moved outwards from the center along the hairline down each side doing small sections and gluing them in place with spirit gum. I used a hairdryer to speed up the drying time (that was Blayke's job) while I held things in the correct place. Once it was done it looked pretty convincing!

The Thrifty Costume Challenge

So, as those of you who follow me on facebook know, this past summer at my job we engaged in competition of sorts.

The rules were: Using only things you find at the thrift store, the dollar store, your closet, and as a last resort, Walmart, you must create a costume to fit the weekly theme. Try to keep your budget under 20$. The sub-goal is to google the costume and find the crappiest costume someone else on the internet has come up with and see if you can beat that--thats how you set the bar for your standards! >;D

I think it's fitting that I saved this post for October, because contrary to my normal costume-making projects, the goal of the costume challenge was to create costumes as cheap and quick as possible--perfect for Halloween! Terrible = Great!

Hope maybe some of you find some Halloween inspiration here! >:D Without further ado I present the results of the Weekly Wardrobe Dress-up Challenge!

Week 1: Scooby Doo

Started off with a bang as the Mystery Gang! Pretty easy costumes to throw together for our first week, and a solid recognizable group.  Winner for the cheapest costume goes to Sarah, who spent a total of 3$ on her Shaggy outfit! Talk about a ham sandwich! Points for outstanding accuracy go to Devon for her Velma! You beat all the "sexy Velmas" that came up in our google search. Seriously--why is that a thing? Points to Frances as Scooby for being the most popular with children!

Daphne
Purple dress: 7$ (heavily altered)
Purple skirt: 3$ (cut up to use as trim & headband)
Green scarf: 1$
Shoes: from closet

Total: 11$
Sewing time: 3hrs

Week 2: Grease

We cheated a little bit--one of our cast members owns a costume rental place and hooked us up with the Pink Ladies jackets for free. But the rest was all thanks to us and the trusty local thrift store. We made a night out of pin-curling our hair while watching the movie!

Cheapest costume award again goes to Sarah for her 2$ Frenchie costume. And the 2$ was spent on prop lollipops. Seriously, who owns a poodle skirt?? Creativity points to Melissa for turning a mens plaid shirt into a plaid skirt! Points to Devon for reusing her shoes from Velma.

Marty
Jacket: FREE
Navy skirt: 7$
White shirt: 2$ (altered to fit)
Blue shirt: 1.50$ (turned into neckerchief)
Shoes: from closet

Total: 10.50$
Sewing time: 30min
Hair prep: 1hr

Week 3: Powerful Women / Game of Thrones

The theme was powerful women, but several of us wanted to do Game of Thrones characters. Hence the bizarre theme name. Nothing is as surreal as being driven to work by Furiosa.

I think I got a little too over-ambitious that week... We all did. Creativity points the Game of Thrones gals for using duvets, bedsheets, table cloths and chair covers to recreate the stunning GoT costumes on a budget.

I actually don't know whose costume was the cheapest that week, but I have a feeling it was either Devon or Sarah. Extra bonus points for Frances for wearing every belt in existence and for her robot arm that was so shiny and chrome (despite being made primarily of cardboard).

Arya
Beige fabric: 10$
Gold chair cover: 5$
Green circular tablecloth: 3$
Shoes: from closet
Total: 18$
Sewing time: 12hrs
Hair prep: 40min

Week 4: Jurassic Park
Jurassic park week--because really, we were in Drumheller. It would be silly to waste a perfect opportunity to take pictures with dinos. Probably the easiest costume I made for this whole thing, since our thrift store was predominantly 80s-90s clothes.

Special shoutout to Sarah for putting up with our teasing all day and us forcing her to wear the padding. She was actually the highlight of the group as Dennis Nedry. Points to Devon for stealing tacky amulets from the wardrobe to wear with her Jeff Goldblum costume.

Extra bonus points to Sarah for finding actual Barbasol brand shaving cream to use as a prop. And then tweeting them pics of her costume. And they tweeted back! Why do they have a twitter? I don't know.

Lex
Elsa hat: 13$ (with attached blonde braid. Seriously wtf)
Purple shirt: 2$
90s jeans: 3$
Purple paint: 1$
Shoes: from closet

Total: 19$
Sewing & painting time: 1hr

DOUBLE BONUS POINTS TO DEVON & SARAH FOR MY FAVOURITE PHOTO EVER.

Week 5: Sound of Music

This was a stupid idea that I came up with. The original joke was that we needed to find terrible curtains at the thrift store and turn them into clothes for the Von Trapp kids like Maria does to the curtains in the movie. We ended up finding super cheap fabric on sale at Fabricland and got like 12m to split between the 6 of us. Everyone's a winner, we all spent the same amount! We managed to recruit 6/7 Von Trapps. Not bad! Not featured are the extra bandanas that were distributed to the other departments so everyone could match.

Friedrich
Fabric: 5$
Wig: courtesy of Sarah's closet
Shirt: from closet
Shoes: from closet

Total: 5$
Sewing time: 3.5hrs

Week 6: Cult Classics
One of those weeks where we picked a broader theme and kind of all did our own thing. Featuring Melissa as John from the 80s classic The Breakfast Club, Sarah as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Devon as Princess Aura from Flash Gordon, and myself as The Black Knight from Monty Python's The Holy Grail.

Creativity points to Sarah for using hockey tape to make striped pants!? My mind is still exploding over this. Effort points to Devon for that wicked jacket. Smart points go to Melissa for the most functional yet still recognizable costume in a workplace environment. I get points for being a paint wizard.

I had to buy a lot of stuff to make this that I wouldn't normally have if I lived at home where I have a stock of basic craft supplies--like paint.

The Black Knight:
Black dress: 8$
Black shirt: from closet
Black leggings: from closet
Shoes: from closet
Bucket: 2$
Bristol board: 1$ (for stencil)
Red paint: 1$
Black paint: 1$
Silver paint: 1$

Gold paint: free
Killer rabbit: 2$
Holy hand grenade: 2$
Gems: 1.50$
Red fabric scraps: free (for fake bleeding stump arm)

Total: 19.50$
Painting time: 2hrs

Week 7: Star Wars
Sarah and I blatantly cheated. I already had a Leia costume in the works and Sarah's obsession with Anakin fueled her to screw the budget and make the costume for real.

Double bonus points for creativity go to Frances. Her BB8 was on point! Take note of the neckpiece, which is the brim of a sunhat. And the orange electrical tape. Points to Devon for her amazing McGyvered staff. Made of a pole, a flashlight and solo cups... or are they HAN SOLO CUPS?

Also--bonus points to Devon who bought hair extensions from the dollar store and literally nobody noticed because they perfectly matched her hair. No one thought it was odd that she suddenly had 10 extra inches of hair.

Leia
I'M A CHEATER.
This was the first wear test for my Leia Rebel scout.
The pieces of which were lying around in my workshop.
For free.
Totally.

Total: $$$

Week 8: Gender-Bent Disney Princes (Men)
Philip! I had been looking forward to this since we were deciding themes at the very beginning. Originally we were going to do this one earlier, but it ended up being at the end. The joke was that all I really wanted was to make Philip's hat and then wear it with every costume. Originally it was just supposed to be Disney princes, but Devon wanted to be Gaston.

Congrats to Melissa for being the most easily recognizable as Prince Eric and tying the group together nicely! Bonus points to Devon for continuing to freak people out with her hair extensions.

Philip
Red felt: 10$ (made into hat, tons of leftover)
Red sheets: 5$ (shared with the Red Woman from GoT week, made into cape)
Off-white fabric: 5$ (made into dress)
Belt: courtesy of Furiosa
Black shirt: from closet
Shoes: from closet

Total: 20$
Sewing time: 8hrs

ARE YOU INSPIRED YET? There's still over a week until Halloween--you've got time! Make something super awesome with 20$ and whatever's lying around!

Otakuthon 2016

Salutations! This past weekend was Otakuthon: which is my second and last con of the summer! So sad! D: I wish I could have made it out for more events this year...

Overall a pretty relaxing con compared to last year--particularly Saturday. But a lot of early mornings. I was already exhausted going into this weekend though, so I needed some recovery time afterwards.

Friday: Our bus got in around 3:30 and we checked into the hotel. I got changed into Toph and we headed to pick up our badges. We did most of dealers'/artist alley before the con closed. Then we went for a dinner date in old Montréal.

Saturday: I started the day by meeting a friend from school for a delicious breakfast at Fabergé. Chocolate waffles--sooooo good. Then I attended the con in the afternoon/evening, debuting my Leia costume. Admittedly not Leia's most iconic outfit, nor a particularly sci-fi savvy event. So I went largely unnoticed, which was expected.  But I also forgot to take any pictures of the costume, besides the one silly selfie, so I am kicking myself a bit. The lace front wig went really well for my first time applying one! However it took almost an hour to get it off! Eek! (Note Blayke's "Storm Derper" costume, he spent a whole hour making it.)

Sunday: 9am photoshoot with Don Dolce Photography in Old Montréal. I decided to shoot my Toph costume rather than Leia because the timing was going to be too tight with taking off the wig AND checking out of the hotel. I wish I could have gone to watch World Cosplay Summit this year, but my 4pm bus back to Toronto made the timing too tight to go--I would have had to leave halfway through. I only got a little bit of con plague.

Overall it was a good con, though I am sad none of my friends attended this year. I think we might stay until the monday next year so that we can have a more relaxing sunday.

Hard to believe the con season is over for me? Hopefully I can make it to more events next year. For now, back to making costumes and updating the blog. And job hunting...

June Update

It's been a while! I'm being kept very busy with work, and have been neglecting writing more posts. Between my full time job and weekly dress up challenge, it feels like I'm running a marathon. We're about 2 weeks to opening, so it will only get crazier.

I will do a more in-depth post on my dress-up challenges, but for now you can enjoy the group of us dressed as the Pink Ladies from Grease! The challenge is to make a costume to fit the theme using only things you have or can find at Dollarama or the local thrift store. 6 weeks done, only 2 left to go... I don't think I've ever been to the thrift store so much in my entire life.

I got my photos from the photo shoot of my Presea costume I did with Elemental Photography back in April. They look fabulous and I am super happy! :) I'm excited to finish posting about that costume--it's only been like 3 years...

Making leaps and bounds in my progress on Leia! I'm in good shape to have it ready for Otakuthon. Wig arrived this week, so I can finally get started on that part as well.

January Update

It's 2016 suddenly--and that means new projects for the new year!

...I realize I've been disappearing a lot lately. I am having trouble sticking to a regular posting schedule. I could apologize, but I won't. Blogging is a hobby, and as much as I love it, sometimes real life comes first. My plan for the new year is to post once every other week. I think that will be more manageable for me. Upcoming content includes Vaporeon, Vaporeon and more Vaporeon. With a few DIY projects I did this winter.

My first project I've started is to build myself a website for my portfolio. It will be nice to have a professional-looking site to house my costume and design work. It's taking longer than I thought though, because technology is my worst enemy. And also because I misplaced a lot of files when I transferred everything to my new computer this fall. I've spent the better part of this week reorganizing my hard drive. Uuuuuugh.

Without further ado, I present this year's cosplay projects!

6 costumes that are in varying states of completion (represented by the arbitrary percentages I have labelled them with). I make no promises on any of these, but the general goal here is to finish what I've already started before undertaking any more hugely complicated projects.

Presea: Costume started in ...2012/2013??? I wore it to Otakon the same year I did Kero & Suppi, but I have zero finished pictures. Unfortunately, the giant battle axe sustained serious paint-chipping damage in transit. I just need to sand down and re-paint the axe and this costume is finished. I would really love to do a photoshoot of this in the spring.

Jack Frost: I started this costume the same winter the film was released (2012), but I grew disinterested because it quickly became a costume that was SO overdone that con season. The costume pieces are built but need detailing. I think this will provide an interesting fabric painting challenge for me. I would love to have this done for a winter photoshoot, if I can.

Phoenix: An original design I did for my final project in university. My focus there was building the armour, but since I learned so much during the process, I want to go back and re-work some things. I don't expect to finish this costume this year, but I would like to build the tailored vest. The goal deadline is CostumeCon in 2017--which I think is a realistic deadline.

Sakura: Started this past September. It feels like I am trying to build every single Sakura costume in existence. I assure you, this is not the case. Just this one. And the other 2 I've made. And maybe some more after that.

Leia: Started this past October. Building the uniform pictured above as well as the poncho and helmet from the scenes on Endor. By far one of my favourite Leia costumes--except for perhaps her bounty hunter disguise from the same film.

Link: My excuse to bring out King of the Red Lions again. He's been sitting in our basement collecting dust. It makes me sad. The best part about making a Link costume is deciding which props to build. I think I want to make the mirror shield... But not sure what else...

Anyhoo, those are what I plan to work on this year. I may add another project to the list later on--as is always bound to happen when inspiration strikes.

In other news: I am taking a millinery course in night school starting later this month. Hat-making ahoy! Pretty stoked for that. But this may lead to some previously unplanned Downton Abbey costume. I love the heck out of that show and miss it already.

Hats off to a new year! Lets make it a good one! ;D

Star Wars & Star Trek Pillows

A batch of nerdy home decor! These pillows were a belated birthday/anniversary/housewarming present for my boyfriend. Because he has a bench that he is currently using as a couch that didn't have any padding on it--not good for parties (which he has yet to host). :P

I must confess I liked both prints (which I picked up at affordable textiles on Queen St,), but I couldn't decide, so I got both. I'm pretty sure having these in the same room is blasphemy, much less having them on the same couch. I don't know much about Star trek, but I do know that yellow is the command colour, Spock wears blue and Red shirts always die (except Scotty??), so this may have influenced my decision? :P Interesting to note: the Star Wars fabric has every main character except Luke on it. Hahaha (And by that I mean from the original trilogy, not from the terrible movies from the 2000's.)

 I bought pillows and foam squares to cover. I measured them and cut squares from my print fabrics that were slightly larger than the pillows (plus seam allowances).

For the backs I made them out of 2 rectangles overlapping at the center. This opening allows them to be easily removed and washed. The open edges were finished off with a fold over hem then ironed.

Then I laid the front and back pieces right sides together and sewed around the edges. Then the pillow was turned right way out.

Lastly I added a piece of velcro at the back opening on each to keep them closed.

This project was really simple and a fun way to decorate the room!