Alice Hat

As Cosplay volunteers there is a need for family friendly, recognizable characters. My daughter loves anime and usually cosplays from there but she also comes to events with me and decided she wanted to be Alice in Wonderland. She drew out her own dress design and included a hat. this is how we put her hat together. 

Using basic craft foam you can see I cut angles into a straight rectangle to create a proper shape.

It cannot be a straight line rectangle. so cutting and tucking the lines allowed me to have an arched template to recut the actual upright portion of the hat.  

a CD ended up being the proper diameter for the brim. 

Then cut a smaller circle for the top.  Not sure what I used as a template.

I wanted to make sure it was the topsy turvy shape we wanted so I did a simple tape job and cut down anything that didn't feel right. 

Then it was time to glue. I'm becoming a big fan of E6000

Once the glue was applied I re-taped to hold everything in place while the adhesive set.

Looking about right. I got to this point on my photos and realized I didn't take any shots of applying the fabric. We just used the same fabric as her dress. Cut it a bit larger than the foam pieces and lightly painted Aleene's Flexible, Stretchable Fabric Glue. I applied the top and brim fabric first with cut notches wrapped over the edge. Added a bottom piece as a solid finish. Then, using the same arched template I cut a piece to put a solid, clean finish to the upright. then after all of this I wasn't happy with it. I recut all the pieces, wrapped them all in the fabric THEN glued it all together. it ended up with a MUCH cleaner look.   

I then turned it over to the daughter to put it all together. We had to have a pink feather representing Flamingo Croquet. I got a hold of an old clock face. It had some spacer posts on the back so we added a layer of foam to expand the attachable surface. 

a striped fabric band and a few gears and she was happy with the outcome.

Cute Huh.  It really is simple. I honestly made it up as I went along knowing the hoped for outcome. The nice thing about craft foam is that it's cheap. So play with it, make mistakes, then be proud of yourself for playing and creating.

The dress will be my next post. 

Great Cosplay

Today I am showing some of my favorite cosplay from the past 2 years. I don't take many photos and they are all from my phone. But I wanted to share the standouts that have caught my eye. THIS is what I love at fan conventions. The creativity and cleverness of what these builders pull together is AMAZING and so much of it HANDMADE?! 

This was at the very first ComiCon. I have no idea if this is a character or what materials she used. It is just an amazing build. She had barely entered the Salt Palace and was surrounded for photos. It was so cool. There had to be wheels under the tail end to help it glide along. 

This falls into the clever. 

I saw these two cuties walking with their dad and had to ask for a photo. So Stinking adorable. We saw them later at KidCon dancing. Darth had requested a Michael Jackson song and was busting a move. 

This Snow White was GORGEOUS! The fabrics were beautiful she did an amazing job making this.  

Love the sass going on here. 

One of my first shots from the most recent FanX. How awesome is the Sponge-Bob Captain?

Thor here is a favorite with the ladies. There was an entire 100+ comment, Facebook thread pretty much dedicated to him. He is the nicest guy as well. I first "met" him helping kids shoot arrows at Fantasy Con and asked him (awkwardly/creepily) if he cosplayed Thor, because he totally should. I was relieved when he said Thor would be there the next day. 

He came over twice to do Superhero Training at KidCon/FanX. He did the full rotation with the kids then stayed for each kid to get a photo with him. I smiled seeing a cute little girl just watching him in awe. (some of our kidCon volunteers looked at him with the same look;-)   

These are friends of my daughters. They are always lovely, but I liked their Steampunk Ariel and Ursula. 

This is my awesome sister. She was trying to think of a Halloween costume and decided to go with one of her childhood favorites. I love how she pulled this together in a matter of hours. One creative idea is that she found the socks, realized they were perfect and bought 2 pairs making one into the sleeves. 

Very nice man who was a nearly perfect Spock. We recently learned of Leonard Nimoy's death. This is a nice reminder of all the Nimoy greatness

This couple has been doing the Galaxy Quest Aliens for a few cons and are always appreciated. They do all the weird noised and motions and even the -lead with the knee-caps- walk. This is the first time I was able to get a photo.

This little guy is awesome. His Dad built this costume. It has even received a twitter thumbs up from James Gunn the director of Guardians of the Galaxy. He loves the costume so much he'll wear it on random days to grocery shop. But if you think this is cute it gets better

When you see the cutie inside.

This is a halloween costume I had to share. Anna here... is my nephew Parker. He and his buddies were trying to decide what to dress up as. His mom teased them about being Elsa and Anna. they figured it was a great idea and went with it. 

They are in sunday flats and I LOVE his sassy pose. 

I was able to help at Boo at the Zoo when this awesome Frozen family came in. How CUTE are they?

Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne from Dumb & Dumber. These two guys walked in sword fighting with their canes and whacking each others legs. It was perfect but I'm sure Mom was rethinking it before the day was through. 

Cary Elwes came to Comicon 2014. This group came as Men in Tights. I noticed their great poses through out the day. People getting into their characters and playing along makes it even better. 

I saw this family and Had to get a shot. How cute is Russell. I Love UP!

Back to the clever. I saw this lady with a milk crate with handle bars attached to her. I watched her for a minute before I realized what she was doing. I asked for a photo and she pulled out the moon. Too funny

The Knights who say Ni. Always love a good Holy Grail reference. 

This cute Toy Story group also came to Kid Con to do photos with the kids. This photo also features my friend Lisa and her daughter Hannah

Sometimes I think "I have worked really hard on this one. Maybe we should enter it into a cosplay contest." Then I see things like THIS.  

How amazing is this Dark Angel? This is all hand made! Just incredible. She is the dark and her friend Is the Light. 

How gorgeous are they?  

Surprising no one, They won the Fantasy Con Costume contest. 

See... Amazing! I love making costumes and trying new things but I will never be at THIS level. I will always be amazed and fascinated by the cosplayers. I love to just find a seat and watch them walk in. So if you are ever in downtown Salt Lake the weekend of a fan convention pay attention, you may see works of art walking right by you. 

Snow White Wrist Cuff

Lets finish off the Snow White extras today. 

One thing I have been seeing in Steampunk costuming is wrist cuffs. These can be layered or carved leather, metal, lace, fabric. Any shapable material.  I have wanted to try to make one and my limited ability is still best in fabric. This is my step by step. 

I cut out a fabric piece in this shape

Then made accordion folds

Then, realizing the back wasn't going to look too good,  I cut out a muslin backing, sewed it wrong sides together leaving an opening about midway on both sided to add ribbon ties later. Turned it right side out, reshaped the accordion folds and added some cool lace. Sewing the lace down to secure all the folds. 

I gathered items that I thought might work then eliminated most of them due to weight. The chains, charms and Seven Dwarves ended up on her belt chain. The scrolled frame is actually a dollhouse mirror. I covered the mirror with tape to repaint and glaze the detail then decided I liked a different shape more (it came in a 3 pack) I also used a tiny drill bit on my Dremel to drill a hole through the top and bottom of the mirror.  I sewed through that to attach it onto the cuff. 

This is what I decided on. Then sewed it all down with transparent thread. 

I don't have a clear shot of the cuff with her costume but took this to show how it ended up. Nothing too major. Just a fun extra detail. 

Still lots of photos loaded and awaiting attention. More should be coming soon. 

Have a wonderful sunday

Snow White update

After a fun, first ComiCon, Kori decided she wanted to be more involved and started trying to figure out how do more with costuming. She had this Snow White costume but wanted to personalize it with SteamPunk elements. We soaked the costume in a brown dye in an attempt to age it a bit, but its a  synthetic silky finish so that didn't do much. We looked for other elements that a first time maker could do. 

We added Goggles, a corset belt, A chain with various Snow White Icon charms, a longer "slip" for added length and her awesome skull Converse Allstars.  

She was a hit with lots of photos taken. (the ultimate cosplay compliment) 

But after a couple of cons we decided it was time for some updating. We added a new longer backed Petticoat/ Bustle, 

A new slip with a beautiful lace edging.

A new, cool Corset belt that sits a little different on her bustle. 

We found a cool necklace with the 7 Dwarves. It was a weird color, but I am becoming quite brave with a can of spray paint. 

We also made a pouch for her cell phone to loosen up her hands when kids attack her

This photo taken by a con photographer which is why it beats my usual cellphone shots. 

Before        and        After

It is an adapt of a pre-made costume. Homemade is wonderful but not always feasible or sometimes you find a perfect element to help you along the way to your costume. Cosplay can be anything and is just a chance to express your fandoms. I think Kori's love of Snow has grown as she has been stopped for photos, recognized as "You're Steampunk Snow White??" (she is getting a following) and while watching children eyes light up as they run to hug her. 

We have made quite a few different pieces now and we are discussing creating a whole new dress. I am not sure how or when this might happen. There are details we really love and things we would like to do better. So keep an eye out as Septembers ComiCon approaches. We may have a new Snow White to reveal

We have seen this dress used once since and thought it was cool to see the different eye used to create this Snow White found with a group of lovely Steampunk Princesses