costuming

all costuming posts

To Comic-Con or Not to Comic-Con…

/ Varza / Leave a comment

More specifically San Diego Comic Con. My husband and I recently sat down to talk about trying to make it out to San Diego Comic Con this summer, unfortunately it coincides with some family plans so we couldn’t. Then we talked about trying to make it next year but we are having some doubts. We have both been in the past. I made it the last year that they sold passes at the con for that year. He went the year the Twi-Heads destroyed it. Talking about these events made us wonder if it would really be worth going. I mean it is one of the few conventions we can attend that have some of the artists that do not make it to some of the smaller local conventions. Artists and Writers such as Jim Lee, Geoff Loeb, etc. It is also probably one of the largest gatherings of some of the lesser known artists. Guys who have been in the business for decades but no one stands in line to meet and barely acknowledges. I love meeting these guys, even if I do not know them by name. You can stand there for hours talking to them about their careers, looking at their books and they are always extremely friendly.

But one wonders is San Diego Comic Con really a comic convention anymore? Is it worth really going now for just the comics when it has become just another junket on the Hollywood Press tour for movies? And it’s not just comic movies they show anymore or even really sci-fi/fantasy. Most of them are centered on this but it’s about who can spend the money. I didn’t go and I don’t want to go to run into a famous actor or actress. This is not saying I haven’t met some famous people on the floor… I ran into Joss Whedon, Jim Lee, and more just walking around on the floor. And I loved it but that isn’t why I went.

While there is still a base of comics at the convention it is mainly just a basic con now. It has become a fashionable, hip place to go for your summer vacation. It’s now an item on many bucket lists. And sadly, it is because of this that we may not attempt to go. We want to because we have friends we want to see that will be there but not sure we want to deal with the mass crowds of people lining up to see some hip Hollywood star. This year we are hitting some smaller more local comic conventions in Albuquerque and Denver. As for next year, maybe we will go but we aren’t really sure. I think it depends on who is going and if we really want to hit the crowds. I personally want to go because there is a chance to have a wonderful conversation with a random person or sitting in a panel that others are ignoring and being slapped upside the head with a wonderful conversation that is going on. I don’t want to go to SDCC for the main stream things, I want to hit the Alex Ross table and see about purchasing one of his scratch papers finally. I want to sit in a panel of Garth Morrison as he waxes philosophical about Batman. I want to walk down an aisle and see amazing original artwork. I want to meet a random artist to discuss making comics with. I want to have dinner with friends I rarely get to see. I want to attend the costume contest and cheer for said friends as they conquer the event.

Damn it, I think I just talked us into going…

 

2009 Halloween Costume

/ Varza / 2 Comments

I was thinking that this year would be a low-key Halloween. That I would just stay home on Saturday night and hand out candy but I really wanted to go out and have some fun or do something. I mean I LOVE Halloween! Love love love it!

So, a friend of mine and I will be co-hosting a party at my house with bad scary movies and just fun relaxing time at my place (I will be sending out the invites in the next few days to all my local friends!). This also means, that I now have to make a Halloween costume. Now, I could do my Slytherin costume again or one of my other costumes but I want to do something fun and a bit more just wacked out. And in truth – I sold or donated almost all my costumes this past year because of my weight loss. I do still have my Ren Faire costume that I purchased many years ago but in truth, its tight and uncomfortable and I don’t want to deal with a heaving bosom all night long. Especially when my beau won’t be there to enjoy it…

I thought long and hard, should I make something or just buy a costume in a bag or what… then suddenly this morning it came to me… I am going to be a “Grey’s Anatomy Gone Bad” – a bit of a play on the “Naughty Nurse” but with more blood… and more of my body being covered. This of course means that pretty much everything I need will be able to be purchased. Which means, I don’t have to cram sewing into my insane work/working out/school schedule that I have going on. And I can relax over my birthday trip to LA because I won’t have to think about a half-finished costume sitting at home on my floor waiting for me.

So what does one need for a “Grey’s Anatomy Gone Bad” costume…

Scrubs – obviously, some surgery/cutting instruments, props, wacked out hair and blood… lots and lots of fake blood because what is a Halloween costume without fake blood?

Slytherin Student Update 7

/ Varza / Leave a comment

I am just posting that I am selling my Slytherin Student Sweater. Its now too big for me and I am going a slightly different way with my look for Halloween.

If you would like to take a look at it: here is the listing

Its an Women’s Extra Large from Whimsic Alley… will be shipping Priorty Mail! So that you will get it in time for Halloween!

Slytherin Student Update 6

/ Varza / Leave a comment

Well, I just spent a load of money but I finally got a majority of the items for my Slytherin Costume. I just by random went by Whimsic Alley to see if any discounts are going on. There are some but they have a Nearly Headless Nick discount going on where if you buy $75 of items from their selected items (there are over 30 pages of items) you get the werewolf wand for $0.99 and on top of that if you buy $50 worth of products you can get the new Rowling book – the Bard – from them for $0.99 (I was able to get both!). So, I figured what the hell, why not. I went ahead and ordered my skirt, the sweater and some quidditch goggles.

Why the quidditch goggles? Well, I have a party I will be heading to around Halloween that is a steampunk themed costume party. So, I am going to stick to the Slytherin Student theme but try to make it a steampunk version of itself and figured the goggles would be a fun touch to it. I will add – I am very happy with Payles right now with their new victorian inspired boots/shoes.

So, I basically have everything I need for my costume except a shirt. Which I can find anywhere here in town – I would hope a button down, collared shirt should be easy to find. But you never know do you!

Hopefully soon I will have pics posted!

eta – now that I think about it… maybe I should of tried to get two wands instead of one… to make a steampunk wand! Meh… I will make a broom instead I think.

Slytherin Student Update 5

/ Varza / Leave a comment

Yep, its yet ANOTHER update on the Slytherin Costume. I have decided to stick with the Converse Double Uppers for now. I am attempting to find silver shoe laces but they are being a bit elusive at the moment. I have ideas if I can’t find what I am looking for but it is a tad frustrating. You would think silver laces would be easy to find… they aren’t.

So, Saturday after work I will be taking back the other two pair of shoes. I thought about keeping them but in truth, I don’t need all of those shoes. I have ones in my closet I still haven’t worn. But I do have my eye on a possible pair for the future if I continue with the Slytherin Student costume after a year. Converse has this great “design-your-own” shoe program. When you can pick different canvas’ for the outside of the shoe, inside of the shoe, the back, the rubber, laces and you can even personalize it on the back or the side of the shoe.  I think a pair of shoes personalized the Hogwarts Houses since they have enough different colours you can mess around with.

Anyways enough of that. I am hoping that by the end of August I will have the plain white oxford shirt and the laces purchased. I will let you know how it goes but its likely that it will be a few weeks until you hear from me again.

Slytherin Student Update 4

/ Varza / Leave a comment

Bought some shoes today and of course like anything else. I couldn’t buy just one! Thats crazy talk! Especially when there are sales going on. I ended up not buying any Mary Janes or any other school girl like shoes. I got three pairs and they were all on sale.

1st pair: Converse Chuck Taylors Double Uppers in Tan and Black but they came with green and white shoe strings. They were on sale from 46.99 to 24.99. The inside layer is tan and I think I may be able to colour it with a marker or something and then find some silver laces.

2nd pair: A pair of Bjornal Black Slip ons from Rack Room Shoes on sale for like 14.98 from 29.99

and finally the

3rd Pair: A pair of black La Vida from Skechers. They were on sale at the Skechers store for $9.95 from $25.00. The ones I am linking to are in the same style but not the actual shoe.

I have no idea if I am going to keep any of these but they are to try out and see if they will work at all.

Slytherin Student Costume Update 3

/ Varza / Leave a comment

Well, I bought my socks tonight. It was funny though, I was talking to my best friend about the socks I was looking for (he doesn’t read my blog btw) and he told me about this great site he found when looking for tabi socks. When we got back on dinner, I asked him to look it up for me and low ‘n’ behold he directed me to Sock Dreams. The store I talked about in my last post.

So, with his help and thoughts we went thru the site and found several pairs of socks. I ended up buying a few different pair just for the fact I couldn’t choose just one pair. But the best part was I found these great pair of socks, loved them! Now, I didn’t look at the name until Lor started laughing…. the name of the socks: Sorcerer Socks. They come in four different versions: dark green & silver, dark blue & silver, dark red & gold and black & gold. Hum! I wonder what they are for?! lol! And yes, I bought them. I mean heck, they were only $6.00, great price for good socks. I also picked up a couple other pairs: Green Knees in the green & black that are over-the-knee socks and also only $6.00 and I picked up the Dreamy Striped Tubes in the Charcoal, Black & Olive which are also over-the-knee socks at $12.00 a pair.

But here are some great facts about the socks: dreamy striped tubes are made from 90% recycled cotton, green knees from 80% recycled cotton. The sorcerer socks aren’t recycled anything. But still – the idea of the socks being made from recycled cotton makes me feel kinda good. Stupid, huh?

Anyways, socks ordered and hopefully I will receive them soon. BTW, if you do see anything you like there – you can get first class USPS shipping free. A nice plus on the top. While it does go slightly against the whole shopping locally, I have only one thing to say – find me a sock store in Albuquerque with this selection and I will go there. Targets’ socks are boring.

Slytherin Student Update 2

/ Varza / 1 Comment

So, its time to buy some more items for the my Slytherin Student Costume. But at the moment, due to loosing weight and inches I am concerned about purchasing the skirt, shirt or sweater. So, maybe next month or the next. Instead I think I am going to start looking for the shoes and socks. They won’t change in size. At least I hope not.

For the shoes, I can’t help but want to go the school girl route and get some blocky Mary Janes or Penny Loafers. I am being very tempted by some sweet looking saddle shoes from Payless though. I love saddle shoes, always have but I’m not sure how well it would look with the school uniform. Maybe, I will get them anyways and just wear them in general or they will just sit in my closet with all my other shoes I never wear. But what I am going for is just a plain black mary jane looking shoe. Simiular to this one at Payless: Bottom Mary Jane. But I may shop around, especially since its back to school time and these are generally around more often now then after October.

But I am finding a ton of socks I want to buy. Of course, being Slytherin, I can’t imagine me wearing normal boring socks. So, instead I think I will have some fun with it. I found some awesome socks at this online store called: Sock Dreams. Now the main problem I am having is picking just one, maybe two pair to choose from depending on my mood. But Sock Dreams has some really cute over the knee socks as well as knee high socks. I also found some really cute ones at a place called Clever that only has a few pairs of socks that would work but I can’t help but love the Argyll ones they have in black-grey-white.

So, now I just have to make a decision or just go ahead and order everything and just be more broke then I already am. But then again… I do have an awesome pair of knee high boots from Doc Martens with a piratey look to them with a sweet 1 1/2″ – 2″ heel that would look pretty sweet with one of those over the knee socks. Hum…. decisions decisions 😀 Made even harder by the fact that I love socks… they can be so much damned fun!

Imperial Crewman Update 1

/ Varza / Leave a comment

(To keep things going smoothly I am reposting my initial costume updates over here from my original myspace blog posts.)

Also on my list of costumes is an Imperial Crewman. This will give me the ability to troop at events where my Fem Tusken may not be acceptable.

I found a hat online but I think I may of done the wrong thing buying on ebay. I don’t feel as good about it now as I did when I said I would buy it. But I guess I will have to take my chances now. l’sigh.

And in case anyone was wondering – no set goal for finishing this one. I have some of the things already but all my money for costumes is coming out a savings I set aside awhile ago to fund my costuming. Stupid and weird. Yes.

You can read more about my IC costume here: https://varzaland.wordpress.com/costuming/imperial-crewman/

Nomi Sunrider Costume Update 1

/ Varza / Leave a comment

Yep, another one. This is another Rebel Legion costume that I am working on. This year at Bubonicon we are going to be having a period of time for a meet n greet for the Rebel Legion and since we only have a handful in the state I will actually need to wear a Rebel Legion costume for the event and in truth, I don’t want to sweat it out under my fem tusken. Plus, it is really really hard to talk to people with that mask on. This way, I can talk, move around etc in the costume. And this is the first costume I am making with an actual deadline that it absolutly needs to be done by.

Deadline – August 21, 2008 (Bubonicon starts on the 22nd).

Step 1 in this process is finding the materials. Yesturday I headed to the local Hancock Fabrics and found the perfect fabric for the pants a nice tan Buttersuede. A a great fabric for the cloak which is another suede fabric. Its simiular in colour but the textures are much different giving the cloak a nice weight for moving around and flow when I do. Unfortunatly, Hancock was having problems with the credit card authorization and I didn’t want to wait in line anymore so I left. Not like the fabric I was buying was on sale like the rest of the store. I had to choose non-sale fabrics. Argh 😀 Anyways, at least I know what I am getting so now I just have to get to the store. The pants will be the easiest part. I can make those in an hour. Easy. Finding the right green – now that is a COMPLETELY different story. Was in Hancock for over an hour without finding the right shade with a good fabric.

Step 2 – Lightsaber, found someone to make it for me. Just have to draw it out. Yeah!!

https://varzaland.wordpress.com/costuming/nomi-sunrider