Poison Ivy is a Definite GO!

I have for sure, 100%, decided that I am doing Poison Ivy for Rose City Comic Con in September! I have started pinning some costumes for inspiration here. This is the Pinterest board where I leave little tidbits I find that I might want to follow up on. Feel free to check it out; I've been pinning way, so there's lots of cute stuff on there! I also want these boots for my outfit. They are amazing, and I think they would speak to the whole dryad look I am aiming for. I want to do a bit more naturalist of a Poison Ivy with a few of my own twists.

This week I went to the thrift store and purchased a slightly-too-large bathing suit. I am going to sew all of my leaves to it. Yes, I know that the Con isn't until September, but I'm cutting out and sewing hundreds of felt leaves, so I figured getting a jump-start couldn't hurt! I got the suit a bit too large so that it wouldn't stretch and distort too much when I put it on, and so that it would be more comfortable to wear for a whole weekend. Comfort is important! Also, I want to eat nachos, so I can't be too constricted. Just sayin', a girl's gotta get her nacho on.

I will forgo the painted on vines for my arms and legs and just go for some wire stemmed ivy from the floral department. I like the authenticity of having it three-dimensional. I think I'll also have to figure out some interesting eye makeup. In all, very excited for this costume. I will post pictures later this week when I have some of the leaves ready to go!

Wizard World Comic Con 2014

I know it's been a week since the con and I'm a terrible blogger for not posting sooner. That's not to say that a certain miss Kate couldn't have posted for us, but you know! ;-)

The reason for my delay is that the last day of Comic Con I flew out from Portland (I love several hours south of there in Oregon) to beautiful Las Vegas. I have friend who just had a brilliant baby boy and I needed to meet him! Now I'm done in Vegas and am meandering down to Arizona to see my grandparents. So you can see it's been a busy week! I still haven't been home since before the convention.

Now I'm relaxing in a hotel, all packed to leave in the morning for Arizona (where it's supposed to be snowing!!) and I simply cannot sleep. Because of this I figured now would be as good a time as any to start recording the goings-on of last weekend.

First off, let me just say: HO-LY CUH-RAP! It was amazing. I was so stressed going into it. I didn't know if we would be the only ones dressed up, or if everyone else would be professional cosplayers and we would be the only ones in home made gear, or if people would be nice. Turns out there was nothing to worry about! Everyone was so nice. There was a whole mix of levels, from the grandly professional to the "printed T-shirt and accessories," and no one seemed to mind. On the day when I wore Wonder Woman and Kate wore Penguin a lot of people even asked for photos with us! Talk about flattering!

I got to have my nerd moments. Nicholas Brendan was ten feet from me. Yeah, that happened. I am a huge Buffy fan and kind of lost my cool a tiny bit. Maybe more than a tiny bit. Then I turned around and Ivy Doomkitty, one of my favorite cosplayers, was right there. I almost just turned around and walked away but instead I very calmly (read: with hands shaking and probably squeaking like a chipmunk) went over and said hi. The inner fangirl had an amazing day. I even got a picture with Ivy. Yup. Epic.

Costumes came out great. The only problem was not being able to get my hair as curled as I wanted it. Add to that the fact that I have about 34 cubic yards of unruly, heavy, red mop on top of my head, and by the end of the day it was definitely not doing the large Wonder Woman look. But that's OK. I think I'm going to invest in a wig for future costuming, and maybe just maybe cut all my hair off and burn it ceremoniously to rid it of its demon posesor. Still unsure on the second part.

Here are some photos from the weekend. I will add more to this listing when I darn well feel like it. Or maybe I won't. Either way, I'm off to lay in bed and draw up sketches for new costumes. Maybe if everyone promises to not make fun of the fact that I can't draw to save my life I'll even post some later! Good night!

Edit: 2/15/14 Came back through to caption some pictures :-) 

Here I am as Lady Thor

Lady Loki (Kate), Lady Thor (Me), Raven (Maecy) and of course Princess Sophia!

Princess Sophia Digivolve into Storm!

Wonder Woman (Me) and Black Canary (Maecy)

Kate as FemPenguin in what is arguably the cutest corset ever

The tiniest Wonder Girl, ready for action.

Jean-Luc likes to party it up when he goes to Cons

DIY Costume Bracers

I have been second guessing myself on my fantastic Wonder Woman bracers I made. I wanted something a little more "armor" and a little less "glamour." On the way home from work I was struck with a sudden inspiration, and I came home and made these beauties:

Aside from the lumps in the paint job, I'm really happy with how they turned out. I decided to include on this blog directions for how I made them. This will guide you, step by step, through the process I used to create these wonderful, easy gauntlets. 

And here we go!

Step 1: Don't Reduce, Don't Recycle, Just Reuse

Take two soda bottles and clean them out really well. I mean really well. You truly don't want to deal with half-dried soda syrup that's been heated by a scalding hot glue gun. That epitomizes unpleasant. I had to use my husband's soda bottles, which can be conveniently found on the kitchen counter. All over the counter. All the time. 

Step 2: Slice

Cut the bottles. This can be accomplished with a sharp pair of scissors. Apparently it can also be accomplished with a dull pair of scissors and lots of swearing. I cut mine right below the textured part on top and right above the bottom texture to maximize the length. You could also cut them shorter if you wanted bracelets instead of full arm bands. Now they should be something like this, the cut one on the right and the full bottle on the left:

Now cut off the portion of the bottle that has adhesive permanently stuck to it. This will open the bracelet up to be able to fit around your arm and also get rid of the adhesive. 

"But Rose," you say, "there isn't any adhesive. I managed to get it all off."

That is a lie. There is ALWAYS adhesive. The adhesive on the side of bottles is the stuff of legend.  It won't come off, so just accept it, cut it off, and move on to...

Step 3: Safety First

Get stabbed in the arm with the sharp corners when you attempt to try them on. React, pull it off your arm, and then get stabbed when you do it again because they just look so cool already. I'm tying to be exact in my directions, so this merely chronicles my own experience with sharp plastic to the forearm. Now take your (dull) scissors and round off the corners so that there can be a better ratio of paint to your blood on the final product. Should be something around like this now:

Step 4: That Drawing Class Finally Comes in Handy

Draw your design on. I used a marker. You could use a dry erase marker if you wanted to be able to make corrections, but the finished product will cover the marks, so it really doesn't matter. If you are a skilled artist, have any confidence in your ability to make designs while burning your fingerprints off, or are suffering from an excess of hubris, then skip this step and move on to applying the hot glue. If not them it will look something like this, but hopefully with much better art:

Step 5: The Step in Which You Will Regret Starting this Project and OH GOD IT BURNS MY FINGERS!!

Here's where the fun starts. Now you are going to draw over the designs you did using a hot glue gun. The purpose of this is to make the designs raised so they stand out once you paint over the whole thing. 

This is also the part where, if you're anything like me, you will incur a series of permanent scars. I am not good with hot glue guns. Oh, I get shit done with them. I can glue things to other things like a pro. But in the process I also glue my hand to the table, my fingers to my other fingers, and a series of expletives runs in steady progression from my mouth. I would recommend using a low temp glue gun, not only because it will save you from certain pain, but also because my high temp gun caused the plastic of the bottle to warp slightly. 

The process goes something like this: Pick up glue gun. Swear because you dripped glue on your other hand. Run glue along the drawn line. Set glue gun down to re-position piece. Swear because you touched the hot glue on the bracelet and smudged it while also burning your hand. React to try and save the design and in the process tangle elbow in cord and knock the glue gun off the table onto lap, burning the sweet holy hell out of your leg. Make an oath to whatever you believe in that next payday you will buy that dual temp cordless hot glue gun you've been eyeballing for the past two years. Know in your heart you really never will. 

I'm sure, though, that you will have much better luck than I did (can't really be worse) and it will soon look like this:

I also did dots around the edge to look like rivets. I was especially happy with how those turned out. I do recommend taking the time to use scissors once it's dry and cut the little strings that are always left hanging off. They will become very annoying once you move onto painting. 

Step 6: Put Some Paint on Some Stuff

This step could also be called "Listen to your sister when she makes suggestions." I started with a gold paint that our little sister used to paint her hair when she was Loki on Halloween. She said it wouldn't give me good coverage, but I didn't listen. This is the piece four coats later:

Clearly she was correct. At this point she removed them from my possession (some force was involved), took them outside, and spray painted them with gold paint. She uses those little Short Cuts paints which I believe are made by Krylon, and they work a charm! Here is the finished product:

You can see where I needed to be a little more precise in my application of hot glue, because there are a few lumps. 

I attempted to put some darker paint along the ridges to make them look a little weathered, but failed and stopped trying, for fear I would mess them up. I think what I need to do is put a gloss coat over the whole thing so I can sponge on some brown and wipe it, leaving it only in the crevices. The gloss should allow me to remove it completely from the parts I want to keep gold. However, at this point it was nine thirty at night and we still had three costumes to sew, making this the end of my time I had to spend on them. 

In all they were not a difficult project (with the exception of my nemesis the hot glue gun). If (when) I make another pair I will probably invest in a low temp hot glue gun so I don't distort the shape of the plastic while I'm decorating them. I have also considered using puffy fabric paint in place of hot glue and eliminating the problem all together, but I'm not sure how will it would adhere to the plastic. 

Now the question is, which bracers do I use for Wonder Woman??

Cosplay Trial Run

We did a dress rehearsal for our costumes last night to work out the kinks and see what we still need to do. Maecy's Black Canary is going to be epic! She even found a canary necklace at Fuego that we painted with black nail polish.

She is also going Raven. I'm not incredibly familiar with the character, so I'm mostly taking get word for it that the costume is both awesome and accurate. She seems trustworthy enough.

I have decided to do double duty on my Thor cape and use it for Wonder Woman. I wasn't going to wear a cape as her, but it looked so good when I tried it on that I was persuaded. Kate is going to help me make a gold eagle for the back and I will just pin it on for the second day. I now have my rope as well, because Wonder Woman would be less wonderful without her Magic Lasso!

Thor got a compete makeover for ComiCon. Instead of pants and a gray shirt I am going to wear a black pencil skirt and black corset over a silver button-up. This will give me a much more feminine look, which is my personal ideal.

Kate's Loki will be much the same as it was for Halloween. The one addition will be a fantastic bracelet I bought her. It is a gold coil that closely resembles a snake, and while it came with blue jewels on the end, they will be painted over to a brilliant shade of Loki green. Loki green should be on the official color spectrum. She is still waiting for two parts of her Penguin costume to arrive in the mail (monocle and umbrella). They'd better hurry. Only two weeks to go!

Speaking of only two weeks to go, I'd probably better finish setting up the side of my Wonder Woman skirt. I'll post when it's finished!

TARDIS Necklace

Phew, it's been a busy weekend for us three nerd sisters! We did a lot of shopping for Maecy's Black Canary and Raven costumes. She found her shirt, tights, and all the jewelry for both outfits. I ordered the ribbon clamps I needed to complete my bracers for Wonder Woman and a new Mjolnir for my Thor, since I wanted something that made a bolder statement than my necklace for future events. Those are shipping domestically, so they should be here by the end of the week. Kate is almost done with her Penguin costume. We have a dry run of all five costumes tonight (so excited!).

While we were at the mall shopping I found this little gem of a necklace. It's a black telephone booth. Of course I immediately thought TARDIS!

Luckily for me Kate has a fantastic shade of blue nail polish that she bought specifically for it's TARDIS-esque properties. A little brush application, some clear coat, and I have a TARDIS necklace. What do you think? Whovian enough? I quite like it!

Of course some of my love from this picture could be because it shows off my belt I got at Fossil the last time I was in Las Vegas, but I think I would love the necklace either way!

Ok, I'm off to go dress up with my sisters and take pictures. Oh darn, what a hard life I live!

Penguin

At the end of January Kate will be going to ComiCon as Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, aka Penguin. I suppose she will have to be Oswin instead of Oswald! She will be donning lace tights, black heels, a fantastic black wiggle skirt, a blue and black brocade under bust corset over a white button down shirt, a tiny black top hat with veil and feathers, and a monocle. She also found an assortment of large, sparkly rings to pay homage to Penguin's career as a fence of all things sparkly. The piece de resisance of the outfit has to be the earrings, though. They are beautiful silver bird skulls that Kate ordered online. Here they are (ironically) pictures with her Batman plugs, though I think it would be something of a social faux pax for Penguin to wear Batman earrings!

Wonder Woman Preparations

I shake with anticipation when I think about my upcoming Wonder Woman cosplay! My original plan was to go with a steampunk version, but the more I researched that, the more my ignorance on the genre began to emerge. I love the look, and want to go that way for a future outfit, but I don't think I can pull it off as soon as January. I am instead working towards a grittier, more punk Wonder Woman.

My corset (which I won in a contest!) arrived from Orchard Corset last week. If you haven't had a chance to check them out and are even the last bit interested in corsets, I highly recommend you look at their website. The merchandise is incredible! Mine is an overbust long line in red satin. For those who are not familiar with corset speak (I was unfamiliar six months ago) the overbust means it comes up over my bra and ends at the widest point of the bust  measurement, instead of an underbust, which comes up to the under wire but does not cover the bust. The "long line" refers to the fact that it is a longer-than-typical corset, partly because I'm taller than average and partly because I don't like my muffin top shaking all over the place. It seems awfully un-Wonder Woman.

The inspiration for my skirt is a dark navy blue fabric with white stars. It's almost black, so to pull in the blue color I'll be wearing navy tights. The star fabric will be layered with black lace and tulle to create a fuller profile and bring more textures into the outfit.

I ordered a lot of small gold leaves online. I'm not sure what their role will be in my outfit but when I saw them they said Wonder Woman, and suddenly I had bought them. I can't imagine how that happened. My sister found me a necklace that goes with the grungy, messy look I'm working towards. You can see it in the pictures below.

There are only two things I'm worried about. The first: my hair. I'm a natural redhead and I don't want to dye. The second: my weight. I'm a big girl and I'm fine with me wearing a short skirt and corset, but I'm worried people will think, "Fat girl in a little skirt, yuck!" and not take the time to appreciate all the work I've put into this.

I think that covers all the elements I have so far. I'd love to hear from anyone who has done this before! Any tips or warnings, thoughts on what I should avoid?