Tag Archives: Costume

Finishing Up Ms. Marvel’s Scarf

Posted on by
Reply

Ms. Marvel update!

I started on the scarf…the tedious part.  You don’t want to know how long it took me to put the trim on just the edges; I knew adding the funky starburst bit was going to make me want to cry.

Ms. Marvel Comic

Instead of crying, I chose to flail my arms in the air.  Sometimes Michael flailed back.  It was a thing.

Ms. Marvel Stencil

So…to make my life easier I made a weird looking stencil.  (no I don’t remember why it looks that weird…I made it back in June, just never got around to using it).

20160820_173908

Then I traced it with a fabric marker so it would wash out (not that you’re actually going to see it).

Funky shape pinned

And then I pinned one side, sewed one half of the line and then flipped it over to pin the other.  It was moving way too much to risk trying to pin both sides and then sew.

Finished scarf end

The end result looks like this…I wish it didn’t look quite so much like snakeskin, but it looks fine from a distance, so I’ll deal.  Stephanie says it looks good and I’m being too nitpicky.  She’s right.  My nitpicky side is very resentful of her being right, but she’s right.

Michael with a Stick

Lastly, I’ll leave you a photo of Michael with a stick.  We took a brief break to go Pokemon hunting, and Michael found a stick.  Also, I realize I’m playing the WordPress lottery with photos here, and that this photo–the entirely unrelated one–will be the one that shows up on facebook.  Bring it on, WordPress.  Bring it on.

 

Ms. Marvel Update

Posted on by
Reply

I’m finally almost done with the bracer/cuff/whatever it’s called, and it’s time for an update!

I primed the bracer with gesso (I didn’t take a photo of that) because I already own a giant tub and it seemed silly to buy more.  Gesso is a primer normally used on canvases, but can be used on pretty much anything if you get creative.  I know I’ve used it on insulation foam before to make my giant Heavenly Sword blade.

20160609_154317

I think I applied 5 coats to it, possibly more by the time I was done.  I used a hairdryer (set on cool; don’t want to heat up the worbla) to dry each layer in between and then went in with fine sandpaper and smoothed it down.  I’m not going to claim that the end result was perfect; we’ll call it the “well loved” look and not the “I just bought this from a fancy jewelry store” look.

Spraypainted Bracer

Once I got fed up with sanding, I took it outside and sprayed it gold using Krylon Premium Metallic spraypaint (from Joanns).  Handy tip: Political signs are fantastic to spraypaint on!  This one was a post election one (just so people don’t think I go around stealing signs off the road) that we had in the garage, and it’s nice because it’s sturdy yet small and I could pick the whole darn thing up and carry it inside without waiting for the paint to dry.

Lastly, I added the painted details.

Painted Bracer

I want it to look as much like the pictures as possible, but I don’t want it to be very bulky because that will take away some of the authenticity of the piece.  The goal was for it to be smallish and fairly close to my skin.  I experimented with adding little beads of worbla for the upper dots, but couldn’t get them to not look cheesy.  I painted them instead, and while I know they don’t look like they’re popping off of the piece, I like how it turned out.  All I have left to finish for the top is to add the red rhinestones.

Underside of the Bracer

On the underside I’ve attached 8 D rings(only 4 pictured, I promise I can count).  To get them in you take a small fold of worbla, run it through the D ring and heat it up so that it folds over and sticks together.  You then heat the base part up (ie. the bottom of the bracer) cut it open, stick the D ring piece of worbla (which is hopefully still warm) into the hole you just made, and then close the whole thing up.

I’m still trying to work out how I’m going to make the bottom bracelet  part.  That’s most definitely going to be out of the 4 way stretch fabric because it needs to stick to my arm and not roll over.  So…give me till Wednesday and we’ll see what I’ve got.

Is anyone going to the random AWA event on Saturday other than Stephanie and me?  It’s $30 to get in and only $15 if you’re in cosplay.  Info is here if you’re interested!

Ms. Marvel: Just Getting Started

Posted on by
Reply

Blue and gold fabric, Ms. Marvel Comics, Butterick Pattern

With only a month and a half left until Momocon,  I decided to finally break down and buy (part of) the fabric that I need for Ms. Marvel.  I went with the Ya-Ya Han fabric from Joann, not because I really wanted to buy her fabric, but because I really liked the gold and the blue matched the texture of the gold where the other blue that I liked better looked kind of funny next to it.  The Ya-Ya fabrics are very smooth, and it looks odd when you put a fabric where you can clearly see the grain next to one where you really cant…so…decision made.

No idea yet what I’m going to use for the red, but the dress itself needs to be completed before I bother with the scarf/undershirt/leggings.  so I’ll deal with that later.  Plus, I’d like to see if I actually like the Ya-Ya fabric before I invest in more of it.

The shirt patterns are for the dress.  I’m going to use a combo of the A body and C sleeves, and lengthen them to make the dress. (Though technically it’s a burkini! It’s a swimsuit! That’s a real thing, I Googled!)  Pretty excited about this one; I’ve been seriously fangirl-ing over this character recently.  Issues 3 and 4 just showed up at my door yester-afternoon and I’m slowly savoring them as #5 wont be out till the summer.

In other news, Appen News finally published the article–> here

It isn’t what I’d call good, but it does exist.

If you popped by my website thanks to the article, thank you for stopping by!  We haven’t gotten the print version on our driveway yet, but it should land in the next day or two.

And now, to clarify about the article: the title of it is such a great exaggeration that I can’t even call it an exaggeration.  It’s more of a I don’t know…mistruth?  I am a pretty good cosplayer(not to toot my own horn, but hoooonk!), and my current cosplays will go up on my blog which is my “business.” But somehow when I told the journalist that I was an a blogger/preschool music teacher/tutor/bookseller with two English degrees and a 50,000 word manuscript in the works, she interpreted that to mean that I actually ran a “Successful Cosplay Business.”  No idea.  I’m honestly sitting here looking at the word document I sent her in response to her questions, trying to figure it out; however, she seems to have made that leap on her own.  Since the original article (the one that started all this nonsense) was on the costumes Stephanie and I made for the GNFCC Expo (which we made to get a little publicity), maybe she thought that I was making costumes because I ran a business?  I really have no idea.  Stealing is still wrong, though, Appen News.  Period.

I apologize for anyone sorely disappointed to find out that I do not run a “Successful Cosplay Business”, but I do run a really nice blog and have a really nice Etsy shop with a brand new banner that everyone should go check out right now!  And then you should all buy my coloring bookmarks because they’re cute.