(by 2 people)
This lens is all about designing and building costumes from the perspective of someone who is still very much an absolute beginner.
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Costume bee at Woodbury
Oddly, I find myself a part of the Fashion Club this once...
It's a bummer to be cooped up in a hospital during Halloween, so the Woodbury Common Threads Club did something to cheer the kids up.
I didn't do any sewing because the studio has a fleet of industrial-strength machines that are pretty freaking scary. VROOM! I think I'll stick with my chibi-machine, thank you very much. But there was plenty of fabric to cut and plenty of other stuff to do.
Here's the album documenting our efforts, which yielded 60 costumes in all including a few that were donated. Success! Woohoo!
I didn't do any sewing because the studio has a fleet of industrial-strength machines that are pretty freaking scary. VROOM! I think I'll stick with my chibi-machine, thank you very much. But there was plenty of fabric to cut and plenty of other stuff to do.
Here's the album documenting our efforts, which yielded 60 costumes in all including a few that were donated. Success! Woohoo!
Propmaking news: Hardware Store Jedi v2.0
What good is a costume if you don't have the props to go with it?
Today (September 17th) I built a new prop lightsabre. Unlike the one I built earlier this year, this was built on top of a Random Sabers "practice saber" hilt blank. The product is designed as an economical alternative to using their more elaborate hilts for sparring. They didn't really count on people like me using it to build on.The rest of the story is here at Hardware Store Jedi. Soon I will be building the other sabre, and the result will be another tutorial video, hopefully an improvement on the old one.
Oh, one little thing: technically some of the adhesives I used on this didn't get all the time they needed to cure. The sabre took a spill this evening. Nothing broke. Whew!
This was better than what happened when the original recipe hardware sabre was dropped in San Diego. Originally the sabres had a full flashlight reflector assembly, including the outside bezel and a plastic lens. The only thing missing was a lightbulb, which I kept to use in a working flashlight. The bezel cracked when it fell, and all that's left is the reflector itself.
I could have remade that sabre but if you follow the link to Hardware Store Jedi you'll see that this new sabre fits me better.
Helpful video links
How-tos and other videos worth a look if you are into this sort of stuff.
Lightsabre Build Tutorial, 1 of 4
Lightsabre Build Part 2
Lightsabre Build Part 3
Lightsabre Build Part 4
Anime Cosplayers
Notes
A project I'm thinking of doing: homemade dress form
When I was working on my Jedi habit, I found I had to whine, wheedle and cajole my poor longsuffering husband to help me with things like hemming my outer robe. He hated it, I hated it, it really sucked.Let's face it, folks: dress forms are expensive. And there really isn't one that looks like me. I'm basically Hobbit shaped...short and more than just pleasingly plump. And Singer et alia don't make dress forms like that.
I also want to make a dress form that would have legs, or at least part of the legs, so I could use it to alter pants as well. I did some googling and here are some promising sites:
http://www.darthblade.com/maniquin.htm
This is for a display mannequin rather than a dress form, but there are principles in the design I want to use.
http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00002.asp
Dress Form projects from Threads Magazine. These are most promising.
http://sewnews.com/resources/library/0806form/index.html
"Sewing Stunt Double" from Sew News. Also promising.
http://www.costumes.org/classes/254pages/projects/buckramdressform.htm
From costumes.org: another dress form project, although it requires a dress form to work from! Not quite what I'm looking for. But there are some principles here I might be able to work with.
The picture I'm now running is of a commercially-made dress form. It costs about $150 which is totally outrageous. However, it has some characteristics of what I want to build myself. Note that the dress form is designed to allow the alteration of pants. The center pole is oriented in such a way as it goes down one of the "legs" of the thing rather than directly down the middle. It also has a bit more arm coming out the shoulder for the fitting of sleeves.
Lots to think about after seeing this puppy. Once I start figuring out what I'm going to do I'll post a picture of the sketch.
Costuming & Propmaking Links
Here are some helpful links to start your project.
- My first big costuming project!
- This is info on how I made the costume you see right on the front page there. This is still a work in progress and will be continuing to be updated as I complete it.
- Hardware Store Jedi
- Same project, from the propmaking end of it. I'm quite proud of what I was able to do without the aid of power tools or metalworking skills.
- The Movie Costume Lens
- A similar Squidoo lens which might be helpful.
- The Kimono Lens
- Another costuming-related lens, this time about Japanese clothing. Since a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Anime costumes are based on the Kimono, this is a very useful site.
- Peggy Ybarra's Sewing Lens
- If you are going to make costumes, you're going to have to learn to sew. This lens has a lot of good links and is worth a look.
- Sewing and Craft Room Organization Lens
- A lens about a neglected topic: how to keep your stash of fabric and nurnies and whatnot from overwhelming you out of house and home? This is an important consideration and I really suck at it. This link is pure gold.
- Patternless Sewing Lens
- What? Sew without a pattern? Huh? Well, guess what: people have been doing that for millenia. The modern sewing pattern only dates back to 1866, when Butterick put out the first pattern. How did people make clothing before then? This way. Save yourself some money in between Jo-Ann pattern sales, and make stuff you can't really find patterns for.
- The Padawan's Guide to Star Wars Costumes
- This woman is hardly a Padawan. Lots of useful information on how to make Star Wars-related costumes.
- The Costumer's Guide
- Non-Star Wars costumes done by the same woman responsible for the Padawan's Guide site. Again, tons of useful information.
- Cosplay.Com
- Where anime costuming buffs show off their costumes. Some of these costumes will blow your mind. I'm not quite in their league yet.
- Dawn's Costume Guide
- More geared towards Medieval/Ren Faire/SCA costuming but might be helpful with other projects.
- Amber's Jedi Meditation Chamber
- This is a Star Wars costuming site run by a member of the Rebel Legion, a costuming club focusing on the Light Side of the Force. The 501st Legion is their Dark Side counterpart, primarily consisting of people who have built their own Storm/CloneTrooper armor. Every bit of info here is 100% kosher for the RL if you are interested in joining that group.
- The 501st Legion Costuming Resources page
- In the interest of equal time, here's the 501st's costuming resources link page. If you are interested in making your own suit of CloneTrooper armor or in looking like a Sith, here's where you go first.
- Sew What's New Beginner's Sewing Lessons
- Just the basics. Geared primarily to women unfortunately but if you are a guy who wants to learn how to sew you can impress your girlfriend by making her some clothes. It would have been nice if Ms. Culshaw had chosen clothes appropriate for both sexes but you can't have everything.
- AllCrafts.Net: Sewing
- Lots of links to free project instructions and patterns.
- The Costumer's Manifesto/costumes.org
- Lots and lots of data about making and putting together costumes. Note well: there are a few links here that are both Not Safe For Work and maybe not what you'd want kiddies to see. So tread with care.
