the 13th fairy

I started working on my next piece, and technically the next one at the same time (that model lives in Saint John, a city 45 minutes to an hour away and so it's harder to fit).

So far I have only taken these girls measurements and started their basic blocks (a foundation piece that most clothes/patterns are made from).

The next piece was one I had wanted to make for some time, and also one of my model's (Liz Eaton) favorite characters of all time: Maleficent from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

Disney Art:

 Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts sprite:

My Concept sketch and notes:

Tangled Princess finished dress - candid shot

Once again, I've been really bad with decent progress shots of this costume.  It is however, done. I am going to re-do part of it, but other then that I love it.  I promise to get some decent shots of the corset on here once I have better light and I will be getting some professional photos of it (with the right wig, pascal [Rapunzels pet/friend chameleon] and a frying pan).  My best friend, who is a master crafter, is planning on making me her official Tiara for the fashion show.

Until then, here is a Candid shot of me twirling. Taken at the Kings Head Inn, Kings Landing historical settlement on Halloween weekend 2011.

Tangled Princess -Sleeves

Ah the sleeves.  I challenged myself with these, I had never used Chiffon before and had only done french seams once in my second year as a sample. The same goes for the style of the lower sleeve, the tight fitted sleeve.

My mock-up of the sleeve, next to the sample of the striped ribbon on the sleeve cap and the pink chiffon sleeves for the bottom.

I used a product called steam a seam to attach the ribbon to the sleeves. My mother, a quilter told me about it and generously let me use her supply of it to attach the pink ribbon detail to my purple satin.

I'll be going back to my sailor cosmos costume and re-doing the star burst rainbow ribbons with this stuff.

Tangled Princess -Progress

I got really bad, and did not take nearly enough pictures of this while I was making it.  It consists of a fully boned 6 layerd corset (two layers ticking-stiffness, 1 layer flannel -more stiffness, a lavender cotton under layer of fabric and an over layer of lavender lace). It's boned with steel bones -flat and spiral (flat for sucking in, spiral for bendy seams).

The skirt

The skirt is a 4 paneled circle skirt (for maximum twirling power), with an attached white petti-coat.  The front is a lavender bridal lace from the same fabric collection as the over lace on the corset top and the 2 front seams are edged with pink ribbon (same a lacing and on sleeves).  It closes up with an invisible zipper hidden in one of the back panels seams.

Tangled Princess -images

My second piece for the fashion show, was also designed for me.  I love the Disney movie Tangled.  I finally found a Disney Princess I could say was me!  She is clumsy, immature and hyper.  So of course I had to make Rapunzels dress.

And here is my quick sketch of how to pull this off and notes:

Other people in the same business area

I've been into the Cosplay (that is short for Costume Play) for a while now, but only recently thought I might be able to have a chance at running a business related to it.  Here are some other people, already in the business that I find really inspireing:

Pikminlink 
 http://pikminlink.com/ . I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years back at Animethon13 (an Edmonton Alberta, anime convention)  

She makes all her costumes and props, but does not sell them.  

She does have an Esty store now where she sells hand made Elven crafts she is currently a game design student. She is probably the closest thing to a professional cosplayer there is. She is just ambiguous in the face enough that she can cosplay  both male and female characters and really appear to be that gender or character.  Her father is a professional photographer and both she and her father are regularly invited to Anime conventions as special guests.

She also has a really nice (in my opinion) layout for her website, with links to her blog and Esty store.


The Prop Lady
http://proplady.livejournal.com/   She really does make beautiful costumes and props. I've learned a lot of techniques from her tutorials.


Katiebair 
 http://www.katiebair.com/wigs.html  and  http://www.katiebair.com/zoocandy/items.html of Katiebairs petting zoo is a wig stylist.  She sells custom wigs for every character you could ever think of, accessories, original designed wigs (by herself or customers) and wig supplies, to start.  She also posts tutorials on how to style and dye wigs yourself.


Cosplay Wig
 http://stores.ebay.ca/COSPLAY-WIG   is an ebay store from Hong Kong who I deal with just about everytime I need a wig for a costume.  They sell the most fantastic quality wigs and  have them in many stock styles as well as many that are styled and coloured to the current most popular Cartoon and Video game characters.  They will even reproduce for no extra cost a wig they formally had on their site but do not carry anymore if you have the picture of it.


And of course the many inspiring individuals who post on Cosplaylab and Cosplay.com




Cosplaylab
http://www.cosplaylab.com/   
 features contests and resources for cosplayers
Taken from the website
Cosplay Lab features tens of thousands of anime, manga, video game, J-Rock, sci-fi and fantasy costumes created by people just like you from all over the world. If you're new to cosplay, or are a seasoned cosplayer, Cosplay Lab is your one-stop shop for maintaining your entire costume collection, organize cosplay skits and photoshoots, meet other cosplayers, get info on upcoming anime conventions, and way more! 


Cosplay.com
 http://www.cosplay.com/  
Cosplay.com is an online hosting site for cosplayers photos, sales and tutorials.  They also have many links to supply stores and lists of all the various conventions.

Sailor Cosmos -Full costume

Here are some pictures of the full costume, taken at Animartimes 2011 in Moncton NB. (I did not take these) I bought the wig on Ebay from a wig styler. Please ignore my wrist watch :)

  As you can see there are also wings on the shoulders and on the shoes.  I made hot pants to wear under the dress, as it is very very short in the comics and I was going for accuracy.

I will probably be re-doing the star burst ribbon detail on the front, those are all hand sewn down and look wrinkly to me. I have since discovered Steam a Seam - a quilters bonding adhesive that works wonders.

Sailor Cosmos -Tiara and choker

The tiara was made from wire, necklace closures, the same pearl necklace from Claire's accessories, elastic and a Swarovski Crystal star bead.

The necklace choker was made from Ribbon, Velcro, invisible thread and another  Swarovski Crystal star bead.

Cosmos accessories -broaches and hair clips

So  here are  the accessories I made for this costume, I may before the fashion show re-do some of these, but only time will tell.

First we have the chest and waist broaches.  I believe they are supposed to be a star glowing inside a sphere of light, with iridescent wings coming out the sides.  I made these from 2 gold Christmas ornament stars, a sawed in half clear Christmas ball, white mat-board and 2 sheets of velum paper, double sided together for stiffness, strong glue (used to adhere sequins to figure skating costumes) and a $6 pearl necklace from Claire's accessories.

They attach to the costume with Velcro and for the waist, a pin back for extra strength since that area moves a lot.

The hair clip were made a similar way, with the 2 pieces of Velum paper, double sided taped together. However, these are attached with glue and then invisible thread to the flat clip hair barrettes.  The paper as grommets placed in them which match up to the holes in the pearl beads (which were glued to the clips) and then threaded together with the invisible thread.

Cosmic fighter

The first of the costumes I made for the line, I made over the summer for myself to wear to Animartimes, a local anime (Japanese cartoons) convention in Moncton, NB.

I chose Sailor Cosmos, from the Sailor Moon Manga (Japanese comic book). She only shows up momentarily, but I loved her design.  Also the year 2011 is the 20th anniversary of the series, and that is pretty awesome. Official Japanese 20th anniversary website

I have yet to get some really good professional pictures done of the costume, but I intend to later and will post them up here.  I also may be tweaking some of the details on it, as I have since learned  new and better ways to accomplish the look I wanted.

This is the original art by the author Naoko Takeuchi.

And here is my quick concept art with notes sketch of how to pull this off:

Fashion Show Line

As part of the grad studies program I am going to be making a line of costumes for the annual fashion show on April 21, 2012.  Sick of stick thin models walking down the runway, I asked family and friends of all shapes and sizes to consider modeling for me, and if they said yes, to choose a costume from any media for me to reproduce for them.  I've also included a couple costumes I've made for myself in the line.

Currently the working title of the line is "Cartoon heroes"  though two villainesses have snuck their way into it as well.

Welcome to blogspot

I decided my journal on live journal was probably not the best option for marketing myself, so I have switch to blogger.  I am going to try my darnedest to update regularly with what I am doing while I attend the Grad studies program at NBCCD this year (that's New Brunswick College of Craft and Design). We will see how this goes.