Tag: comic con

Ottawa ComicCon 2013: Frigga and Thor

A reader named Anna contacted me about the Frigga costume I made for Ottawa ComicCon way back in 2013, wondering what pattern I’d used and adaptations I’d made. I originally posted about it back in my LiveJournal days, so I had to search around a bit for the old text and photos. But here it is, what little I wrote down. I hope it helps Anna, as well as anybody else who intends to dress up as Frigga in the future!


The costumes in question: me as Frigga and Thing 1 as Thor. It was Thing 1’s first Con.
Photo by Karen Turnbull.

“As of about four days before Ottawa ComicCon, my Frigga costume (from the 2011 movie Thor) still looked like this:

Um, whoops. In my defense, my house is still up for sale and I didn’t want to create a massive crafting mess in anticipation of showings. However, things got down to the wire on the Monday (I planned to wear the costume that Friday), and I started getting things ready, showings or no showings. Fabric, check. Notions, check. Pattern, check. Sewing machine… Crap, where did I put it?

After going through every closet and the disaster that is my garage/main storage, it turns out that I’d given it back to my mom while I was showing the house (mine needs repairs). Which I discovered Monday night, too late to do anything about it. I picked up the machine Tuesday morning and started on the costume during Thing 2’s nap time that day.

Here are the photos I was using for reference:


Screen shots from Thor (2011) © Paramount Pictures; used under fair use laws.

And here’s what the costume looked like for ComicCon, the morning after finishing it up at 2:00am:


Photo by Karen Turnbull.

Okay, mine is not a perfect replica, but it’s not bad considering I only spent about $35.00CAD on it. The dress is based on Simplicity 1773 pattern, which is definitely more Snow White and the Huntsman than Thor. I added two panels to the front (duplicates of the back panels, actually), made the sleeves a bit looser (the fabric I was using — light grey polyester suiting with silver thread — had absolutely no give and I needed to be able to use my arms), and added to the collar to change it from square to circular. The collar is machine-quilted and, if I have time, I think I’m going to add some cheap texture and sparkle to it before Halloween with some silver puff paint.”

Note from the future: I never did get around to doing that. The dress stayed as you see here.

“Oh yeah, and the hair? Mine. My mom put it up for me in rags the night before the con and I styled it the day of. And yes, I did have people who knew who I was supposed to be. Not many, granted, but some of that was just because I was dressed as a supporting character.


Photo by Karen Turnbull.

Yes, that is Thing 1 as tiny Thor. Her costume is a WalMart Halloween costume I bought for her tickle trunk on clearance after the holiday last year, but she insisted that it was the costume she wanted to wear to the con. I even suggested she go as Brave’s Merida again:

And I’d go as Queen Elinor, but she refused.Given the option to pretend to be a super hero or a princess, she chose a super hero. I don’t blame her, really, except that Merida is by far my favourite Disney princess.

Thing 1 was a little shy at first, ComicCon being a big place filled with lots of strange adults, but she got into it pretty quickly. When talking with her uncle about the con, she summed it up as, “And I saw Batman and a Storm Trooper and R2D2 and Spider-Man and everyone kept taking my picture because I am adorable.” Yes, people kept telling her that and asking to take her picture.


Photo by Karen Turnbull.

Thing 1 actually hid in the outer layer of my skirts for a bit while we waited our turn (at her insistence) to have our photos taken in the 1960’s Batmobile. This is one of the few shots where you can see that yes, the fabric of my dress isn’t just gray, it’s shot with silver sparkles.”

Despite all of my hard work, it was Thing 1 that ended up in the online edition of the newspaper that year, in her clearance-section Walmart costume. Ah well, it just goes to show that the provenance of your costume doesn’t really matter, so long as you’re having fun cosplaying. Also, when you’re four years old, you’re inherently much cuter than any adult and hence bound to steal the spotlight.

Ottawa Comicon 2018 Friday Pics

I kind of want to show the pictures of the costumes that I made after the pro photos come in, so that it’s possible to see what they’re supposed to look like before I get into the pictures where my kids aren’t goofing off. (Not that I mind the goofing off, but it does make it difficult to see what’s going on with the costumes.) But there were some other great costumes that we saw on Friday that my kids didn’t pose with.

My kids have no idea who this comic book version of The Wasp is, although I’m guessing many people these days at least have an inkling since the Ant Man and The Wasp trailers have hit. I was very impressed by the fact that although there had to be a lot of structure under the suit to secure the wings, her outfit was smooth and nearly seamless. This is a trick that’s difficult to pull off in real life.

This Gordon Freeman with a headcrab asking about the release of Half Life 3 made me laugh — especially since the headcrab has its own tiny coffee mug.

This tiny little Mega Man couldn’t have been more than four years old, and even so he had full-on armour and a blaster that lit up.

I believe that this was an original steampunk character. I was most impressed with her insanely complicated wig, and her gun that she’d made from scratch out of paper/cardboard!

This daring outfit is Ryuko Matoi’s battle costume from the anime Kill la Kill. Given how much skin is showing, it presents a lot of logistical challenges (and probably uses a lot of body glue).

This Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s novel series The Dresden Files was obviously based on the cover art, since he’s wearing a fedora (it’s an in-joke with fans that Harry never wears hats and actually rather dislikes them, but the publishers chose to add a fedora to the character on the covers as a kind of shorthand for a detective). I liked that his wizard’s staff and that Bob the Skull‘s eyes lit up.

And of course where would we be without a great Joker?

Robin Hood: Men in Tights

I’m still suffering from con plague, which in my case seems to mostly be a heavy-duty cold with severe sinus and ear pressure. I spent a good portion of yesterday and today huddled in bed, doped up on Tylenol Cold & Sinus, with the bedroom curtains closed because light hurt my eyes. It’s been miserable. Not surprisingly, sitting in front of the computer with its bright screens was definitely not happening. Hence the late posts.

So, on Sunday a group of us went as Men in Tights from the 1993 parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights. We originally thought we’d only get five or six people to go along with the idea, but in the end there ended up being twelve of us! It was so much fun. We were stopped every couple of minutes at the con so people could take group photos, and we were told that we made many peoples’ day.

Our group was missing some of the main characters, but we did have Blinkin (left), Robin (center), and Will Scarlet (right). And yes, if it’s not already completely obvious, many of our “men” in tights were actually women.

We took a lot of our photos poses from the Men in Tights dance number, such as “dance pose”, “manly men”, and “can-can”.

Oh, and “tight tights”.

The costumes were extremely comfortable, with the only real inconvenience being the pheasant plumes that would regularly poke into peoples’ faces. Exactly where you were poked depended on height difference.

Sunday was also Mother’s Day, so I think it was great that my mother and I were part of the same cosplay group that day.

Of course, we had to have a lunch break.

And then we had to pose as if waiting for the bus.

All of us spent a while in line to attend the Masquerade awards ceremony, where one of the Men in Tights won a Best Mask ribbon in her very first masquerade for her Luna Lovegood Lion Head (which she’d worn the day prior). We are all so proud of her!

Notes on costume construction:

– Tights: Any style from WeLoveColors in hunter green.
– Vest and Hat: Butterick 4574 pattern, using Galaxy Twill in Forest for the hat and Galaxy Twill in Chocolate for the vest (both available at Fabricland). We also added a collar to the vest.
– Shirts: Some people made their shirts from white broadcloth and the shirt pattern in Butterick 4574; others (like myself) ordered the White Jacobite Ghillie Shirt Long Sleeve from UT Kilts.
– Shoes: Since we went from a 5-6 men’s to a 13-14 men’s in size variance, we just went with whatever each individual could find that was close enough in looks (and comfy enough to wear all day on concrete floors).

I have to say, this cosplay was the best time that I’ve had at a con in a long time. It was a lot of fun having people over to work on their costumes, and it was even more fun to invade the con as a group.

And did I mention that I had a photo op with Matt Smith earlier that day? I was still in my costume at the time. When you’re getting your photo taken with a celebrity, you’re in there for like 15 seconds max, but in that time he did smile and say “Robin Hood!” approvingly, then pat me on the back. That was just the icing on the cake.

Autobots, Transform!

Ottawa ComicCon was great, but unfortunately I have caught some form of con plague. I plan on doing more thorough writeups about the weekend, but for now I would like to share with you the coolest kid costumes that I saw at the con:

All of the adults around them broke into spontaneous cheers when the kids “transformed”. They won a well-deserved prize at the Masquerade and one heck of an ovation when they transformed there as well. These kids are cooler than me by far.

(And yes, I am aware that Starscream is a Decepticon, not an Autobot.)

Getting There

I’m at the stage is pre-con costume creation where it feels like I’ve been working on these pieces forever, but they don’t seem to be getting any more complete. Part of the problem is that I’m onto the “finicky details” stage, which doesn’t have the big, visible milestones but is still incredibly necessary. Take Thing 1’s bodysuit, for example: it had lots of drawn-on detail to be done, which had me hunching over my desk for hours.

My biggest worry at this point is that I won’t complete my costume for Friday, which I have the materials for but haven’t started sewing. Wish me luck!

Star Wars Day

Still plugging away at those costumes… I think I’ll have the kids’ done in time, but I haven’t even started on my Friday costume. Eek! And yet, I remain super proud of myself because I successfully both sewed and appliquéd Thing 1’s spandex bodysuit.

I mean, I know it’s not perfect, and there’s a lot of detail work yet to be done, but the bones are there. It was the bones I was most worried about, actually.

And I think I’ve finally found something to weather my Saturday costume that actually stays… I jumped all over this costume in the black soil of the garden twice, but the stains wouldn’t stick. Go figure. I mean, if you look at my actual gardening clothes, you’d think that staining my clothes with it would be a given. In the end, I’ve found what works best is plain old dollar store acrylic paint.

Costume prep is on hold for a bit today while I prep for the Blackburn Hamlet garage sale, because I have so much stuff to get rid of. This is what happens when you buy things in lots. Hopefully sewing/crafting will resume later tonight or tomorrow night.


Photo by Karen Turnbull of last year’s Ottawa ComicCon.

For now, May the 4th be with you!

Work in Progress

Still working on costumes! (This will remain a constant for the next week and a bit.) Hence, not a lot of cooking going on around here. But I do have some progress to report:

Thing 2’s costume is mostly done. I need to make two more pouches (why does this character have so many pouches?) and a bit more detail work. Oh, and a mask. But it feels almost complete, anyway. If you know the game, by now you’ll be able to recognize what it’s supposed to be, anyway.

In thrifting news, I was looking for costume parts the other day when I stumbled upon a food mill for $7.99. It’s pristine, in great working order, and has a total of three different sized disks. I’d been considering buying one of these new for ages, mostly for applesauce and apple butter, but I’d put it off because I really couldn’t justify the expense. But for that price, I wasn’t going to wait! Hopefully it will speed up the process come autumn.

Weekend Costume Workshop

I spent two full days this weekend holed up with five friends in my basement trying desperately to help them get their Sunday ComicCon costumes finished. I don’t know how I ended up being the “experienced one” in this group, since I’m definitely no pro, but at least I had finished making the same costumes they had to make at least once already. While I coached my friends along, I did managed to get the dress for my Saturday costume sewn — but it still has lots of weathering to go before I consider it finished.

I dug out my face paints and makeup to do a few makeup trials. I’m decent at face-painting, but makeup is a totally different skill and I needed the practice.

It’s not horrible, but I think I can do better. My biggest lesson here is that I need some better eye shadows to create the look I’m going for, something with a lot more pigment. I’m going to have to go shopping this week.

Over the course of the days we had four sewing machines, a serger, a cutting table, an ironing board, and a painting table all in use, often all at the same time.

In the end, I think my friends got their costumes mostly done, or at least to a point where they could figure out most of the rest on their own. Some of my friends are returning tonight to complete their work, and others may be coming back next weekend.

Only 11 days to go…

(Oh, and I didn’t cook a single thing all weekend.)