Ottawa ComicCon Begins Today!

Today is the first day of Ottawa ComicCon! If all goes well, my costume lineup should be as follows:

Left: graphics from Pokémon Go; center: Death as illustrated by Paul Kidby in The Art of Discworld; right: Jack Nicholson as the Joker (1989) via Warner Bros.

Friday: Pokémon Go player, with Thing 1 as Vaporeon and Thing 2 as Flareon
Saturday: Death from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
Sunday: Femme version of the Joker from the 1989 version of Batman

Hope to see you all there! Don’t hesitate to stop by and say hello if you see me.

One Week Until ComicCon

Only one week until ComicCon, and I have been working my tail off to (hopefully) get things done in time. Sorry for the low quality cell phone pictures, but I haven’t had the time to take anything nicer.

I completed the blue bodysuit for Thing 1’s costume.

I hand-stitched Thing 2’s fun fur tail; this kind of fur tends to clog up the machine, so I worked the old-fashioned way. I also remembered why I hate working with fun fur. It sheds everywhere! You’d think I owned a golden retriever.

I made and painted a backpack, which was the last piece I needed for my day 1 costume. Hopefully it will be both practical and costume-friendly.

I built the framework for my Day 2 costume, found a foam head for it, paper-machéd the head, and painted it.

And I also wired up the skeleton head so that the eyes glow.

I really, really hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew, and that I’ll have all the costumes done in time!

Two Weeks Until ComicCon

The countdown to ComicCon continues, and I am seeing some progress.

I’ve managed to get Thing 2’s bodysuit finished, which is, to me, the most difficult part. I hate sewing stretch fabric, but a bodysuit really needs to be stretchy. This is especially true for children, who will shed costume pieces if they find them too uncomfortable. These costumes have to work for ComicCon and Halloween, so I’d like them to be worn for more than five minutes at a time. Of course, when sewing this bodysuit I managed to put in one of the sleeves inside-out the first time. This seems to be an inevitable state of affairs for me whenever I make clothing.

I also painted Thing 2’s shoes for the costume, since we couldn’t find any in bright orange.

My Day 1 costume is pretty much complete, much to my great joy. I didn’t do a lot of sewing for this one (just the belt and the white part of the sleeves, actually), but there were a lot of little details that needed to be carefully painted and then dried. I probably could have sewn it in less time, but definitely not for less. The cap was $5.00 at Michaels, the shirt (which was blank and plain blue at the time) was $2.49 at Value Village, and the skirt was $3.99 at the same place. The gloves were $2.50 at the dollar store. I already owned multiple pairs of black leggings. The belt was made out of scrap fabric from my stash, and the buckle was made out of a $0.79 plywood circle from Michaels. The most expensive things were the shoes, which I paid $29 for (I think) at Payless, but they’ll get lots of use after the Con, so I don’t feel too bad about that purchase.

Welcome to My Craft Room

For many, many years I didn’t have a craft room. I worked wherever I could find the space: in my bedroom, my living room, all over the dining room table. Then the kids came along, and I found it increasingly more difficult to work on large projects because I had to have every last piece tidied up at the end of each crafting session. I couldn’t leave painted pieces out to dry, or pinned items ready for sewing, or even a simple needle and thread where the kids could get at it. Which is why I couldn’t have been more overjoyed when we moved to our current house and I could wall off a section of the basement as my own — separated from the rest of the house by sturdy baby gates.

I finally painted this space and really made it my own last summer. As you can see, it’s just a long stretch along one wall of my basement, “walled” off on one side by copious second-hand bookshelves. There are more shelves on the other side in the kids’ play room, and they’re all screwed together, making a solid-but-temporary barrier.

The kids aren’t babies or toddlers any more, so I can do without the baby gate and trust, for the most part, that they will leave my things alone. It’s a good thing, too, or they’d never get their costumes for ComicCon or Halloween in time, let alone all the little constant repairs that I have to make on their things.

Those first two photos were taken immediately after the renovations were complete and before I’d had a chance to get into any major projects. Right now… Well, it’s less than three weeks until ComicCon, and every surface is covered with costume pieces in the works. I’ll mostly be living in this room until then.

When I’m making costumes, especially when I need five on a short time limit, I have to multitask. Today I’m working on a ball cap, a T-shirt, a skirt, a pair of sneakers, and a head. That last “head” one is my most ambitious project this year, and I hope like heck that I manage to get it done in time.

If you already recognize what the costumes are going to be, well, you’re as big of a geek as I am. Congratulations! I’ll probably see you in a few weeks at ComicCon. Don’t hesitate to say hi!

Three Weeks Until ComicCon

There are three weeks exactly until Ottawa ComicCon, and I am starting to panic. I am a cosplayer, and the costumes I’m hoping to complete have barely been started. The next twenty one days are going to be crammed with sewing and building, in addition to the usual cooking.

To give you an idea of the kind of costumes that I make, I have put together photographs of what I consider to be my best Con costume work. I have been attending since the first Ottawa con in 2012, and I generally wear a different costume every day. Not only that, but when I bring the kids, I make costumes for them as well. So that’s five costumes I have to have ready in three weeks. I have nobody to blame for this tight deadline except myself… And that dratted cold that ate up pretty much all of last week.

The photos start with the most recent, and progress to the oldest. All costumes made by me unless otherwise specified.

Clawhauser (me), Judy Hopps (Thing 2), Gazelle (Thing 1) and Bellwether (Mom, who made her own costume) from Zootopia.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Thing 2 as Judy Hopps from Zootopia.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Thing 1 as Gazelle from Zootopia.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Me as Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Me as April O’Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Astrid (Thing 1) and Stormfly (me) from How To Train Your Dragon.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Ruffnut (Kelsey Joustra), Tuffnut (Adam Joustra), and Stormfly (me) from How To Train Your Dragon. Kelsey and Adam made their own costumes.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Thing 1 as Astrid from How To Train Your Dragon.

Thing 2 as Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon.

Me as Pyro from Team Fortress 2.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography

Pyro (me), Heavy (Ian Walton), and Sniper (Karen Turnbull) from Team Fortress 2. Ian and Karen made their own costumes.
Photo by Richard Dufault Photography