Supanova; the game is on

Supanova. It was a great weekend and completely wore me out.

This year, Brisbane Supanova began on Friday afternoon at 1pm. I took the afternoon off work so that I could be there for the event that it is. I ditched the work clothing and dolled myself up in my Game of Thrones Sansa Stark costume. I had trouble getting out of the office because with fans of Game of Thrones in my team, they wanted to see my costume. At any rate, I arrived not long after opening and made my way straight into one of the panels showing for the afternoon. This one with three actors from the TV show Spartacus. Unfortunately, they weren’t wearing their costumes from the show, but none-the-less they were still entertaining.

I spent the remainder of the evening catching up with friends and perusing the many items for sale on the main show floor. I will get to the photos I took of others at the end of this post, but for now, me, as Sansa Stark.

Day 2. Saturday. It began with disaster. I should have begun getting dressed earlier, but didn’t anticipate the problems I would have with my wig. To begin, I bought a lace front wig (for the first time) thinking that it would look neat and invisible. Unfortunately the lace front section that you attach to your head was such a dark colour against my pale skin that it gave a really obvious line. I fiddled around trying to get it to stick and covering it up. In the end, I cut off the lace part, pinned the wazoo out of the wig and went with it. I then had to get dressed, making sure to sunscreen up all my exposed skin, and make my way in. This was the day that I would wear my brand new creation – Margaery Tyrell from Game of Thrones. I chose to make another Game of Thrones costume as there were a number of actors attending this time from the show, and I love Margaery and her costumes. I had also pulled together a costume for my brother from Game of Thrones – Lord Varys. He shaved his head again to make sure he got the look right, and apparently was recognised quite a bit throughout the day.

As for the day, I spent it much as any other Supanova day. Shopping, catching up with friends, seeing panels (Joe Flannigan from Stargate Atlantis; Mark Addy and Jerome Flynn from Game of Thrones), getting autographs and photographs, and generally perusing the stalls.

The day ended at 6pm, and I headed off to have dinner with the parents before home and bed. One thing I made sure to do was have my photo taken on the Iron Throne that was attached to one of the stalls…

Day 3 rolled around and I unfortunately woke up bright and early. With time under my belt I decided it was the sort of day for pancakes. Then it came time to iron my costume. I dug out Ariel and started. By then, the heat had settled in and I could tell it was going to be a stinker of a day. I was dreading the fact that I would be wearing Ariel with its long sleeve poly undershirt. A quick change of plans and I pulled out my I Dream of Jeannie for the day, a much wiser choice with less constricting layers. Don’t get me wrong it was still hot, but less hot that I would have been. I spent the day again, much as I had the previous one, this time as Jeannie’s sister.

All in all, though I had a fantastic time at Supanova and am looking forward to the next one; trying to decide what costumes I will be making and wearing. But I leave with some photos of some of the amazing costumes at the con. By no means did I get all of the awesome ones, the crowds were just so thick in places, but here are my shots.

The Game is ON!

Day 2 of Supanova. I decided to wear my brand new Game of Thrones costume - Sansa Stark. When my girl Wendy said that she was planning to make a Catlyn Stark costume, I knew that I wanted to make a Game of Thrones costume as well. And I looked to Sansa, in particular, a gown that she wears throughout a number of episodes in Season 2.

I had been busting myself silly trying to get it ready to wear in time to fly down to Sydney. While I was unemployed, I made a fantastic start on getting my costume done. I started with the inside. A recent episode of GOT showed in fantastic detail the stays that Sansa wears under her Kings Landing gowns - which reinforced my choice of stays. I chose to make a set that are patterned in Jill Saleen's Corsets book. They are from the 1750s. I omitted the straps. Thankfully, once the pattern was enlarged, it was actually a pretty decent size for me, meaning that I only need the one mock up to get it to the correct size. They are a lovely set of stays that I would really like to wear again for historical purposes. I made them out of purple linen, and 2 layers of cotton. They are completely boned with cable ties except for the centre front which has sprung steel. They lace up half at the front and fully at the back, and they give a really great shape. On top of that, they are VERY comfortable.

 Once the stays were complete, I made the underskirt. I made it in a Georigan style with separate front and back waistbands that tie around at the waist. It is actually worn underneath the stays.

Then came the dress. Patterning was the simple part. I used two different medieval style costume gown patterns to get the shape and the sleeves. I eliminated the front princess seam and extended the centre front so that the gown wraps. It has a gore in each side seam which reaches from the hem to the waist - this is made of a embroidered sheer flat lined over the pink gown fabric. The dress closes with a couple hooks and eyes and ties. The most time consuming part was binding the front and neck in the green bias binding and completing all the freaking embroidery. Though, I love how effective it looks. The gown is then held together with the belt. I made mine out of a heavy piece of buckram (because I forgot about it until the last minute and it's all I had that would work on short notice) and held together with chains at the back. I need to re-think the belt for the next time I wear the costume.

I finished the ensemble with tights, a pair of grey boots ($12 at K-Mart) and the wig. I did the wig up using two (stitched together) and then styled. I love how it turned out and adore wearing it. In fact, it and the stays are my favourite part of the entire costume.

Oh, and I made sure to get a great number of photos of other Game of Thrones costumers as well...