Supa Syd 2

The final day in Sydney dawned wet. I had spent all of Saturday trying to keep my long gowns out of the wet and it was really a relief to be in a costume where I just didn't have to worry. For my final day of Supanova, I decided to Disney it up and wear my Vanellope Von Schweetz costume from Wreck It Ralph. Unfortunately my repaired hair liquorice did not make the suitcase trip so well and had broken into even more pieces. I had to resort to sticky tape, but I suspect there may be a new one being made in my future.

On the whole though, it is a comfy and warm costume. My jumper is actually a pretty light knit jersey fabric, but I layered up the tshirt and long sleeve shirt underneath for a little extra warmth. My little black boots kept my feet nice and dry and I managed to refrain from rubbing my nose and removing any of the makeup.

I had a blast dressed as Vanellope, and there were quite a lot of small children who obviously love the movie as much as me. I even had my photo take with a mini-Vanellope who was incredibly excited to see me dressed up too.

After a full day of shopping, lining up for photos and costume viewing, I trooped on back to collect my suitcase and remove my wig before heading to the airport. I didn't make it back home until 11.00pm, so come 6am when I had to get up for work on Monday, it was a struggle. And in the aftermath of it all, I managed to catch the con cold. It has been an awful week of feeling terrible and curling up in bed all day, but I am slowly getting over it (I think).

And to finish my post, photos of some of the other amazing costumes on show throughout the weekend.

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...

K-ON in Sydney

Late, I know, but I got the dreaded con sickness and have been pretty ill this week. This is probably the first moment I have had of clear-headedness, since I got back. I am tracking my whole trip to Sydney, including the the touristy stuff over on my travel blog if you are interested: http://pkholidays.blogspot.com.au/ but otherwise, here's how it goes.

Last weekend, I made the trip down to Sydney to stay with my fellow costuming buddy the wonderful Wendy. The intention, to visit Supanova - our round of Aussie pop culture conventions. I flew down very early on Friday morning to avoid the mishaps of last year (4 hour flight delay). Though, it probably helped that I chose to fly QANTAS instead of Virgin. I arrived rather early in the day and spend my time doing the touristy thing around Paddington (inner-city Sydney) before getting ready to head on out to the Olympic Park where it is held.

I decided to make it easy on myself and go light on the costumes this time so as not to stress myself out over luggage weight allowances or sewing deadlines (one was bad enough). So, for Friday night, I chose to re-wear my K-ON uniform. You've all seen it before, worn as the characters Yui and Mio, but this time, I decided that I wanted to be Tsumugi. The real difference between the characters in their school uniforms is the hair and the socks. Thankfully, I had bought the blonde wig some time ago, so I simply pulled it out of my wig box. The only problem I had was that being winter in Sydney, and nighttime, my legs were freezing.

There were a number of great costumes out for Friday night, so I managed to snap a few of them. I had planned to line up to buy some autograph vouchers, but the line was insanely huge - snaking around at least 10 times. There was just no way I was going to stand in line for 4 hours. But it was great to be there for the opening night, catch up with a few people and grab our weekend pass wristbands - to stop the queuing in the morning.