Comp Insanity

I may have rocks in my head.

Over the weekend I signed up to participate in the Bernina Cosplay Competition run through the Cosplay Collective. The comp opened in October last year and it’s only now that I am signing up? What is going in my head?! But I’ve put my hand up to commit to this thing and I’m certainly going to give it a crack.

As for what I am making… After a lot of back and forth, I finally narrowed it down to Padme’s Pre-Senate Kimono Gown from Star Wars Episode 1. Shocking movie, but the costumes are impressive.

When I first decided on this one I thought it might be too simple. But then once the research began I realised that I am biting off a lot more. So far I am in the collection phase. I started off doing all my research:

• Finding reference images (screencaps, exhibition photographs)
• Searching for other cosplayers who have made the costume (What did they do? What went wrong? What worked well?)

I then broke down the costume into its numerous components and made myself a shopping list. Hello bullet journal. Next up, I started hunting around my favourite fabric websites for supplies. There are a few elements that I will be able to use fabric from my stash for which does help bring down the costs. Next on the list though is ordering my notions, and decorative supplies (beads, embroidery threads, hooks, worbla, fabric dye). Then there are the purchased supplies such as makeup, wigs and wefts.

But while I am waiting for all of that to arrive, I need to make a start on drafting up my patterns. I’ve selected two from my pattern collection: one is a Kimono costume pattern and the other is a straight sleeve pattern. Come this weekend I really want to make a start on drafting my patterns and get my mockups cut out. From there I will be able to sew them up and make any adjustments. How the first mockup turns out will determine if I need to mockup a second time (or third etc). For me, it really depends on how close I am to the final version before I made any more changes.

Right now, online shopping it is…

Catchup Time

It has been some time since I last posted on here. All I can say is that life changes. I haven’t done a whole lot of costuming since I last posted. In fact in 2018, I only made three new costumes and one of those was simply finishing one that I had started two years prior. It’s not that I gave up sewing, in fact my wardrobe is a testament to that fact as I have spent rather a lot of time sewing up general clothing (for work and the like).

So to catch things up:

In September I attended OzComicCon. Things were a little crazy at work as I was acting in another role, and packing to move house at the time and I didn’t have the inclination to make anything new. So I polished off a couple of my older costumes and wore those: my Beauty School Dropout from Grease and my Ravenclaw Uniform and Robes.

   

Then came Supanova in November. Still acting in another role at work, but finished moving house, this time I managed to whip up a new costume. Based on artwork by Savannah Alexander of human form pokemon (Gijinka), I dressed as her 1930s style Ivysaur. I had originally planned to turn the plush toy into a bag but he was just too cute to butcher.

  

Since then, I have only been working on my own outfit sewing. I spent quite some time making new pieces to take on my recent trip to Japan. I was there for three and half weeks in March. Now, I do plan to make a start on some new Cosplay projects.

I also attended Supanova on the Gold Coast this year. It was a few weeks ago in April, and as I was freshly back from Japan I didn't have time to whip up anything new. So, time to pull out a previous costume, I wore my Saber Lion.

  

After moving my stash of fabric twice recently, I definitely want to have less of it next time I decide to move house. So, my goal this year (and in those to come) is to sew up the fabric that I have there. Everything that I made for Japan came from my fabric stash, so that’s been a bit of a blessing. But I have big rolls of fabric tagged for historical costumes and large chunks of fabric for cosplays.

On top of it all, I have been trying to downsize the rest of my stuff. Moving house really hits home that you have too much stuff. But part of this are my costumes. I have some that I am still attached to, but they don’t fit anymore. Is it any wonder when I made them five or more years ago? Health issues and weight gain, plus the general changing of my body shape means that these costumes just don’t fit me the way that they were made to do. So, I have slowly been listing onto my Etsy store. I plan to go through everything again and pull out the ones that I have been hanging onto despite not being able to wear them.

So despite not costuming for the last few months, I have been busy enough to keep myself going. But stay tuned because more costuming is to come.