June 18, 2014February 26, 2016Cosplay, FashionLeave a comment

Memphis Fashion Week 2014

Late last year I submitted designs to the Memphis Fashion Week Emerging Designer showcase, and got accepted! Riding my costuming high from DragonCon, and filling the gap in my life from costume down time, I created a collection based heavily on more “geek” centered themes. I really wanted to show that nerd-culture inspiration can still be fashionable and innovative without being redundant.

Here’s my submission:
Designer statement:
This collection is inspired by the strong women in video games and comic books. However, rather than create cat suits and body-baring clothes, I wanted the collection to project confidence and strength – to empower while being easy to wear. Working with the Spring, 2014 palette, I chose colors that reflect another world, inspired by the colors of nebulas and the “Twilight Realm” from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess video game. The results are strong, sassy, and smart. I plan to use fabrics that can easily be worn and cared for. I plan to use Supplex (a sportswear fabric with some body) along with twill (both stretch and non stretch), and knits. The pieces will also incorporate mesh fabrics. I will keep my collection fresh and modern through interesting piecework and lines, mixing newer technology fabric with more traditional materials.

Mood board
Seams Geeky collection Moodboard

Sketches

I unified the collection by using black mesh on each look, and spent a lot of time playing with dyes and hand stitching linings.

In March, my styles went down the catwalk. I may not have won, but I did find that melding the worlds of High Fashion and geek culture (sans copyright infringement) was a very real possibility.

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013Conventions, CosplayCosplay, DragonCon, DragonCon 2013, He-Man, Princess of Power, She-Ra, Shera2 Comments

DragonCon 2013 Wrap up Pt. 1 — She-Ra

Now that the craziness of DragonCon is over, and I have a few minutes to breathe, I wanted to share a little bit about my She-Ra costume with you all.

She-ra was a big step forward for me in cosplay/costuming standards. This one the first time I really did anything with craft foam, sculpting or otherwise (not counting, of course, my Medusa belt buckle from 2 years ago which was fabric covered foam). I did some crazy research and learned about molding EVA craft foam with heat. I used craft foam for the bracers (aka Wristie-cuffs), the head piece, and the fern on the front.

*note: all process photos I took this year were quick snap shots with my phone, usually at night time, so the color isn’t great

I started with hand drawing the headpiece shape, paying close attention to the proportion of the head piece to her face. I then cut a solid back piece, then the individual fern pieces about 1/8 inch larger than I drew so I hand some room when I heated it up and molded it to give it the 3-d shape. I kinda eyed the shape I wanted and pinched the warm foam until it cooled. Then I glued it all together with E-6000. I used the same process for the front fern, except I scaled it in illustrator since the shapes are a little more complex.

I noticed a lot of people online secured the headpiece with clips. This didn’t seem like it would be stable enough for me and a wig, so I used a bra back and some elastic to hold it on my head. Some crafty engineering on my part. The jewels are resin, and I painted the back with nail polish vs dye in the resin (for the sword resin jewels I actually used some leftover blue Duplicolor Metal cast from painting my Captain America shield, and that game me a more consistent color on the back).

You have to be careful with EVA foam, because it can melt with the wrong products attached. Getting the gold patina involved a series of PVA (Elmber’s Glue) Mop n’ Glow and Rub n’ Buff.

It took forever to find the right fabric for this costume, but I ended up find a poly-blend stretch fabric on discount that had a lovely almost waxed surface that reminded me a bit of leather. It had lovely drape, and that was used on the skirt and the corset cover. The skirt is a 3/4 circle skirt, drafted myself with some residual math knowledge and the internet. If I were to do this again, I would do the corset top differently to eliminate some of the wrinkling when pulled tight. Knit is a fickle mistress. But the corset base is cotton duck fabric with a 100% cotton lining to absorb sweat and is spiral steel boned.. The gold trim is white pleather covered in Rub n Buff. Next time I think I’d use real leather for this or Heat Vinyl transfers since for some reason the Rub n Buff didn’t want to stick. The fern body piece and “boob wings” are glued directly to the corset.

You can’t see them in the first picture, but the boots are also covered in Rub n Buff, but they did not have the flaking issue the pleater did. Go Figure.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the costume or would like some tutorials on any specific parts, just let me know in the comments section!

September 10, 2013CosplayLeave a comment

How do you set up/organize your cosplay and sewing space?

I was reading on cosplay.com and came across this thread about organizing your cosplay/ sewing space.

To be totally honest, right now I need to clean up and organize after our DragonCon trip, but I thought I’d try to answer the following questions, in the event it’s helpful for anyone else. I’m planning on re-organizing my space this weekend so if things change, I’ll update the following.

And if you have any tips, tricks, or ideas, add them in the comments!

If you sew for other things besides cosplay, how does the cosplay work into your sewing room?

I normally sew fashion garments for myself but I can tell that I need to adjust my room to accompany both. I also use my room for drawing. I have a desk (soon to be drawing table) in the closet and try to use that space for art since drawing tends to take up less space than the explosion that is sewing.

Right now I have several bookshelves full of fabric, organized by type of fabric, and one bookshelf of reference books. I have a small chest of drawers for sewing notion (zippers, elastics, trim), and the top shelf of the closet has bins. Those are organized by:

Tapes and glues
markers
pencils
inks and pens
fabric and acrylic paint
watercolor
printing and framing supplies
grommets and corsetry supplies

I also have a set of plastic drawers for patterns, and a file folder box with custom patterns, slopers, and altered patterns.

And random cardboard boxes full of things.

Is your space all over the house or do you have a specialized sewing room?

I have a dedicated room I’m supposed to stay in.

Does your sewing room “travel”?

Right now, it’s spread all over the house like the chaos butterfly I am. I tend to take things with me, as the scatterbrained multi-tasker I am. Also, I work with limited space in my office, and my work table is dedicated to the sewing machine and serger that live on it. If I need to cut fabric or something on a self-healing mat, I need the dining room table. If I want to hang out with my husband and do hand work while watching tv, it travels with me to the den.
How do you manage remnants and things you bought for specific projects?

I have bags and boxes full of them. I’m supposed to go through them annually but it’s hard because you never know when you’ll need a little bit of a specific fabric.
Do you ever throw things away?

When I’m forced to.
Do you use wall-space? Under-the-bed space? Closet space?

I tend to put everything in boxes or in piles. I mostly use bookshelves and the limited space in my closet… or the shed in the backyard for things like spray paint or power tools.
How do you store your machine? How many machines do you have?

I leave my machines out all the time, I have two (normal sewing machine and a serger). I try to keep a dust cover on them, but they get a decent amount of use.
Do you use other people’s sewing space? Do you share a sewing space?

Nope! I share a house with my husband, so sometimes when our hobbies travel, we have to share things like the dining room table.
Do you keep your sewing space neat or are things tossed about?

It always looks in disarray.
How much do you invest into organizing your sewing space?

I bought a bunch of bins a few years ago. I think I spent around $50 on them. I’d like to put in some built-in bookshelves in this alcove I have, but don’t yet have the time or money to invest in it, when the $20 MDF bookshelf from target works for now.
Do you re-organize often?

I try to give it a good clean/organization once a year, but I really should do it more. A good deep clean/ organization weekend lasts me around 2 weeks before it’s crazy again.