Progress Report: The Tardis, the Doctor and the Dalek Princess / Rapport d'avancement: Le Tardis, le Docteur et la Princesse Dalek

(La version Française se trouve plus bas.) 

I have recently made a lot of progress on my Doctor Who family costumes. I am taking a short break from sewing to share what I have done with you.

First, here is my son's 11th Doctor jacket for which I drafted my own pattern and which I made from an old pair of pants of my dad's from the 70s. Unfortunately, I realized when cutting that those pants where full of stains. I'll try to wash them out, but if not, we'll just say the Doctor has had one hell of a day.

J'ai récemment fait beaucoup de progrès sur les costumes de ma famille à thématique Doctor Who. Je prend donc une petite pause dans ma couture pour vous partager ce que j'ai fait jusqu'à maintenant.

D'abord, voici le veston de 11e Docteur de mon fils pour lequel j'ai dessiné le patron et que j'ai découpé dans une vieille paire de pantalon de mon père datant des années 70. Malheureusement, j'ai réalisé au moment de découper que les pantalons étaient remplis de taches. Je vais essayer de les laver, mais sinon, nous dirons que le Docteur à eu une journée infernale.

Second, here is my daughter's Princess Dalek dress. I still have to add a few finishing touches, including hemming and finishing the bodice's lining, but you can already see what it will look like. I decided to forgo the half Styrofoam "bumps" usuallyused in Dalek dresses and make them as round appliques instead because knowing my daughter, she will want to wear her dress once a week and I could not see myself taking the bumps off and putting them back on every time I had to wash it. I went for practical over accuracy. After all, she's 4 1/2, I am allowed some leeway.

En suite, voici la robe de Princesse Dalek de ma fille. Il y a encore de la finition à faire, dont le bord et terminer la doublure du corsage, mais on voit déjà de quoi elle aura l'air. J'ai décidé de remplacer les bosses souvent faites de demi-boules de styromousse par des appliqués circulaires parce que, connaissant ma fille, elle va vouloir porter sa robe une fois par semaine et je ne me voyais pas enlever et remettre les bosses à chaque lavage. J'ai donc choisi l'aspect pratique plutôt que l'exactitude. Après tout, elle a 4 1/2 ans, j'ai droit à un peu de liberté sur ce point.

On to my costume. After 6 weeks of painting and taking over my chest freezer as a work table...

Et maintenant, mon costume. Après 6 semaines de peinture à utiliser mon congélateur-bahut comme table de travail...

I am DONE! Okay, I still have to paint the collar and Obi, but those will be stencilled and much faster to paint (the stencil for the obi is ready, I only have the one for the collar to prepare).

J'ai TERMINÉ! Bon, en fait je dois encore peindre le col et le Obi, mais dans ces deux cas, j'utiliserai un pochoir alors ce sera plus rapide à peindre (j'ai déjà terminé le pochoir du Obi, il ne me reste plus qu'à faire celui du col).

I have some pieces of my costume finished. I made a yellow cotton voile Juban (under Kimono).

J'ai aussi des pièces de mon costume qui sont terminées. Je me suis confectionné un Juban (sous Kimono) de voile de coton jaune.

And I wove myself a an Obijime in yellow and gold.

Et je me suis tissé un Obijime en jaune et doré.

And now, back to my sewing room. I still have plenty to do and little free time to do it.

Et maintenant, je retourne dans ma salle de couture. J'ai encore beaucoup de choses à faire et peu de temps libre pour le faire.

"It's not easy being green!"

Kermit sang it, "It's not easy being green". For Halloween 2007, I wanted to impress everyone at work with an amazing costume. An impressive costume. One that would match my body shape. I went for Princess Fiona the Ogre.

I had fallen in love with her dress in Shrek (2001), but I wasn't sure how or if I would find a green velvet with gold motif. And by then, I also had Shrek II (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007) to pick dresses from. So I decided to let the people decide and I started a poll amongst my friends to let them vote for the dress I would make, and the unanimous choice was the Shrek II version (it figures; it is the one with the most details).

Princess Fiona in Shrek II (2004)

Once again, hours were spent in research by looking at as many pictures and videos as I could find. I wanted to make my costume as screen accurate as possible.

I ended up making it in green stretch velvet, using blue gray taffeta for the skirt panels, sleeves slits, belt, neckline and cuffs. Instead of satin stitching the brass accents, I bought a gold lace trim, which saved me some time and made my life easier (because, of course, I finished making my costume on October 31st, at 2 AM). For the brass dots you can see on the belt, neckline and cuffs, I used decorative brass fabric nails.

Princess Fiona the Ogre in Shrek II (2004)

Fabrics were not the only thing I needed to make this costume perfect. I found lime green socks to cover my feet and I bought green velvet shoes from eBay.

The jewelry was made out of Fimo, spray painted gold, with Deco Art Liquid Rainbow paint for the red enamel accents. Everything hangs from gold cord.

I made a crown and ears out of fun foam. I used the thicker kind for the crown, stapled it close in the back and spray painted it gold, before gluing a red jewel to the front. For the ears, I used thin fun foam and I painted them with a mixture of green paint and glue.

I bought a red haired wig on eBay (it came from Hong Kong and it is one of the best and most comfortable wigs I own - I find it looks so natural that I have considered wearing it out, for the fun of changing my hair in a non-permanent way) to which I pin my crown and ears.

Finally, the biggest difference between the Princess Fiona human and ogre versions, other than the waistline, the skin colour. I couldn't find the right colour of green make-up at my local arts and crafts store, so I had to order it from eBay (I love shopping on eBay). I wear Snazaroo face paint in Lime Green. To get the perfect effect, I also wear Wet N' Wild MegaEyes® Eyeshadow Trio in Amazon Green, auburn red brow pencil, pink blush and pink lipstick. Oh, and let's not forget the hands: I paint my nails lime green and I wear my grandmother's wedding band.

Now I know you're dying to know what the end result looks like, so Ta-da!

Gwenyver's Princess Fiona Costume, Halloween 2007

What do you think? I hate to brag, but It is in my humble opinion, one of the best Fiona costumes I've seen!

(I know you can see my ear and you shouldn't, but I wear a headset to answer the phone and I forgot to fix my hair before taking pictures.)

I was so proud, I thought I would be super original, but it turned out, every girl's nightmare came true for me on this day: someone from accounting also dressed up as Fiona!

Fiona vs Fiona, Halloween 2007

OK, once again I hate to brag, but darn I look good!

The only thing I am not fully satisfied with is the crown. It's too high. But that's OK, my cat took care of of the problem recently: he chewed on it, so now I have to make a new one and I can make it the right height this time. (Thank you G'Kwan for being so helpful!)

L'Alliance Impériale at Le Grand Festival d'Halloween à Blainville, 2008

Last year, l'Alliance Impériale was invited to Le Grand Festival d'Halloween à Blainville and I went as Fiona. For the first time since I've started Trooping with them, my costume was as popular as the Clone Trooper armours. Lots of little girls wanted their picture taken with me, and I had a few women telling me I was their favorite character or princess. There even was this one dad who shooed his wife and kids away to quickly snap a picture with me!

Gwenyver as Princess Fiona, Le Grand Festival d'Halloween à Blainville, 2008

If you calculate quickly, you will realize I was 24 weeks pregnant when this picture was taken, and my baby kept kicking me almost the whole time (she is a kicker to this day!).

Fiona in Far Far Away

I might have played around in Photoshop a little. But it looks fun!

I have to say, that is one of my best costumes.

Reminiscing: Con*Cept 2004

This week-end is Con*Cept - Montreal's Annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. I only went once, back in 2004, but I had a lot of fun and I got to meet the members of l'Alliance Impériale, the first costumer's group I got to join.

It was my first convention, so I only wore a costume for the Masquerade. I was planning to wear an Arwen's Angel Dress costume, but I ran out of trim and time to finish it (and to this day, it still isn't finished, because I know more about sewing and constructions and I see too many imperfections in my old work), so I went with the nicest costume I owned (and it is still one of my nicest nowadays), my Arwen's Dying Gown (also known as Beach Blond Arwen).

Gwenyver's Arwen Dying Gown, Con*Cept 2004

Beach Blond Arwen striking the pose, Con*Cept 2004

I wasn't the only LOTR character present (although I didn't know any of them prior to the Masquerade):

Louise as Legolas, the Christmas Elf, Daniel as Frodo and Gwenyver, Con*Cept 2004

Group Picture of the Masquerade Entrants, Con*Cept 2004

The funny thing about this picture is I am amongst members of l'Alliance Impériale, whom I got to know months later. On my left is Marianne Solav, on my right, CPL. Dom, and the Bounty Hunter is Tionniel.

I had two favorite costumes at that Masquerade. The first was a girl dressed as the Eye of Sauron atop Barad-dûr:

Julie Scott as The Eye of Sauron, Con*Cept 2004

How cool is that? A prom dress transformed into a building! I was really impressed and told her so abundantly.

The next was Maral Agnerian a.k.a. Sarcasm Hime; her costume was simply breathtaking.

Maral Agnerian a.k.a. Sarcasm Hime's Lily Faerie, Con*Cept 2004

That is an impressive use of Organza! Maral, along with Dawn McKechnie, a.k.a. Kaijugal, and Heather Morton were a sweet trio of flower faeries.

Maral Agnerian, Dawn McKechnie and Heather Morton, Con*Cept 2004

I was truly impressed by their costumes. I absolutely loved them. You can't tell from the picture, but, for instance, there are rows of seed beads down the petals of Maral's costume. I though they should win, but apparently, the judges thought their costumes were bought, or so Maral told me when I met her at Otakuthon last year, where she and Dawn were judging the Masquerade. It should be mentioned that two of Con*Cept's Masquerade judges were Stargate SG-1 (1997) Peter Williams (Apophis) and Douglas Arthurs (Heru'ur). They didn't know much about costume making, but the skits that made people laugh won (including, surprisingly, one about a Jaffa and an SGC soldier). Also, Masquerades usually follow the International Costumers' Guild Competition Guidelines, but they just gave first, second and third places.

But that's OK. I was happy to be there, I enjoyed my first experience at a convention, I made friends and got to see gorgeous costumes.

Note: All pictures shown here were taken by Charles Mohapel and can be found on this page.

Buffy's 18th Century Halloween Costume

I recently learned, through l'Alliance Impériale, that there is another event coming up in Montréal with costuming possibilities, the Montreal Comic-Con (it's nothing like San Diego, but give it time to grow). Naturally, the first thing I thought was: "What shall I wear?" And the answer I arrived to while pondering on that question one night was a Super Hero costume of course! Now, I've already stated my position on spandex for me, but it just so happens that I have an almost completed Buffy costume. "A Buffy costume?" I hear you think. Bare with me.

Last year, when I was still making the costumes for the Fantasia Theatre Troupe (I made the costumes for their production Le Tzigane au Croissant d'Or), they convinced me to appear on-stage as an extra during the Ball scene. An occasion to make a new 18th century dress? How could I refuse! I looked around on the Internet for some inspiration on colour combinations when I suddenly remembered a Halloween Buffy episode (Season 2, Episode 6, Halloween) when Buffy wears this gorgeous Ball Gown, to supposedly look like the noble women from the time when Angel was young (there's a crinoline instead of panniers, which makes no sense to me).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, Episode 6, Halloween

I managed to find some fabric in the right colours on sale (of course it is a raspberry imitation Shantung and pink Satin, all of it 100% polyester, so it is hot and it doesn't breath, but one must make some sacrifices for the right look), so the dress was a go.

Gwenyver as Baronne Isabelle de Beaumarchais, Le Tzigane au Croissant d'Or, May 2008

As this was all done at the last minute (the night before, when else!), there are a few things that need adjusting. The main thing is the bodice: I had then asked my Sweetheart to adjust it on me, but it really isn't his forte, so as you can tell on from the following picture, it pulls weirdly. That means ripping out the bodice lining, getting my mom to do the adjustments and then hoping I don't have to take the entire dress apart.

A close-up of Gwenyver as Baronne Isabelle de Beaumarchais, Le Tzigane au Croissant d'Or, May 2008

Then all that will be left for me to do is add the trim, bows and roses which I already have, I've just never taken the time to properly finish the dress.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, Episode 6, Halloween

I do own a long brown-haired wig, to wear with my Arwen costumes, so I could go as Buffy under the spell. All I'd be missing the proper necklace.

Of course, this is only a back-up plan, in case I can't afford or find the time to make my other project... (which you will learn about next Wednesday on Wednesday Weekly Wishlist - stay tuned!)

Movie Monday: District 9

(Sorry I'm so late in posting today, I had a busy day and then, to go with the Movie Monday theme, I watched AFI's 10 top 10)

I like a plethora of movie genres, from fantasy to Sci Fi (except for Horror flicks, so don't count on me to talk about their costumes), and although I mostly like costumes that my Sweetheart would qualify as "Pretty Dresses", I know some costumers out there (including some of my friends in l'Alliance Impériale) like to make complicated Alien suits ant Sci Fi Police uniforms. From what I've seen of the trailer and the pictures, I expect to see some District 9 costumes in the months to come. And for those who would like to organize a movie premier event in costumes, hurry up, it comes out in less than two weeks (Friday, August 14, 2009 to be exact)!

Reminiscing: Otakuthon 2008

(Editing Note: I had originally posted this on Friday within the Current and Upcoming Cosplay Events post, but I decided upon reflexion to give it a separate post, just to keep things a little more organized and easy to follow. So please, pretend the date you see atop is Friday, July 31, 2009.)

Last year was actually the first time I could make it to Otakuthon. Some of my friends from L'Alliance Impériale were planning to go for a Final Fantasy VII cosplay, with three of them dressed as Shinra Soldiers and a fourth as Tifa Lockheart. As I know next to nothing about Anime and video games, my first question was "Is there a female character that does not show too much skin?" (I really don't have the right body shape to go for a navel-bearing bikini/bathing suit type of costume and I believe in working with what you have to make yourself look good). The answer I was given was "Well there's always Aerith..." ("Anything else?" I asked after a couple of days, "No, that's pretty much it!"). And so I embarked on my first Anime costume project. I'll skip the research process and the construction details and go straight to the results (if anyone is interested, just ask and I can write a "making-of" post later).

Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Otakuthon 2008

I didn't have the money for a wig, so I call this costume "Beach-Blond-Aerith" (I name a lot of my costumes "Beach-Blond-Something"). The only construction detail I'll mention is the two side-gores I had to add at the last minute (I made the dress the week before so when I say last minute, I mean the night before the Con) because I was two month pregnant (and now my Baby is five month old *sigh*) and the pattern I used, which usually fits me so well, was uncomfortably tight around my tummy.

The Final Fantasy VII DreamTeam: Marie-Ange-The-Celt as Tifa Lockheart, Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Tionniel, Teknobug5 and Mageknightterra as Shinra Soldiers.

(Picture taken before the Masquerade, for which we won "Best in Show" to our great surprise)

For the Masquerade, I had some help to do my hair and mostly my bangs in the right, pointy, cartoonish way, but I was bugged because I had forgotten my bracelets and armbands at home (I live an hour away from the venue so I went home on Saturday night, but I wasn't about to go back for these accessories when the price of gas was around 1.35$/L!).

All of the Alliance Impériale members present at Otakuthon 2008: Optimus Super Prime as Optimus Prime G1, Mageknightterra and Tionniel as Shinra Soldiers, Marie-Ange-The-Celt as Tifa Lockheart, Gwenyver as Aerith Gainsborough, Luc Skywalker as a Raccoon Police Department Officer (Resident Evil) and Teknobug5 as Shinra Soldier.

Many of these friends are going this year and Tionniel, Mageknightterra and Marie-Ange-The-Celt will have a table in the Dealer room, in the Artisans' corner, selling Naruto and One Piece bookmarks and buttons, and Celtic jewelry, so I invite you to go visit them.