Tag Archives: costume

NY ComicCon Part 2 – Heroes and Such

13 Apr

ComicCon GroupOur journey to NY ComicCon 2013 was almost complete.  We just needed a good costume for T.  He was going to go as the 10th Doctor but after reading about how hot it gets walking around.  I decided rather than spending the day hearing him complain about how hot he was and carrying the suit all over the place that we needed a more comfortable costume for hot areas.

Rory TristanRory Williams costume
We were able to put together a Rory costume from Day of the Moon (6.2). We already had the polo shirt, shorts, and sneakers so it was only a matter of tally marks and the sharpie around Rory’s neck.

The tally marks: I used waterproof black eyeliner to draw on the tally marks all over the place. I figured they would be easy to remove when we got home but hold up to any sweating that may occur.

The sharpie on a string: I took a dried out sharpie and glued it to a piece of twine to be worn around the neck.

Rory costume is complete.

Now Off to NY ComicCon.

Kidditch1 Kidditch2The kids started off their day at the “Kidditch” (aka Kids Quidditch) which was presented by the International Quidditch Association in the Family Room. At once point, my son turned to me and told me he had found “his” sport. They both had a blast as they each took turns in the groups for lessons in tossing the quaffle, throwing the bludgers, and chasing the snitch.

Afterwards we headed tot he autograph room to get in line for John Barrowman. As we go in line, I discovered that sometime at Quidditch, T put down the bag he was holding for me while I took pictures of Suuki having their turn. This bag contained my cellphone, $120 cash, 2 credit cards, my driver’s license, T’s Epi-Pen, Suuki’s Lactaid, both childrens’ insurance cards, and the ticket to the parking garage where we parked the van. Basically, without this bag, our adventure was coming to a screeching halt.

A female crew member stayed with my children in the John Barrowman autograph line while I ran back to the Family Room in the hopeless search for the missing bag. The Quidditch people were gone so I began to randomly ask the next group that was setting up. One girl asked me my name. She then pointed me to one of the authors sitting in the Family Room. She said he had found a bag.

Children’s author and comic book writer, Alex Simmons became a REAL ComicCon hero. He found the missing bag and kept is safe for me. He turned our first experience at ComicCon from disastrous to miraculous. Our special trip together was falling apart by Mr. Simmons was there save the day.

Barrowman1Now came the LONG wait in the autograph line for John Barrowman. From 11:22 AM until 2:03 PM, my two ADHD kids, one with Asperger’s, managed to stay in line to meet one of their heroes. Of course, breaking out the DS stash at 12:30 PM helped. I had told them at the beginning that they would have to share a picture of “Jack” because of the amoBArrowman2unt of money we allotted for the day. The kids were so cute and got all tongue-tied when the got to meet him. As he began to sign his autograph, he noticed that the two of them had only 1 picture. He turned to Suuki and asked them to pick what picture they thought was the best. Suuki pointed to a different picture than the one we paid for. He grab that one off the table, autographed that one, and gave it to them. They each has an autographed picture and giant grins but John Barrowman was finished making everyone’s day. He then told them “Do you know why you have a great mom? *pause* Because she took you to ComicCon. Thank you, John Barrowman, because you made this mom very happy. (I didn’t know my camera was dying at the time so the pictures we took were fuzzy.)

I felt really bad for Gareth David-Lloyd. He was very sweet but this day was for the kids and, well, Torchwood, does not have a kid audience so they did not know Ianto Jones.

We took a quick bit of lunch which I had packed in the backpack and we were off to the vendor floor. Once up there, we did not come up for air until ComicCon closed. The kids had a great time and enjoyed every second. Suuki felt like a movie star when people started asking them if they could take their picture.

Here are a few of the people we took pictures of on our visit:

CC People 2 CC People 3 CC People 4 CC People 5 CC People 6 CC People 7 CC People 8 CC People 9 CC People 10 CC People 11 CC People 12 CC People 13 CC People 14

Check out NY ComicCon Part 1 – Sailor Moon Costume Revisited.

NY ComicCon Part 1 – Sailor Moon Costume Revisited

29 Mar

Sailor SkylerAs I have said before, life has me a bit behind with the blogs but I am trying hard to catch up and get back on track.  There are going to be some blogs that are older information but still relevant.

ComicCon……a place I have always wanted to go but could never afford.  It soon became a place my kids wanted to go to as well.  They first expressed interest in going during the Summer of 2012 but it was too late for us to get tickets for Kid Day that year.  So we put a plan in motion to head to NY ComicCon 2013.

The kids were so excited when we bought our tickets but didn’t understand that you then needed to wait a few months before the real tickets came in the mail.  Costume planning began because they had been watching Heroes of Cosplay on the SyFy channel.   They also had me watching the see who was going to be be there on Kid Day.  They were hoping for someone they knew and loved.

Suuki was the most picky about their costume.  After watching  Heroes of Cosplay thry became convinced that thry was only allowed to wear a costume that was homemade because “mom, store bought stuff is really not allowed and looks tacky”.  *I can’t image where she got that idea from.*  Watch out Cosplayers, my, then, 7- year old will be coming up the ranks with strong cosplay ideals.  They finally settled on revisiting their Sailor Moon costume from Halloween but with major adjustments by mom.  They wanted it to look even more real now that they had seen through the end of Sailor Moon R.

Costume adjustments began for Sailor Moon Costume for Kids.  The original boots were long socks over a pair of faux-crocs.  This was not going to work for a day of walking around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.  So I ordered a pair Kid’s Red Shazam Boots from Target.  Suuki pointed out that they close to Sailor Moon’s boots but they weren’t quite right.  Here is how we altered the boots:

BootsThe Boots Redux

Supplies:

  • 1 pair of Kid’s Red Shazam boots
  • 1 role of white electrical tape
  • 2 small g0ld moon cutouts – I made these at work.
  1. Carefully edge the top of the boots with the white electrical tape.
  2. In the front center, place the moons, crescent points up, to the front center just touching the white.

BroochThe Brooch Redux

The next piece of the costume revamp was the brooch.  Using the foam was fine for Halloween but my little cosplayer was having no part of it for ComicCon because it wasn’t shiny enough.

Supplies:

  • 1 set of cellphone gems
  • 1 brooch cutout – Again, I made this at work.
  1. Carefully match the color gems to the brooch style you are using.  (We used this style.)
  2. Place the brooch in the center of the front ribbon.

TiaraThe Tiara Redux

This was a basic tweak but well worth it for the look.

Supplies:

  • 1 piece of sticky-back felt
  • 1 tiara cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
  • 1 oval gem
  • 1 strip of elastic
  1. Measure the elastic and the tiara around the wearer’s head. Be sure to leave space for the elastic to be attached to the tiara. (About 1.5 inches should do it.)
  2. Peel the backing the the tiara and stick the elastic in place.
  3. Stick the tiara cutout onto the sticky-back felt to make a soft surface at the back. This will also sandwich the elastic between both adhesives.

ChokerThe Choker Redux

I kept this mostly the same but just 1 minor change.

Supplies:

  • 1 small moon cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
  1. Replace the old felt moon with the much nicer golden moon. You may wish to add more felt to make sure the moon points do not touch the skin and scratch it.

Hair AccentsThe Hair Accents Redux

I kept the backs of the old ones as a base but the rest was redone.

Supplies:

  • 1 set of red cellphone gems
  • 2 circle 2″ diameter cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
  1. Place the new golden disks over the old ones.
  2. Arrange the red cell phone gems in a circle pattern in the center of the disk.

Wand FullThe Scepter Redux

The scepter was completely redone from last year.

Supplies:

  • 2 blocks of pink sculpy
  • 2 large moon cutout on 3M backed gold flex – Again, I made this at work.
  • 2 scepter accent cutout on 3M backed gold flex – I designed these based on an image online and made these at work.
  • 2 set of cellphone gems
  • 2 silver golf ball coins
  • 1 small wooden candlestick
  1. Paint the candlestick gold.
  2. Sculpt the shape of the scepter handle making sure that the base fits into the candlestick. The top should taper almost flat. Follow the directions to harden the clay.
  3. Over the top of the wand, place the 2 moons back to back with a small piece of cardboard in the center of the crescent to attach the golf coins later. If you need to, you can glue between them.
  4. Over the piece of cardboard, glue the golf coins back to back.
  5. Place the scepter accents over the wand, back to back like you did with the moons. Again, glue if you need to.
  6. Add the cellphone gems in the appropriate places on the scepter accent.
  7. Place glue into the candlestick and slide the wand into place.
  8. Place a large clear cellphone gem at the base of the candlestick.

Wand TopWand Bottom

Our adventure continues with NY ComicCon Part 2 – Heroes And Such.

Homemade Girl’s Kapa Haka

18 Apr

I have completed all the pieces for Suuki’s a Kapa Haka costume for the multicultural event.  You can find the tutorials at the lines below:

Under the skirt they wore a pair of black leggings that we cut into shorts.  Our event was tonight and they had a blast in their costume.

Full Kapa Haka Costume

Full Kapa Haka Costume

Here are some other pictures from the event, including one of her and her friend from the Mexico table.

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Homemade Girl’s Tipare Headband

17 Apr

Part w of my Kapa Haka costume is the Pari Bodice.  This goes with Homemade Girl’s Piupiu Skirt and Homemade Girl’s Pari Bodice.

You will need:

  1. Cut a 11.5 x 2.5 inch rectangle from the sleeve fabric.
  2. Plan out the geometric pattern you plan to have on your headband and cut out pieces of the felt accordingly.
  3. Using the hot glue gun, glue your pattern to the front of your black rectangle.
  4. Glue the piece of ribbon to the back of the headband.

IMG_4073

Homemade Girl’s Pari Bodice

15 Apr

Part 2 of my Kapa Haka costume is the Pari Bodice.  This goes with Homemade Girl’s Piupiu Skirt.

You will need:

  • 1 black t-shirt($3.99 on sale at the Michael’s)
  • 2 – 9 in x 12 in stick-it felt sheets in red  & white( $1.29 per sheet at Michael’s)
  • Hot Glue Gun w/ extra glue sticks($1 for a mini-gun & $1 for a pack of glue sticks at the Dollar Tree)
  1. Turn -t-shirt inside out and then fold the t-shirt in half so that the arms are lined up perfectly.  Lay on a flat surface.IMG_4072
  2. Starting under the on arm, mark an “L” shape from under the arm up the shoulder and then mark another “L” shape on the collar side so that the “L” markings line up.   There should be about 2 inches between the 2.  (I used a silver sharpie to mark it but you can also use chalk.)
  3. Using sharp scissors, cut the arms and collar off of the t-shirt using the “L” shapes.  By having the shirt folded in half, you can cut both sides at once so they are symmetrical.  (Save the pieces you cut off for use later and for your Tipare.)
  4. Using the hot glue gun, fold over a small seam on the areas you cut to give the bodice a clean edge and glue down.  You now have a basic bodice. (If you are sensitive to the feel of the glue like my daughter, a small bit of cloth tape from the first aid aisle taped over the inside makes the fabric feel completely smooth.)
  5. Now plan out the geometric pattern you plan to have on your bodice and cut out pieces of the felt accordingly.  (I needed some black so I used the left over material from one of the sleeves.   Be sure to save the other sleeve and any left over felt for the Tipare.)
  6. Using the hot glue gun, glue your pattern to the front of your bodice.
  7. If your bodice’s neckline is too low, cut the tops and shorten the shoulder straps using the hot glue gun.

IMG_4057

Homemade Girl’s Piupiu Skirt

7 Apr

I am a bit behind on my blogging and have so many little things to show but haven’t had the time to blog.  This month I am part of the Multicultural Fair at the elementary school.  We basically make a station about another country that has a craft, food, posters, flags, and more about a particular country.  This event came about because our town is mostly Irish and every year the school has an Irish Fair.  The PTA decided it was time for other countries to have their spotlight.  Last year, I was crazy and tackled both our own local native culture of the Lenni Lenape and Ghana.  Running two tables was complete madness so this year I am just doing one, New Zealand.  I chose New Zealand for the simple fact that my sister went on vacation there in February and I knew I would have some great pictures to share.

To represent the Māori people, I am making Suuki a Kapa Haka costume but ordering one for them to wear would use up my entire table’s budget.  I started thinking of how to make at least the Piupiu skirt myself and the idea grew to much more.

Homemade Girl’s Piupiu Skirt (on a budget) :

You will need:

  • 1 white half apron($5.99 at the Michael’s)
  • 1 fat black fabric marker($4.99 at the Michael’s)
  • 1 black permanent marker ($.99 each at the Michael’s)
  • 1 tube of liquid stitch($3.29 at A.C. Moore) – optional
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  1.  Using a pencil, mark on the apron where you plan to put your black lines. (My lines were spaced out from the top of the bottom fold:  1.5 inch, 2.5 inch, 3.5 inch, 6 inch, 7 inch, 8 inch, 10.5 inch, 11.5 inch, 12.5 inch and then a line below the belting and one in the middle of the belting.)
  2. Take your fabric marker and using the widest side, draw the lines horizontally across the apronIMG_0193.  Don’t worry if it is not dark enough because we will fix that later.
  3. Using the black permanent marker, clean up the edges of the lines and fill in any gaps.
  4. Take your scissors and cut vertical strips up to the belting but do not cut into the belt.
  5. (Optional) Using liquid stitches, curl your strips into tubs and glue shut to give it a cylindrical look like the flax they are really made from.

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Now that the Piupiu skirt is pretty much completed I am ready to take the harder part, the bodice.

Homemade Girl’s Pari Bodice

Homemade Girl’s Tipare Headband

Sailor Moon Costume for Kids

30 Oct

My youngest was set on being Sailor Moon for Halloween.   After looking online and only finding affordable adult costumes or really expensive children ones on eBay, I needed a different avenue.   A family member generously made Suuki the skirt and collar for the costume. If you don’t have someone handy to help with this part, I saw this sailor girl costume online that could work as a base. I got to work on the rest.

The supplies I used:

  • 2 Red Christmas Bows – 1 large & 1 medium ($1 each at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 package of Foam Boards – must contain yellow, white, red & pink ($1 each at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 package of Styrofoam Balls – 1(1 inch), 3(1.5 inch) & 2(2 inch) ($1 for a bag at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 Toy Magic Wand ($1 at the Dollar Tree)
  • Red Knee Socks ($1 a pair at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 Package of Bobby Pins ($1 a pack at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 Package of Safety Pins ($1 a pack at the Dollar Tree)
  • 2 sheets of felt – yellow & red ($.79 a sheet at A.C. Moore)
  • 1 pack of flat eleastic($3.07 at A.C. Moore)
  • Silver Gold & Red Glitter Glue ($1 for a 3-pack at the Dollar Tree)
  • 2 Golden Blonde Tres Big Twists ($7.99 for a 3-pack at the Face Value)
  • Blonde Wedge Bang ($1.99 on clearance at the Sally Beauty Supply)
  • Velro Pieces ($1 for a pack at an independent discount store
  • Tacky Glue ($2.59 for a 4 oz bottle at A.C. Moore)
  • Hot Glue Gun w/ extra glue sticks($1 for a mini-gun & $1 for a pack of glue sticks at the Dollar Tree)
  • Old Pair of Shoes (I used a spare pair of Crocs.)

The Boots:
Cut 3 yellow moon shapes out of foam board and paint one side with gold glitter glue. (Put one aside for the Choker.) Place the Crocs inside each sock so it lined up evenly with the foot. Then tacky glue the moon shapes to the front top seam of each sock. When all is dried, hot glued a sneaker pattern to the bottom of the sock so to create a tread so there will be no slipping while wearing the sock boots.

The Bows:
Using vitamin bottle tops as stencils, trace and cut a 1.5 inch circle in yellow foam and a .5 inch circle in red foam. Coated both with glitter glue, gold glitter for the yellow and red glitter for the red. Tacky glued the red circle on top of the yellow circle. Using the gold glitter glue create circular accents onto the disk you have just created. Hot glue the disk to the center of the medium bow. This bow will be safety pinned to the front of the sailor collar. The large bow will be pinned just below the waist at the back of the blue skirt.

The Choker:
Cut off .5 inch strips of the red felt on the 12-inch side. Measure the strips around the throat of the wearer. Taking care of leave a 1 inch overlap, cut the felt to the throat size. (You may need to tacky glue two strips together to get the right size.) Take your extra moon shape from the Boots and tacky glue it to the middle of the strip. Cut a piece of velcro and carefully hot glue 1 piece to the back to create a closure. Be sure you do not accidentally glue the velcro on the wrong side.

The Tiara:
Using the 9-inch side of the yellow felt, cut a V-shape out about .5 inches thick. Cut one 1-inch, two 1.5-inch and one 2-inch Styrofoam balls in half evenly. Paint the rounded side of 1 half of the 2-inch(you do not need the other half) with the gold glitter glue. Paint the rounded side of the rest of the balls(you only need 1 half of the 1-inch ball) with red glitter glue. This make take more than one coat of glitter glue. (We are only using one of the 1-inch halves for this step. The rest will be needed for later. To save drying time, you may want to paint the flat side of the 2-inch ball as well.) Hot glue the half of the 1-inch ball to the bottom of the V on the felt piece. Cut a length of flat elastic to fit the V piece around the wearer’s head and hot glue the elastic in place.

The Hair & Hair Accents:
Cut 2 circles out of the white foam board to give 2 halves of the 1.5 inch balls a board. Hot glue the balls into the foam circles. Hot glue Bobby pins to the back of the foam pieces so the accents can be pinned into the hair. (Hair extensions and hair buns are expensive so I used the hair twists to create the buns. My daughter already has long blonde hair so I put her hair up into ponytails and then covered the hair bands with the twists to give it a bun-like effect. I then placed the hair accents into the twists.)

The Wand:
Take the toy wand and remove all the pieces leaving just the wand cylinder. Take a 2-inch Styrofoam ball and hot glue it to the end of the wand. Paint the entire ball with silver glitter glue and, as before, this may take several coats. Cut two large moon shapes, 2 circle, 4 accent pieces from yellow foam board. Cut the 2 wand handle shapes from the pink foam board. (I used what I had around the house as stencils and eyeballed the shape of the wand handle from pictures online.) Hot glue the remaining halves of the red glitter 1.5-inch balls to the yellow circles. Glue the the yellow accent pieces at the top, angled outwards to the circles as well. Hot one side of the wand pieces onto the wand in this order: the moon, the circle piece accent side up, the handle piece. Repeat this step for the opposite side and tacky glue the foam pieces together to make the wand more secure. Take the half gold glitter 2-inch ball and hut glue it on to the base of the wand.

How to make a Tornado Costume…

29 Oct

So my son is seriously into weather right now after we had several tornado warnings in the past month. Tornado warnings are not that common in New York so it has become his current science topic. He decided he wants to be a tornado for Halloween which is easier said than done. It is not like I can run to the local Party City and grab a tornado costume. I researched ideas online for other tornado costumes but none really fit the total picture he described to me. I borrowed some ideas from around the web but here is the final project. Most of the items can be found at your local dollar or discount stores.

You will need:

  • 2 Pool Noodle ($1 each at the Dollar Tree)
  • 2 Cardboard Tubes (2 toilet paper rolls or paper towel roll cut to size)
  • 12 Pencils ($1 for a 10-pack at the Dollar Tree)
  • 2-3 rolls of gray Duct Tape ($1 each at the Dollar Tree)
  • Sharpie-type Markers – black, brown ($1 for a multi-color pack at the Dollar Tree)
  • 1 skein of gray/black mixed yarn (I used Red Heart Zebra Shimmer $3.49 at A.C. Moore)
  • 1 spool of 20 Gauge silver plated wire (I used Darice brand for $2.99 at A.C. Moore)
  • 1 heather gray t-shirt (I used Hanes brand for 2 for $5 at A.C. Moore)
  • 1 heather gray sweatpants (We had a pair that was hand-me-down but you can find them fairly cheap.)
  • Acrylic Paints – black, white, brown (I had paints left over from a previous project.)
  • Silver Glitter Glue (I had glitter glue left over from a previous project.)
  • Tacky Glue ($2.59 for a 4 oz bottle at A.C. Moore)

Tools to put it all together:

  • Hot Glue Gun w/ extra glue sticks($1 for a mini-gun & $1 for a pack of glue sticks at the Dollar Tree)
  • Paint Brushes – thin tipped
  • Paper plate with a lip
  • Scissors
  • Wire Cutters
  • Needle Nose Pliers
  • Sharpened Pencil
  • Large piece of cardboard
  • Clothes Pins
  • Clothes Hanger

Step 1: Wrap one pool noodle around the head as you would a crown to mark the length you need to cut. Cut to size.

Step 2: Cut the cardboard rolls in half.

Step 3: Roll the cardboard tubes into thinner rolls so that they can fit inside the hole of the pool noodle. Place one inside the uncut noodle and one inside the noodle you sized for the head. Connect both ends to the cardboard roll to create a ring. Secure the rings with duct tape.

Step 4: Using the duct tape, completely cover the pool noodles so they become gray.

Step 5: Gently remove the eraser from the metal ends on 6 pencils. Using pliers, remove the full eraser with metal cap on the other 6 pencils. Insert these ends into the metal end from the pencils with the removed erasers. This will connect 2 pencils together with the metal cap between. Wrap duct tape twice around the metal connection to secure. Completely wrap the pencils in duct tape so they become gray rods.

Step 6: Using a sharpened pencil, puncture 6 holes evenly spaced on the top of each noodle ring. Using the hot glue gun, fill a hole with glue and place the end of the one of the gray rods into the hole. Repeat this step for all 6 holes on one of the noodles. Carefully repeat this process with the second noodle so that that two rings become connected with the gray rods. Reinforce each hole with hot glue to be extra secure.

Step 7: Using the wire cutters, snip about 12 2-inch lengths of the silver plated wire and put to the site. Secure the end of the wire still on the spool around the base of one of the rods. Carefully spin the wire around the outside of the structure wrapping from ring to ring. Some of the wire will slide down the rods. Use the 2-inch lengths you cut off earlier to secure the wire in place in several locations. When you are satisfied with your wire look, secure the ends and use hot glue on the inside of the structure to secure the wires in place.

Step 8: Tie the end of the yarn around the base of one of the rods. Carefully spin the yarn around the outside of the structure. You can use the wire to help the yarn from slipping during this step. When you are satisfied with your yarn look, tied the end onto the structure. Using the hot glue, secure both the yarn and the wire to the support rods on the inside of the structure. Gluing on the inside minimizes the amount of glue that can be seen on the tornado.
NOTE: This completes the top of your tornado. However, you can add items into your tornado like small toys cars, animals, etc but keep the weight of the objects in mind as this piece sits on the head. I used a package of light weight construction toys and 3-D stickers to give the effect of objects inside the tornado.

Step 9: Cut a piece of cardboard to fit perfectly inside the t-shirt. Place the t-shirt on a clothes hanger and slide the cardboard inside. Secure both the t-shirt and the hanger to the cardboard using clothes pins. You want both the front and the back to be taunt because it will make painting easier. Hang the t-shirt up in an area where you can get to both sides. I used our indoor clothes line that we have in the basement.

Step 10: Using the paper plate as your palate, mix the white, black, and brown paints into various shades. The paints do not have to be mixed well because the streaky look works well for the tornado. Using the lightest shade, softly paint the outline of your tornado on to the t-shirt from bottom to neck. Be sure to have the tip of the cone at the bottom. Using thin stroke, swirl various shades into a tornado. Be sure to use a U-type motion when painting to give the tornado it cylindrical look. The final layer of paint should be solid black thinly dragged along the lines to accent the swirls.  Take the silver glitter glue and paint the glitter in the same motion as the paint all over the tornado.  This will give the tornado a rain effect.

Step 11(optional): If you want objects in your tornado, now is the time to attach them. I found that using 3-D stickers worked well because they were made completely out of plastic and can easily be hot glued in place. Place them in all directions all over both side of the tornado and secure with hot glue.

Step 12: Cut lengths of the yarn to match the width of the tornado.  You want them spaced out about 1 inch so the amount depends on the size of the shirt.  Be sure to have a little bit on the ends of the yarn to curl in the swirl-motion.  Using hot glue, glue each length of yarn onto the tornado.  When all the yarn is in place, take your hot glue and use a U-type motion to create lines of texture between the rows of yarn.  This will give the tornado are more 3-dimensional look.

You now have a completed Tornado Custom.