Queen Amidala: Red Invasion

Years ago, (12 to be exact) my mother and I made the iconic Queen Amidala costume from Episode I: The Red Invasion outfit. I am looking at the feasiblity of re-making this costume more accurately. The costume has been in storage for nearly 10 years, so I recently took it out to examine the damage to it and to try and figure out what I had done well, what needs to be completely re-drafted and to try to get some decent pictures of some of the details of the outfit.

Little Angel

Totally not costuming related, but I was up late last night with the little man. The big man wasn't feeling well so he had gone to bed early and we were playing downstairs. The little one had an accident on the sofa while watching TV, so I made him go watch in his play room while I clean it up. Well, he fell asleep there and when I went to check on him, he was like this. It just melted my heart.

Mara Jade: Green Jedi

I've always loved the 90's-tastic-ness of this outfit. I LOVE even more that it made an "appearance" of sorts in the new Tim Zahn book Choices of One. (Which was a good book, btw)

Here is the inspiration, though this outfit has several different variations.

I was lucky enough to find some fabric on the "Value fabric" racks that was close to the color of the outfit. It's a little more green than this picture, but it's very similar. All total, I spent $12 on the material, of which I am very proud. I used model magic to make the brooch and belt buckle (which I still haven't quite figured out how I'm going to attach to the belt). I used four layers of craftfoam that I cut, layered and painted to make the shoulder armor. I also found a workable shoulder bag at Goodwill for like $3. I made boot wraps out of scrap fabric that I had and dyed them brown. They are designed to go over my Isard boots, but I've yet to actually try it on together. I got some extension hair and made a braid piece and I bought a blue lightsaber on ebay. I plan on making a replica Luke ANH hilt as a prop, but haven't had much time to devote to that kind of experiment. And I've been... well afraid to do anything on it. I'm hoping to submit pictures for Rebel Legion approval soon. Hopefully I won't have to do any alterations on the costume, but I do have plans for improvements. I would like to make the shoulder armor out of leather and replace the belt. I have another bag, but I need to add length to or replace the strap. And of course, the lightsaber hilt needs to be completed.

Same outfit, but darker color. There's also a skirt version!

Brooch and belt buckle getting painted.

Early stages of shoulder armor

And the finished product at NOLACC in May, well finished except for the boot wraps, belt buckle, lightsaber and a good solution for the hair.

costuming

Updating my costuming progress album on Picasa.

Steamy goodness

In January, we had Wizard World come to New Orleans. The hubby and I had the opportunity to work the Steampunk Americans fan table at the event, but that meant we needed Steampunk garb. While we had been toying with steampunk costume ideas since August 2010, nothing ever came of it until January and the convention. I made him a vest to go with the top hat he got for his birthday and pocket watch from Christmas. I used material that I had left over from previous projects because we were broke as a joke. Fortunately, I had sufficient lengths of the brown upholstery "suede" from my Mara Jade Pilgrim robe for the vest. I lined it with a brown fabric that I had laying around for years. Unfortunately, that fabric is pretty itchy and my hubby doesn't like it much. 

There's my time-traveling sweetheart.

He finished off the outfit with a dress shirt in cream and a pair of black dress slacks, some old work boots and his leather bracers. He looked great! 

I on the other hand, threw together what I could find at Goodwill and other thrift stores. He bought me a brown aviator's cap and goggles and I made a necklace. Fortunately I don't have any pictures on hand to show my costume for this event. The second day I took my Mara Pilgrim robe and wore it pinned up with a skirt to steampunk it out a bit. 

A couple of weeks later, Steampunk Americans had another event at a local art market. The gallery where the market was being held was hosting a steampunk exhibit that month, so we were invited. Again, I threw together some stuff I had including a skirt, blouse, corset and vest. Hubby dear wore the same thing he did to the convention.

me and del and a kid playing with the hubby's steampunk arsenal.

Since then, I've been working on my own steampunk outfit based on Ah! My Goddess's Belldandy. I had planned to make Belldandy's outfit from her first manga appearance for a while. I had bought the fabric and everything, but I never got around to it. So, when some steampunk patterns came out, I thought, what better use of this fabric I have laying around than a steampunk costume. Typically I'm not a fan of doing established characters in different styles, so I'm calling it Belldandy-inspired steampunk costume.

Here's an in-progress shot. The sewing has now been completed and I'm working on accessories.

I also have my hubby's "Constable's coat" from Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cendiary Island in the works. I'll post that one soon.

Next up: Mara Jade

Recent project: Isard

Director of Imperial Intelligence, Ysanne Isard.

Since April 2010, I had been itching to make a costume that would be worthy of admission into the 501st Legion, especially after I met some members of the local garrision (Woot! BAG FTW!) at NOLA Comic Con that month. I toyed around with making a generic black officer but decided against it when I saw that Isard in her lovely red "power suit" was an accepted costume. I love red; it's one of my favorite colors. And anything to stand out from the crowd of white and black is OK by me!

So I started altering a pattern for the jacket over last summer, using a Men's Civil War costume pattern as a base. That was not the best of ideas. Even though I cut it out on the smallest size, I still had to take it in A LOT! I'm surprised that the proportions were even remotely right once I was done with it. I went through three different prototypes before I got the jacket to a point where I was ready to cut it out of the actual fabric.  

 An early stage of my initial prototype.

I didn't get the fabric until around Christmas, but was so nervous that the pattern wasn't right or that I'd screw up cutting it somehow. I was really short on cash (Come on, it was Christmas time!) and I had purchased all of the bolt of fabric. I really didn't want to screw up.

During the fall, I had received a pattern for the flared breeches to go with the jacket, which was a good thing, because the prototype that I made really sucked. I hate trying to make pants without a pattern. I always end up with a wonky crotch. I only had minor adjustments to make to the pattern, however, so that was nice. 

Pants prototype from pattern. Please pardon the boots, they were the only ones I had at the time.

Since the holidays were busy and I was in the midst of Steampunk costume-making, I didn't get around to cutting out the actual fabric until the end of January. I got mostly finished by Feburary, all ready to go for Mardi Gras. I even ordered the wig, but didn't receive it in time for the parades (and then didn't go to one because of the threat of rain: rain + wool = bad). 

I did however, march without the wig.

I finally got everything together and submitted it for 501st approval at the beginning of June, just over a year after deciding to do this particular character. I am now ID 8137, member of Bast Alpha Garrison, and am already planning my next Imperial costume, as well as several outfits for Rebel Legion membership. Because, let's face it... as a girl, the Rebel Scum have far more options in terms of costumes.

So here's the costume all put together.

Pardon the hair, it still needs some styling.

Next up: Steampunk stuff I think.

Recent projects

I've been away recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working.
Over the past year I have been working on and completed (or nearly so) the following costumes.
Director of Intelligence Isard from Star Wars (Expanded Universe)
Mara Jade: Green Jedi outfit
Various Steampunk pieces for myself and my husband
Steampunk/Gaslight Belldandy as inspired by the Oh! My Goddess Colors reprint of the first manga
Young Ben Skywalker for my son (also from Star Wars Expanded Universe).
I'll get into details on each of these over the next few days, as well as discuss some upcoming projects. But for now... Here's a picture!