Cat Suits and Costumes

This year for halloween, my friend and I want to continue to our cosplay tradition. Around the same time each year, the main comic store in Canberra also hosts a Cosplay competition, as a part of their 'Otakufest'. The last two years my friend and I have gone in cosplays I have made and walked away with a bunch of free dvds.

This year were thinking Rei and Asuka. In plugsuits! I've made a catsuit cosplay before, but would really love to push these limits and learn how to use latex, and mold the armour plates on their plusuits.However, after about 4 hours of online research and adventures, I have come to the conclusion this may be a bit too much to accomplish in the given time frame.  If anyone has any good cosplay duo ideas, feel free to hit me up!

Amazing Evangellion cosplays of Rei and Asuka

Ohhhhh working full time, how you steal all my creative time! The upside to where I work though, is it is a very beautiful place. You need to step back and really put it into perspective sometimes, because being there for 3 years, it really steals all magic from the place.

Outside my lovely workplace at the staff entrance. I sit out here on my breaks & people think im a smoker because of it :-(

Never fear though! Because today at work sparked another sewing/costume mission. This year I am helping organise the Staff Chirstmas party, and I can't give too much away on the theme, because, you know, someone might maybe read this form work and the surprise would be ruined! Anywho, the point is I want to go as Siren, from The Tron Legacy.

What incredible costumes this movie has, and how amazingly sexy do these girls looks in their lycra outfits. Drool, and those shoes? Oh gosh.

Below are the pair of shoes attached to the suit from the movie. Trying to find any shoes like these online so far have already proven pretty much impossible! Below the shoes is then a picture of a costume made by a girl called Annissë on burdastyle. 

I am in absolute awe of this costume. Incredible

Here is a small extract from an article written about the making of the suits. It took a while to stumble upon, it doesn't seem like the information has circulated much

"The light suit is made from Spandex (elastane) covered by a hexagonal pattern and interspersed with latex-foam. Sometimes it is a one-piece, sometimes more, depending on the character design. Despite a gleaming appearance there is no leather on any of these costumes; all are covered in an industrial ‘buffing’ gloss instead. Light is passed through the suit via Light Tape® (produced by Electro-LuminX of Chester, VA) attached to connectors and wired to a PP3 9V battery pack hidden in the disc and then attached to the rear of the costume by magnets" - Clothes on Film , Tron Legacy: Light Suit Costume 

And below, as a bonus, some Tron inspired footwear. They apparently came out months after the movie and were only sold in one shop in America. Great idea and all, but I really would have just loved some ones that were pretty much identicle to the costume from the movie!

Edmundo Castillo -Tron inspired footwear, can you believe these were $1700?

I'm thinking I'll use 4-way stretch PVC for the white sections of the costume, I think it may look a bit closer to the actual costumes they did, considering they treated the lycra with a gloss finish.

I love making costumes, in fact, i do think it is what I want to work with eventually. For the meantime however, I want to try and gain as much expierence and learn as much as possible before jumping into any form of job. I really need to stop working full time so I can follow up on some work experience....

Anyway, that might be enough for the moment! 

Have a lovely evening all =^_^=

An introductory rant into sewing and the rest....

Hello and welcome ^__^

OK. Wow, does it take a long time to figure out how to work this whole 'blog' thing, and how to go abouts setting everything up the way you might just like it. And this is exactly why, for so so so so long, I have avoided making one of these things, but without further ado, 

One of my favorite pics ever

I am a 21 year young, aspiring seamstress who started sewing for a few reasons. Partly due to my grandmother, who sewed a lot of things for me when I was younger, and then I would say the rest falls under the umbrella of my general quirkiness. 

I started op shopping at a pretty young age, back when you could find things that were really cool AND cheap (not that you can’t anymore, but it’s just a lot harder than it used to be… *sad face*). I started sewing on my own when I would find things in op shops and think, if I just did, this, and this, and this, then they would fit me! A lot of fixes were mainly on old man pants and the like to begin with, and shorts, as I was quite the tomboy through most of high school.

My lovely sewing area

It was only in year 12, when I started sewing myself dresses, and defiantly not because I had any desire to actually wear them. The first 18^th of the year came about, ‘Cocktail’ themed it was, and I did not own a dress at all. I went shopping with a friend and found absolutely nothing I would wear. Eventually I remembered this dress I bought for $5 at the Gold Coast a year earlier. It was pretty hideous, and way too big. But I cut it up and replaced most of the bodice, and made it smaller, in a desperate rush to have some form of dress to wear to this party. This dress is pictured in the mini timeline below, first one there, pretty horrid picture, but you get the idea.

The second dress in this timeline is the first dress I ever just ‘made’ from scratch. No pattern or anything. I think back on it now and I literally have no concept of how I managed to do that, but I’m pretty sure I just pinned and pinned until it was right. So I’m proud of this purple dress, wore it to my own 18^th, many others, and I still wear it and love it today.  Made from a recycled old bed spread, this has been a very cheap way for me to sew throughout my life. You find the strangest and greatest things!  

a breif history of my sewing throughout the years

Now for a condensed history of everything that has come after that…….brace yourself…… 

Fashion and Design all throughout high school – Gap year – apply for Fashion at RMIT - do not get in – Complete Certificated IV in Clothing Production - apply for Fashion at RMIT again - do not get in – Start a Fashion degree at Local TAFE – Do a short corse in corsetry – Volunteer at Sydney Fashion Week 2011 - Drop out of Fashion Design course after a term – Get a job at a alterations place – Quit after 4 weeks due to lack of pay and workplace harassment – Do free lance seamstressing – Stop a lot of free lance seamstressing due to some very horrible encounters – Start working on a wedding dress for a work college – Start a Cert II in Millinery – Complete a short course in Bra making and Swimwear – Start sewing with a Historical sewing group…….

My brother's cat and my Husqvarna Emerald 203

That pretty much brings us up to speed. At the moment I am working full time, playing soccer, studying Japanese, continuing a Cert II in Millinery, and working towards the deadline of November for a wedding dress!!

Feel free to check out my Burdastyle account, as it has documented a lot more than I can fit on here without losing your interest completely….!

In conclusion, I've been sewing for years now and I have finally started a blog to share my strange thoughts and encounters on all sewing related matters. I often find myself having conversations in my head and thinking, I wish I could discuss this with someone, or ask someone this. Unfortunately in my small little city, there are not too many people who I could related to in my rants, but thanks to the amazing work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and wonders of the World Wide Web, I may now share my thoughts with likeminded people/strangers who have managed to figure out this whole ‘blogging’ business a whole lot earlier than me.

I love to make costumes, cosplay, as well as vintage and lolita inspired garments to brighten up my life……..and this is the belated story of it all!

=^__^=

Stay tuned for my next post, when I upload a very pretty dress I made with this ‘Lavender Hills’ Fabrics

PS Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed. I must get a bit of practise, as I am not used to typing things appropriate for someone else to read other than me. 

And lastly, as a bonus, an insiders view into my favorite corner of my bedroom, figurines, and sewing storage