I intentionally spread Neopets cosplay fever to Ginny Di, and in the two days after Denver Comic Con she made a Grey Faerie costume! The fever is apparently highly contagious, because we also roped in a new friend, Hide, to create Taelia the Snow Faerie in the same timespan! #sorrynotsorry And we looked f a b u l o u s on the day of the shoot, let me tell you. We started at Ginny’s in-home studio, a setup that consisted of a backdrop (we used white, then black), two studio soft boxes, a large ring light, and an off-camera flash! All the images I've included in this blog have minimal processing; I've just added a few color toning and skin retouching things in Lightroom to show what sort of cool stuff we were able to get before any Photoshop magic occurred! This was the first time either of us Ginnys had used an off-camera flash, but it turned out to be really easy. I just hooked up some radio triggers to my camera and my flash and vwa-lah! Instant backlighting! We also figured out how to do some nifty lens flares. My wings were especially neat when it came to the backlighting. Because they're made of a diffusing white sparkle tulle, they took on the hue of whatever color gel was over the speedlight, so I could switch between good and evil (or, paragon and renegade) modes!
Once we were done shooting inside, we wandered to the park across the street to get some photos of ourselves in “Faerieland”! As any hardcore Neopian knows, Faerieland fell out of the sky in Y12, landing the Faerie city in a lush Greenland between the Haunted Woods and Brightvale. We didn't shoot many photos here, instead deciding to focus on video. But we did get this very cute shot of the three of us in front of a bush! The full video will be coming soon, but until then, here's a teaser of Taelia in the snow! Keep an eye out for early access to images on my Patreon feed, as well as on Hide and Ginny Di's social media! All in all, this was a fantastic shoot where I learned a plethora of new things and got to collaborate with some incredible people! I'm really excited to be back in Philly and to work on some more fun, collaborative projects like this!
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Sewing Up a Space StormOnce the pattern was finalized, It was time for the most terrifying part of the project: cutting into the expensive fabric. The first cut is always the worst -- once you make that cut, you can't go back! The Yaya Han Ultrapreme and Super Stretch fabrics can be daunting to work with until you know the tricks! Here’s my process:
Quick note here: Super stretch is much harder to mark and cut than Ultrapreme simply because the fabric really likes to curl up along the edges. Use pattern weights and fabric clips to help counteract the curling! Once all the pieces were cut out, I appliquéd the red V on the front part of the bodice. Appliqué with coated stretch fabrics presents a few problems:
To attach the power mesh, I again used the tape stabilizer method to keep it from stretching and fabric clipped the heck out of it to keep it from shifting and stretching while I was sewing it down with my sewing machine. I used a simple straight stitch, but upon reflection, I should have used a zig-zag! Once that was all taken care of, all I had to do was attach all of the pieces of the body suit together! Many of these pieces have poofy red tubes connecting them. I created these by making tubes of fabric, sewing them in between the pieces, and then stuffed them full of polyfill (the same stuff used to make stuff animals; you can find it at JoAnn!) The hip pieces were a little different; rather than using polyfill, I stuffed the pattern with a 5mm piece of EVA foam. This gave it structure and makes it stick up off of my hip a little bit! The leggings were pretty straightforward for how nervous I was to cut them. I simply positioned my pattern over the fabric, cut, and sewed — the leggings came together in just two seams. I then pinned & sewed them to the main bodysuit. I built from the outsides in: first I connected the sleeves to the mesh top, then the bodysuit to the leggings, and finally the bodysuit to the mesh top! The wing's the thing!I didn't do the final version of the wings for Denver Comic Con for a few reasons:
I used a simple U-mount, where you take the wings and attach them to a "u" shape made of wire, which is then shoved underneath your corset -- or in my case, under my bra & costume. It turned out that this was not enough support to keep the wings upright throughout the day, so for version 2 of the wings I will make sure to create some sort of rigging system underneath the costume. Finishing Touches
WHOOP so it's been a hot minute. I want to start out this update post by saying thank you so much for your patience during these past months as I wrap up my fourth year of graduate school! To celebrate the end of the school year (and the end of my student government position!), I'm going to be taking a travel break to go to Coloardo and Montana, hitting up Denver Comic Con in the process! I really want to try to have Space Faerie wearable by then! I've been working on quite a bit of behind-the-scenes stuff until now, and I think it's about time I caught you up before I move on to, you know, actually making the costume! Are You Mocking Me?
Next I tried (and failed) mocking up the arms. I ran into a few issues, all very frustrating. First of all, I accidentally had used the "back" piece of the body suit for both the front AND back of my initial mock-up pattern. As such, any sleeve I cut would not fit into the armscye. Second, I kept cutting the mock up pieces out of mockup spandex that just wasn't stretchy enough. I couldn't get it up my arm enough to make sure the fit was accurate! I ended up having to return to the store for more mock-up spandex. After three failed arm mockup attempts and numerous rounds of fitting, the poor quality spandex I had used for the bodysuit base was beginning to pull and fray. I decided to salvage the work I had done and just make an entirely new mock-up using the measurements I had taken so far.
I then sketched out the shape of the red designs onto the bodysuit. I’ve decided I’m going to topstitch these rather than color block them; I really like the look of topstitching on bodysuits. It adds a touch of realism to the costume which I’m all about.
WingDingsIt took me about a month to settle on a wing design. I wanted something inspired by a real-world insect, with a similar wing shape to Mira’s. I also wanted said insect to be nocturnal, as it only makes sense that the Space Faerie would be most active at night. I finally settled on an adult antlion, specifically the glenurus gratus species, which is found throughout the eastern United States! The wings are a teardrop shape and spread far apart, which makes them very inefficient compared to a dragonfly. Antlions are also nocturnal (bingo), and the specific species I chose has an absolutely beautiful coloration pattern on its wingtips. It's not much of a stretch to take those black and pink blotches and turn them into beautiful hand painted nebulae! I grabbed a few photos of antlions off the internet and got the heck to work in Adobe Illustrator, painstakingly laying down a bunch of tiny lines. I'm sure this won't come back to bite me. I'm currently about 1/2 done and plan to finish up during my train commutes this week! The next challenge was to figure out what materials to use for the wings. I’ve seen people make wings of cellophane and wire, but that method can be finicky and unruly for those who aren’t experienced with it. I also wanted to avoid a crinkly look — Antlions have very clear wings with well-defined veins. I brainstormed a bunch of ideas for materials -- pantyhose (too opaque), PETG plastic (too expensive/toxic), saran wrap and mod podge (don't ask), and finally settled on something I already had in my craft room: clear vinyl! I'm planning to satin stitch all of the veins before painting the wing tips to look like SPAAAAACE. Red Hair, Hand-Me-Down RobesFinally, I'm working on a super quick, extra fun costume for Denver Comic Con! I get to meet Other Ginny in person for the first time, and I couldn't be more excited! We decided that we both needed to dress as Ginny Weasley because OF COURSE WE DO, COME ON.
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Ginny Liz StorytimeEntirely too much rambling about costumes, but if that's your thing... Archives
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