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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Ginny Liz StorytimeEntirely too much rambling about costumes, but if that's your thing... Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|