Adventures in Sewing - Viper Cosplay

This year I decided to attend the Sydney Supanova Pop Culture Expo. It's a celebration of all things nerdy and features a range of special guests from TV, movies, animation and comics. Most years I find out about it when it's too late to buy a ticket, but this year I was organised! And just to make it more interesting, I decided to go in costume.

So this is how I made my Viper cosplay.

Inspiration

Now that I've made a couple of them, I can't get enough of wearing 50's style circle skirts. Especially now I can make them for myself! A bit of searching came up with some amazing vintage cosplay outfits from Comic Con, and this amazing Wonder Woman Cosplay.

After a couple of nights researching various female comic book super heroes and villians, I settled on Madame Hydra/Viper. 

• Her look is basic green - easier to work with for a starter costume.
• Being a bad guy is fun!
• Snakes are cool.

Construction

I was very lucky to score a beautiful snakeskin brocade on sale at The Remnant Warehouse, and chose a lovely green poplin for the rest of the dress.

This is the first dress I've made, and while a skirt is easy, a bodice is another matter entirely. I purchased a couple of vintage dress patterns, but unfortunately my current measurements make it hard for me to fit a standard dressmaking pattern. So after a dissapointing mockup using an old sheet, I decided to try another approach.

This Body Coutour Cosplay Tutorial on YouTube was most helpful! If you're not familiar with how to use a bodice sloper, or if you have a tricky figure, this is a pretty good approach for a one-off design (provided you can get a dress form with your measurements. I had to make some..ahem..additions in the bust region).

First I made a paper+tape bodice to fit Dolly

Cutting a practice bodice from muslin.

An acceptable fit!

Cutting the bodice from the brocade and poplin.

The skirt cut and sewn, with pockets!

Back view

Front View

At this point, I still had to add some facing to the bodice, and fix the ugly side zipper.

Back view

Front View

The buttons are to hide the spot where the seams all join.

Results

With some fun accessories off ebay, and a bright green wig, it wasn't exactly what you'd call an authentic cosplay, but it was fun to wear. And the best bit was that it made wandering around a crowded convention centre much more fun. Now to plan next year's effort :)

Heading to Supanova!

Wearing boots to cover up a bandaged ankle.

And best of all, there was a fantastic camera to take a picture of my work!

Adventures in Sewing

Recently, I was lucky to spot an overlocker (serger) in the online classifieds for a very good price. It's inspired me to learn how to sew clothing. I've never really been good at sewing, but seeing some fantastic projects that others are doing on Twitter and Pinterest has inspired me. Not only that, but learning how to sew clothes is a very useful skill - you can adjust ready-made clothes so that they fit better, or upcycle old clothes from the back of the wardrobe, or the thrift shop and give them a new life.

The lack of recipes here lately indicates the other reason why I'm inspired to craft rather than cook - the daily treadmill of toddler-friendly meals is sapping my creativity!

Apple Circle Skirt

So here's a photo of my first piece of clothing made from scratch. It's a 1950s style circle skirt with a stretchy waistband. I'm quite proud of it for a first attempt, and it received a lot of positive comments on its first outing. In particular, I like that I can wear a bunch of different coloured tops with it. I'd *really* like to learn to make a rockabilly style dress, but I think learning how to make and fit a bodice will take a quite a bit more learning!

I used this lovely tutorial from A Vintage Vanity - it was quite helpful, in particular on how to deal with a vertical pattern when cutting a very wide pattern piece.

Creating a Mini Kitchen (Part Two)

It's Christmas Eve, and the mini kitchen is finished!

The painting is all done, the doors have been reassembled with new fittings, and the stove has the latest in induction technology (otherwise known as sheet acrylic).

Daffodil Yellow

To say I'm pleased with the result is an understatement. It's turned out much better than I hoped, the furniture actually brightens up my dining room, and my little boy is enjoying using his new space for cooking. And playing with trains.

In the end, I spent more on this project than I intended, but I think the result is worth it - a one off set of furniture that is as nice as anything I could have bought, and was a lot more fun to put together. I also have leftover paint for future projects.

Zatar Leaf Green

 I still need to add a handle to the stove door, and add a chain so it doesn't crash onto the floor.

Shiny Cooktop

Bright Delight Orange (and a bucket of toy food)

Happy little mini chef

Merry Christmas!

Creating a Mini Kitchen (Part 1)

I love little toy kitchen things! My little boy already likes to pretend he's cooking, and he's not even two. I have no illusions of him becoming a Masterchef, or even a chef, but an ability to cook dinner for himself has to start somewhere!

I've been struggling with two problems in buying a toy kitchen for my little guy. The first is that cheaper plastic kitchens are almost universally pink. The second is that the better quality ones are outrageously expensive. Even the IKEA kitchen, which is made from MDF and plastic, is $200 (before you populate it with utensils). I was lamenting about this with my lovely sister, who suggested that I make one from recycled furniture (and then sent me lots of pictures from Pinterest!).

What a brilliant idea!

This is a pretty good tutorial of how you might go about making a kitchen, featured on Better Homes and Gardens. Let's see if it's as easy as it looks...

Step One: Acquire some pre-loved furniture. I've found a mini buffet and hutch (adorable already), and a bedside cupboard. Both are made from pine and together cost $55. First step is to remove the doors, hinges and handles, ready for sanding. Any big scratches, holes or dents have been filled with wood putty.

Dismantled, ready for sanding

Step Two: Buying the paint. If you need to buy paint, I heartily recommend going to a professional paint shop, and avoid Bunnings at all cost. I went to Hardware & General and not only did I get the right paint (and the right amount), it came with plenty great advice about how to apply it. Plus a toy dog and a kilo of jelly beans! The paint was $93 for a litre of Dulux Primer/Sealer/Undercoat and two litres of Dulux Aquanamel in semi-gloss Vivid White.

Buy Paint, get freebies!

Step Three: Undercoat. The nice thing about using water based acrylic is that is doesn't smell, dries fast, and is easy to paint with if you're a bit crap at painting (which I am). The undercoat should help to smooth out the surfaces, and give the paint a nice surface to stick to. It also seals the wood and prevents stain from leaking through.

Undercoat done!

Good thing it's water based!

to be continued...