Costuming or something like it.
So here we are, 80 something days out and I'm staring at my Celeborn mockup with a face a kid gives you when you ask them to clean their room. I want this costume badly, but I'm in that doldrum phase where my desire for the finished product does not necessarily outweigh my apathy towards working on it.
I'm thinking I might stop staring at the mockup and start working on the belt buckle, because that's an area where I'm ready to settle for what I have and probably the greatest hurdle I have to overcome to get this thing finished. Plus I have a new Dremel since I did the collar piece so it should be a fun project. Should being the operative word. But I'm kind of afraid to proceed on that. It went so well the last time. There are bound to be problems when I try to get lightning to strike twice, right?
These are the ways I psyche myself out and allow costumes to stall for months and even years at a time. Afraid to proceed for fear that it won't come out the way I want it to.
So, back to my nethers the mockup, I put on my manly-making undergarment that attempts to make my boobs look like pecs last Thursday night and pulled on the mockup and... this thing is suddenly a tent. See, I've lost a little over 20 pounds so far this year and that amounts to a bit of slimming out all over, really. I think I need to take this thing in almost an inch on both side seams and bring in the center back seam a bit in the small of my back and rework the curve over my butt. And there's a ton of extra fabric below the waist too, that I don't remember being there the last time I tried it on. So I'm going to have to rip this thing all apart and take it in and try again.
I also need to fix the front from waist up. The fit is mostly okay, once I take it in a bit, but the collar isn't where it needs to be and I'm almost convinced that during mockup phase, I might need to make it a separate piece, just so I can get the shape right. See, it's one of those stand up collars that doesn't have a seam like a lot of Elrond's were. It's immensely difficult to get a two dimensional pattern piece like that to curve properly around a three dimensional body without wrinkling for someone like me who doesn't know what they're doing.
I think while I stew over that, I'm going to do his pants, because I've got a pattern for those and they should be straight forward and something I could knock out in a couple of days (one for cutting and one for sewing). Gondor needs no pants, but Celeborn does.
Also, Celeborn has laid claim to the grey elf boots I recently acquired. And you just don't argue with the Lord of Lothlorien. I know a lot of people assume he wears kind of a slipper type shoe, but I'm kind of liking the idea of having something I can tuck the pants into, sort of like Elrond's Council look. I'll have to see how they look behind the crinkle metallic skirt layer. I'm planning to line that anyway with some silver habotai I have. Even if I leave the pants legs out of the boots, I like him with boots better and that's one less thing I have to buy.
I tried on the pieces I have of Sexy Gandalf, too. I need to dye/paint the corset and decide if I want to wear something under it or not. I think I do. Squished back skin visible through lacing isn't a good look. Even for something that's supposed to look bad. I also need longer lacing. I'm using two sets of laces to be able to lace it up myself. I'm getting better at walking in the heels, but I have to go slow. Basically, you have to walk like Jessica Rabbit in order to wear 5" stilettos. These are things I'm learning.
Things I still need for this atrocity:
And I just realized I'm bringing my only two "male" costumes and no females. Though I don't know if Sexy Gandalf really counts as male, hence the quotes.
I'm thinking I might stop staring at the mockup and start working on the belt buckle, because that's an area where I'm ready to settle for what I have and probably the greatest hurdle I have to overcome to get this thing finished. Plus I have a new Dremel since I did the collar piece so it should be a fun project. Should being the operative word. But I'm kind of afraid to proceed on that. It went so well the last time. There are bound to be problems when I try to get lightning to strike twice, right?
These are the ways I psyche myself out and allow costumes to stall for months and even years at a time. Afraid to proceed for fear that it won't come out the way I want it to.
So, back to my nethers the mockup, I put on my manly-making undergarment that attempts to make my boobs look like pecs last Thursday night and pulled on the mockup and... this thing is suddenly a tent. See, I've lost a little over 20 pounds so far this year and that amounts to a bit of slimming out all over, really. I think I need to take this thing in almost an inch on both side seams and bring in the center back seam a bit in the small of my back and rework the curve over my butt. And there's a ton of extra fabric below the waist too, that I don't remember being there the last time I tried it on. So I'm going to have to rip this thing all apart and take it in and try again.
I also need to fix the front from waist up. The fit is mostly okay, once I take it in a bit, but the collar isn't where it needs to be and I'm almost convinced that during mockup phase, I might need to make it a separate piece, just so I can get the shape right. See, it's one of those stand up collars that doesn't have a seam like a lot of Elrond's were. It's immensely difficult to get a two dimensional pattern piece like that to curve properly around a three dimensional body without wrinkling for someone like me who doesn't know what they're doing.
I think while I stew over that, I'm going to do his pants, because I've got a pattern for those and they should be straight forward and something I could knock out in a couple of days (one for cutting and one for sewing). Gondor needs no pants, but Celeborn does.
Also, Celeborn has laid claim to the grey elf boots I recently acquired. And you just don't argue with the Lord of Lothlorien. I know a lot of people assume he wears kind of a slipper type shoe, but I'm kind of liking the idea of having something I can tuck the pants into, sort of like Elrond's Council look. I'll have to see how they look behind the crinkle metallic skirt layer. I'm planning to line that anyway with some silver habotai I have. Even if I leave the pants legs out of the boots, I like him with boots better and that's one less thing I have to buy.
I tried on the pieces I have of Sexy Gandalf, too. I need to dye/paint the corset and decide if I want to wear something under it or not. I think I do. Squished back skin visible through lacing isn't a good look. Even for something that's supposed to look bad. I also need longer lacing. I'm using two sets of laces to be able to lace it up myself. I'm getting better at walking in the heels, but I have to go slow. Basically, you have to walk like Jessica Rabbit in order to wear 5" stilettos. These are things I'm learning.
Things I still need for this atrocity:
- Mini pointy hat (which I'll probably make out of a cereal box, duct tape and some cheap felt)
- Beard
- Rubies costume to mutilate or cheap crappy looking fabric to make look like it (because the Rubies costume is kind of pricey for what I want to do, really, and I can't seem to find a used one).
- Some sort of grey tights.
- Staff. I have a staff, I just need to find a gaudy crystal to stick in it. I might even have a gaudy crystal, I just have to dig it out and attach it somehow.
And I just realized I'm bringing my only two "male" costumes and no females. Though I don't know if Sexy Gandalf really counts as male, hence the quotes.