Costuming work continues..
So, when last we met, our heroine was working on a (GI Joe) Scarlet outfit and had yet to get her steampunk outfit together...
Scarlett
So, as I had mentioned, most of the things I had ordered arrived. So I tried on the individual things to check for size, etc. Gloves & boots were fine, each with minor adjustments needed. The unitard was likewise fine, but needed to match the color of the boots & gloves. Easyil enough fixed, with some time.
The bodysuit was a disaster, however! The (chinese) eBay seller had disregarded my instructions to have it be gray and to have a collar at the neck (as opposed to scoop-neck), and instead I received a hooded 'suit in a mock-pleather fabric. I grumbled much, but decided to try it on, in hopes of being able to salvage it... and boy, was that laughable! I couldn't fit it on over my *ahem* assets at ALL. Once Raven quit laughing, he helped me out of the thing, and I had to resort to new plans.
Steampunk
I -thought- I had a likely blouse or two that I could use at home.. but when I tried them on, realized that they were NOT suitable at ALL. One had gotten too small - which means that I've gotten too big :p - and the other was something NOT comfortable for layering. Brainstorming with the Raven got me some ideas, and his timely help with some pieces from a Goodwill near his work got me closer. Still not a full outfit, but hey... ya gotta start somewhere!
Weekend
So Raven & I got up and went shopping on Saturday. The first stop was an army/navy store for suitable belt & pouches for Scarlett. That was easily accomplished, and then we wandered around the store for a bit, checking out the interesting bits.
We also checked several dance fashion/apparel stores in the area. The first one did NOT follow the store-hours that were indicated on their website and in Google Maps, so they lost their chance for my cash. :p The second store had something close to what I wanted, albeit in scoop-neck and white. Browsing their selection, I realized that I would likely have little luck with finding the 'exact' thing I wanted, so I decided to take my chances and go with what I had.
Then we went to the Salvation Army store on Satellite Blvd and browsed for more steampunk bits. We ended up finding a vest that worked well for me - so then I had no need to finish the muslin for the one I had been working on. We also found a lace-esque shirt that should work.. but I didn't like the collar, so I may try to change it to a nenru/mandarin collar. Raven's ideas for layered skirts I nixed, since I want to have a bit more movement than that, and we didn't really find anything that quite worked for knee-pants (no big surprise!), so my efforts in making muslins have switched from the vest to knee-length mock-breeches. I will likely use one of my existing pairs of boots, and accessories will be added in once I have the outfit a bit more cohesive.
By the way, if any of my Atlanta-based friends are looking for GOOD, solid-wood furniture, check out this Salvation Army location! They had some AMAZINGLY good pieces there, and I suspect that this may be the norm for this store.
Once home, I then began with the dying. I managed to get the unitard only a shade darker than the boots & gloves when I checked them in sunlight - which I was rather proud of, since I was 'eyeballing' the dye amounts. The bodysuit ended up needing two separate dye baths to even the color out, but I got it to a nice uniform gray-blue.
I ended up rummaging around the house to find the pieces for the other 2 outfits that I plan to wear at Dragon*Con (a revamp of last year's Thorn costume and an outfit for my FoD NPC for the D*C event), and found 90% of those. I still have to do a 'dress rehearsal' for each of the outfits, to make sure I have everything before packing, but hope to get those done this week.
Scarlett
So, as I had mentioned, most of the things I had ordered arrived. So I tried on the individual things to check for size, etc. Gloves & boots were fine, each with minor adjustments needed. The unitard was likewise fine, but needed to match the color of the boots & gloves. Easyil enough fixed, with some time.
The bodysuit was a disaster, however! The (chinese) eBay seller had disregarded my instructions to have it be gray and to have a collar at the neck (as opposed to scoop-neck), and instead I received a hooded 'suit in a mock-pleather fabric. I grumbled much, but decided to try it on, in hopes of being able to salvage it... and boy, was that laughable! I couldn't fit it on over my *ahem* assets at ALL. Once Raven quit laughing, he helped me out of the thing, and I had to resort to new plans.
Steampunk
I -thought- I had a likely blouse or two that I could use at home.. but when I tried them on, realized that they were NOT suitable at ALL. One had gotten too small - which means that I've gotten too big :p - and the other was something NOT comfortable for layering. Brainstorming with the Raven got me some ideas, and his timely help with some pieces from a Goodwill near his work got me closer. Still not a full outfit, but hey... ya gotta start somewhere!
Weekend
So Raven & I got up and went shopping on Saturday. The first stop was an army/navy store for suitable belt & pouches for Scarlett. That was easily accomplished, and then we wandered around the store for a bit, checking out the interesting bits.
We also checked several dance fashion/apparel stores in the area. The first one did NOT follow the store-hours that were indicated on their website and in Google Maps, so they lost their chance for my cash. :p The second store had something close to what I wanted, albeit in scoop-neck and white. Browsing their selection, I realized that I would likely have little luck with finding the 'exact' thing I wanted, so I decided to take my chances and go with what I had.
Then we went to the Salvation Army store on Satellite Blvd and browsed for more steampunk bits. We ended up finding a vest that worked well for me - so then I had no need to finish the muslin for the one I had been working on. We also found a lace-esque shirt that should work.. but I didn't like the collar, so I may try to change it to a nenru/mandarin collar. Raven's ideas for layered skirts I nixed, since I want to have a bit more movement than that, and we didn't really find anything that quite worked for knee-pants (no big surprise!), so my efforts in making muslins have switched from the vest to knee-length mock-breeches. I will likely use one of my existing pairs of boots, and accessories will be added in once I have the outfit a bit more cohesive.
By the way, if any of my Atlanta-based friends are looking for GOOD, solid-wood furniture, check out this Salvation Army location! They had some AMAZINGLY good pieces there, and I suspect that this may be the norm for this store.
Once home, I then began with the dying. I managed to get the unitard only a shade darker than the boots & gloves when I checked them in sunlight - which I was rather proud of, since I was 'eyeballing' the dye amounts. The bodysuit ended up needing two separate dye baths to even the color out, but I got it to a nice uniform gray-blue.
I ended up rummaging around the house to find the pieces for the other 2 outfits that I plan to wear at Dragon*Con (a revamp of last year's Thorn costume and an outfit for my FoD NPC for the D*C event), and found 90% of those. I still have to do a 'dress rehearsal' for each of the outfits, to make sure I have everything before packing, but hope to get those done this week.