Easy, but Awesome

Ok, I'm a little late in getting this up (as per usual) but here's the results of this year's comicon costume scramble.

This year I wasn't planning on making a costume at all. With Covid, I wasn't even sure comicon would be happening, and I had a lot of other things on my plate. And then I went to my local thrift store and found these:

A fancy red fedora, and a dark blue suit coat with built in shirt collar and cuffs? That's two thirds of an Agent Carter outfit ready made! So I really had no choice but to find or make the rest. 

The jacket was a little big on me, so I had to do a little altering to take it in, but otherwise it was perfect. I found a pair of nice pants in a similar enough pinstripe pattern to go with it, and quick altered them into a narrow skirt. I used the leftover fabric from those alterations to add a matching band onto the hat. And that was it. Far simpler and quicker than all of my previous comicon makes, but it was that kind of year.

My friends Ahsoka and Loki and I had a great time hanging out with fellow nerds and saying hi to all our variants :)

Marvelous

Ok, I'm a little late in getting this up (by several months) but here's the results of this year's comicon costume scramble.

I have a personal rule that whoever I cosplay as, they have to have hair that is similar enough to mine that I don't have to cut or color it. 90's cartoon Rogue fits that bill perfectly. I even have greying forelocks. Unfortunaly I've been coloring those grey hairs purple for the last few years, and purple doesn't bleach as well as I'd hoped...hence the orange streaks where there should be white.

My husband is a good sport and even offered to do a bad Cajun accent while in costume.

My best friend wasn't enough of a good sport to be Captain Marvel in a skin tight leotard, but she was thrilled to be Carol Danvers in a flight suit.

         

Rogue's suit and Gambit's shirt and boots were the only things I needed to really make, the rest are altered thrift finds. Way easier than the Gundam Wing VIPs from last year!

The hardest part was finding good spandex in bright yellow. For some reason I guess there isn't much demand for a nearly see through color for skin tight clothing, huh...

YaYa Han's bodysuit pattern was easy enough to follow and alter to my size/shape, though I do wish there were more finished measurements given on the pattern itself to make the altering process easier.

Working with spandex and stretch pleather was a new experience for me. The pleather especially was a bit finicky, and I had to put tissue or tracing paper on each seam for my machine to sew through it at all without missing stitches.

Still, it was a fun challenge, and I can't argue with how well it turned out!

Making The Order of the Zodiac

For the last few years my bestie and I have had tons of fun attending the local comicon.  We're not champion cosplayers, but we have a blast nonetheless.  Last year I pulled together a couple steampunk dresses from thrift store finds, but this year I wanted to try for actual anime characters.  Luckily I have a friend who is game for anything and a husband who is easily persuaded.

       

I am a huge Gundam Wing nerd, my friend and husband far less so, and I was thrilled they put up with me dressing them up like that.  The real fun for me though is always the making, not the wearing.

I started with a trio of coats from the thrift store.

                   

Lady Une's was easy, there are tons of tunic length red coats for women at the thrift store.  Zechs' was also fairly straightforward; ankle length red coats are also very common.  My husband's coat was the most challenging.  Finding a blue suit coat to fit him was the first hurdle, and I only found it about a week before the event.  It also needed the most alteration, to add the white front and rear tails.  After those major alterations, it's all embellishment.

My supplies of gold fabric and trim ready to be applied, and my 'assistant' on paw to 'help.'  He's especially good at holding things down.  I used thrifted black sweaters to make the under shirts for Une and Zechs; a faux leather pouch purse became their gun holsters, and a couple of vintage hankies transformed into lacy collars.

                        

With nearly 30 sticks of hot glue, large scrap fabric reserves and a heaping helping of cheerful perseverance, three full costumes can indeed come together in less than three weeks.  

And in case you were wondering how much gold trim these costumes used.  All theses spools were full when I started.