Maternity and Baby cosplay!

So everything's been a little slow this year since I was a little busy.... from the title you can guess that Guavious and I had our little Spawn! We had to skip Norwescon this year but I will try to recap dejathoris' adventures in a separate post. This post however will all be about little Spawn's first cosplay!

So when I found out I was pregnant I started coming up with the craziest and silliest ideas for cosplays.  However, many if not all were individually vetoed by different members of the group of just being too weird. I still think my Melissandre would be delightfully disturbing, but whatever.

Since I'm not officially obsessed with Gamora am the Guardians of the Galaxy I finally ended up deciding to do a Maternity cosplay shoot I dubbed "Pelvic Sorcery". I know I'm twisted. I still think it's hilarious.  Word of note though?  Body paint is very uncomfortable pregnant, and I broke the zipper on my boots. Thankfully they were my backup boots.

This past weekend Dejahthoris, Jeddak (Dejathoris partner in crime)  and I were able to meet up with a delightful group of cosplayers for a picnic in the park! Dejathoris was Belle, Jeddak was Littlefinger (a cosplay created for Norwescon) and I did what I'm calling Mother Nightwing and Robin. I've been wanting to do Nightwing for a while and this is phase one. Hopefully I will be able to continually adapt and update as I go along! Even though it was sinfully hot, Spawn enjoyed eating his mask and revealing his secret identity throughout our short but sweet visit. This is his first of many cosplays to come!

Calgary Expo 2015 & Avenue Magazine

Avenue Magazine interviewed me & put me in their magazine! How cool is that?!?!? 

George RR Martin & the GOT Bag

Norwescon hosts this awesome contest every year called the "Single Pattern Contest" and a few years back, Dejathoris swept all the awards by making this spectacular bag out of leather entirely dedicated to George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Let me break the bag down for you for a moment:

 The three house sigils are hand drawn, carved and painted with the coordinating house words underneath.

On the opposite side the maps were transferred by citrasolve but had to be burned in as the citrasolve transfer was too light. The Kings Landing and Iron Throne were free hand burned in. 

She then added some of the most iconic oaths in the series. 

So why am I telling you all about this now? 1) Because the GoT bag is freaking awesome and 2) Because this past weekend Dejathoris headed down to our favorite Con to get the man himself to sign it! 

Apparently after powering through a million books and other amazing memorabilia he PAUSED, INSPECTED THE BAG and then asked "So where do you want me to defile this?" HOW GREAT IS THAT????

I don't know what else to say but EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Labyrinth at the Plaza

On a whim Dejathoris and I heard about a themed movie night at the Plaza Theater in Kensington. It was a Masquerade!!! I believe this was some time in March of 2014.... So let's pretend like this was posted back in March?

We jetted over to Value Village to find me a ballgown as all my stuff is packed and we found this fantastic navy glittery dress that was $20. We decided our theme would be silver and gold. I would do silver based makeup and she would do gold. We paired my outfit with one of our homemade leather masques and some white/black cat eye contacts.I painted my eyes and lips four shades of silver from the E.L.F collection and used some LIT shimmery silver to top it all off.

Dejathoris wore here Dune Reverend Mother costume that she has yet to finish telling me how she made it (which is why there is still a missing Part 2 Dune post). She paired that with lots of gold makeup and one of our masques.

It was a fun event, fulled with a bunch of likeminded masquerade attendees. Also they played a Jim Henson short from when he was a young man... so much has changed before he became the man behind the Muppets...

Calgary Expo and Edmonton Expo 2014

So Calgary Expo literally happened the weekend I was moving North of the Wall. And the bestie Dejathoris got super sick. Which means (shocker) I have ZERO pictures. However, to make it up to me, she and I met up in Edmonton this past September for Edmonton Expo! So I'll use those pictures.

But let's rewind shall we? The biggest, bestest thing happened at Calgary Expo. I got to meet Peter S Beagle! AND he LOVED my costume!!! His people took a picture of me which means I have a picture of us!

You know how 15 year olds behave around boy bands? That's how I behave around authors. I'm not joking. Douglas Coupland remembered me from one year to the next because of how stupid I sound when I'm fawning. 

The other amazing thing I was able to squeeze in before I had to leave was the Being Human Finale panel. The only thing I was really disappointed in was the fact that only half the audience was caught up on the season which means that we couldn't talk/ask questions about the finale. What do we think protocol should be at Cons for that? Last year during the Game Of Thrones Lannisters panel it was established early on everything broadcast was fair game. But on average it seems that everyone's doing the Netflix or the streaming at the end of the season/series. ANYWAYS, they were delightful and wonderful and I miss the show ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

Well even though my time was short, it's still no reason to skip my favorite part about expos. Here was this year's BEST COUPLE:

Look at them, they are fabulous

Fast forward to July, this is important, I promise. Guardians of the Galaxy comes out and I'm in love all over again with Marvel (not that I ever fell out of love with Marvel, they're not like DC those shill selling bastards). Seriously, I want to do all the cosplay. I want Star Lord's jacket, I want a dancing baby Groot, I want to dress up my dog as Rocket and I want to be Gamora. DING DING DING! GAMORA!!!! I immediately start scouring the internet for pictures of Gamora's costume and settle on the Hot Toys action figure which has the best 360 images. I found some beautiful blue spandex, some distressed black vinyl and some black sheer stuff and I get to work.

I am Groot!

Instead of using a pattern, I made a 3D pattern on the bustform and then cut the fabric pieces from there. Also, to ensure as little bulk as possible I used the serger instead of using a traditional sewing machine to attach everything. I got some news in August and considering that I want this costume to work for as long as possible I build in secret pregnancy panels! I'm due in May (May the 4th to be exact, what are the odds??) so I'm hoping to wear it at both Norwescon 38 and Calgary Expo 2015! In Edmonton I used Ben Nye liquid makeup in green but I switched to an alcohol-based body paint for Halloween. It just bled everywhere!!! I kept seeing people that bumped into me walking away with green marks on them! (If you're reading this, I'm so sorry!). I reused Calhoun's boots from last year, and I left the trim on them for added detail.The entire costume is one piece that just slips on which is awesome! This is my first costume I can get in and out of without assistance! Finally, I'd been dying my hair purple since March so I decided to let the purple grow out from the roots a little to imitate Gamora's hair. However, I found a Gamora wig online that I will probably get for NWC and Calgary Expo. I'm already to tired to take care of it now!

Dejathoris indulged me in a costume I'd been bugging her about since a small movie came out in January. And I'm sorry if you feel that this is overkill but I had no idea Frozen would explode the way it did! From a cosplay perspective, I saw Elsa and all I thought of was I WANNA PUT DEJATHORIS IN THAT COSTUME!!!! She found the dress and shoes on a Vegas trip and hand dyed a silk chiffon scarf for the cloak. She then embellished it with snowflake stickers and pins.

We also got to show off some costumes you might recognize, and we got some amazing photos of them too!

And finally we have a new member to the Guild! I gave him a name but now I can't remember it.... Go figure, that one is actually new. Anyways, Dejathoris made him a perfect Inigo Montoya costume from The Princess Bride! All I remember is that Dejathoris made leather pants out of the stiffest leather possible and the pants themselves stand up on their own. AND that she made a screen accurate six-finger sword!

So the thing that stood out at Edmonton Expo is that there was a triple bill panel with J August Richards, Amy Acker and Summer Glau and it was spectacular! But it was only half full... Afterwards there was The Big Bang Theory with Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg. And that was a full house. Not that I'm complaining, but I had to wait in line to ask my question. And I think my question lost a little of it's oomph since I was green asking a question about race that I re-worded about 16 times so that I didn't get beaten up in the parking lot after the Expo or sued by the cast of the Big Bang Theory.

I really wanted to address the fact that the character Raj replaces Apu in pop culture for Indians and I was wondering how Kunal felt about that and what that means to him. I mean Apu may be drawn Indian but I'm pretty sure that Hank Azaria is not. But you know, when you're caked in green paint, the question looses its context of being asked by someone of the same heritage. I really wish I could do that over again. Also, I was behind three ADORABLE children asking ADORABLE questions and here I am all "Let's talk about race and discrimination and Indian representation in pop culture and nerd culture blah blah blah"... So... wrong crowd? I seem to have gotten side tracked here....

Anyways, since I'm going to be 8 months pregnant by the time Calgary Expo comes around again I only have two costumes in my arsenal that I'm considering. HOWEVER, I've started planning on Calgary Expo 2016 because I will have the most ADORABLE accessory with me. Well at least with me for pictures. I will probably let it sleep at home for the actual con itself.

Norwescon 37 - Masquerade!

So I meant to post this in January of 2014, but I was moving, and then I was in limbo, and then I moved again. Then we competed in Norwescon 37. AND THEN WE WON STUFF Y'ALL.  So I'm just going to talk about Norwescon 37 right now.

Wreck-It-Ralph!!!

Ralph: Played by the glorious Director. He has this amazing beard that we didn't want to ask him to shave off (not that he would) so we built a mascot. Plus, it totally worked for the cartoon aesthetic. Word to the wise, when you make a mascot, build in ventilation. Those things get hot, fast. Ralph ended up being made mostly of upholstery foam and fun fur for the hair. We purchased an over sized shirt for the costume after three failed attempts at making one with the exact perfect lines and plaid markings as on the screen.  Dejathoris then sewed up some overalls to complete the look. We built hands connected to arms connected to the body that we just threw over the Director's head. And build the feet over a pair of shoes so that he could mostly walk. However by the end of the show, the Director was quickly changing out of the costume because (let's say this together friends) we didn't build in ventilation.

Dejathoris was Miss Vanellope von Schweets! This was the year of failed dye attempts. Remember how I talked about how RIT was the bomb in terms of dyes? I was wrong. So very very wrong. DYLON IS THE S***. We dyed and ruined two hoodies before finding the perfect blend of two full sized Dylon dyes to make the perfect blue-green hoodie and legging set for Vanellope. Dejathoris then cut apart the leggings and then sewed in the white stripes and drew in the purple stripes. Even up close it looks seamless! For the peanut butter cup skirt she made a million and one pleats and sewed and stitched the whole thing together. While she was working on that, I made a hundred tiny little candies for her hair. We'd purchased two different wigs that we blended together for the full effect and then glued all the individual candies onto it. We also went to the specialty candy store in town to find a purple Gummi Bear that I sealed with resin and glued that sucker on too. I totally want to brag that the wig is SO FREAKING SCREEN ACCURATE. ;) The shoes she found on eBay and she added the black icing lines in between the treads. Overall the costume is both comfortable and ADORABLE!

Guavious was turned into Fix-it-Felix which resulted in us telling him not to cut his hair so that it was as long and shaggy as possible. He prefers it to be as short as possible. I found an amazing Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/MTthreadz) that does incredible embroidery for a really reasonable price. Dejathoris made him his handy dandy workbelt out of some leather we had. Did you know that in the movie they put Felix's belt on backwards? Did you know that our dedication to screen accuracy made us make Guavious wear his belt backwards? YUP. Match that with a powder blue shirt, some heavy denim, faux workboots, and some gloves and he's finished! (He also got a flask in his hammer!)





Oh, and what was I this year? I got to be Lt. CALHOUN!!! I got armour and a gun bigger than me!!!! According to the Director is was a natural choice as I apparently enjoy evil women... I don't know what he's talking about... The wig was bought on Ebay and ended up being one of my most comfortable wigs. I also freaked a lot of people out because well, there's no way in the real world I can get my hair to look that nice blonde. I wore oversized blue digital style anime contacts for that "high definition" look and airbrushed my makeup as natural and flat as possible.

Now let's talk about my armour, shall we? We bought Kamui's tutorial books and made some alteration to her patterns and had the base pieces made out of Wonderflex. If you haven't seen her work, I'll wait while you go look.... Are you back? Amazing right??? So the priority for the legs and arm pieces were to be realistic and slightly battle worn and to make sure that the lights looked as seamless as possible. Which meant a LOT of black paint. I then outlined all the lips and edges with silver. I then took one of the destroyed brushes and "dabbed" drying grey paint all over the main pieces for depth. For the chest piece I wanted to incorporate as many of the techniques seen on Calhoun as possible. So for the grated pieces I wrapped old fishnet nylon over the body and painted over it. I then proceeded to add layer after layer of different shades and lining until I finally had to stop. I believe the front piece was 4 hours straight before I had to walk away. All the silver tabs were actually from baby food bottles that we painted silver. We attached some all the way down to my shoes for consistency.

For the gun we made it out of the cardboard our stove came in! So it's super lightweight and passes the average con inspection/peace bonding requirements. We ran the LED tape down both sides and the handle holds both battery packs. It's definitely the coolest weapon we've ever made!

There were two major casualties of this effort. It almost was three when Ralph almost fell off the stage during rehearsal! We tried to make Vanellope's car but just couldn't and had to cut our losses. We also tried three different ways of building a bug to chase us off the stage but again, cut out losses. HOWEVER, the judges and the audience LOVED us!!! We were able to do a whole minute of the movie without any major spoilers (it's surprising how many people haven't watched the movie!) and we showcased four completely different costuming techniques during workmanship. We entered as Journeymen only to realize that we were the only Journeymen this year. However, the judges honored us by presenting us with Best Workmanship MASTER CLASS! The guys made me and Dejathoris go up and accept and I believe we had the most dumbfounded look on our faces because Anima!X was doing the Wayne's World "we're not worthy" and all we wanted to do was reciprocate! Overall it was an incredible experience and we've already started working on next year's because I'm super late at posting this year. I promise, one day I will get better (I am probably lying)

Stealth Cosplay Week!

So we found out about Stealth Cosplay Week and of course we had to tag in!

Dejathoris pulled together a Green suit, white camisole, and purple sweater for She Hulk. I have on a red dress & red boots (look! You can actually see them in the picture!). Dejathoris MADE the belt for me last night out of gold leather and Wonderflex for the buckle.

Any excuse to cosplay!

I posted our pics on Tumblr but I'm so unaware of how Tumblr works I'm not sure I even linked that right... Damn social media sites!! As always, our photos are up on our Flickr too!