Rachel Kerns 11/13/17 Rachel Kerns 11/13/17

Rey's Scavenger Staff

The final touch for Rey's Jakku look was her scavenger's staff and it was by far, my favorite part.

I hadn't done some good old fashioned prop making for a project of my own in a long while and it was so nice to be back at it. After a quick Google search I had some great resources to work with.

Primarily, I used a shopping list from Instructables user kylegilbert (http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Reys-Staff-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens/), screen shots of the actual prop, and the detail breakdown from Sellfy user Ian Henry( https://sellfy.com/p/f9NU/) to build mine.

As per the Instructables list, I hit Home Depot for showers heads, faucet heads, electrical connectors, wire, and a pipe. I went with a metal pipe for my staff base instead of the PVC used in the Instructables tutorial - it adds weight to the finished prop, but it won't warp over time.

I started with the end details - first off, the shower heads. Now, I ended up with a slightly different shower head than what the Instructables shopping list called for because, retail. Our local Home Depot didn't have that particular shower head in stock and I wasn't going to pay more for shipping on $1 shower heads than for the product itself, so I settled for an equally cost effective option.

I wasn't able to remove the ball joint from this shower head, so instead I hot glued the ball joint into place and used some air-dry Cloud Clay to sculpt an end cap over the joint. Because Cloud Clay can crack pretty easily (particularly if it's thin or attached to a hard surface), I allowed it to dry before coating it in two thick layers of wood glue to seal it and hot glued it onto the ball joint.

After the shower heads were taken care of, it was just a matter of drilling through the end of the facet heads (very, very carefully - the cheap plastic cracks easily), cutting some fins from wood, and slicing the electrical connectors into two, before it was time for assembly.

I worked from the center of the pipe outwards, starting with just a wrap of craft foam (left from my Elsa Dress bodice) secured with E6000 and electrical tape. This was followed by connector pieces (also E6000ed) and the wire wraps. I did hot glue the ends of the wires down before I wrapped them tight around the pipe, but they were ultimately secured completely with electrical tape. I did detail these a bit wit my leather off cuts on the end (also hot glue and electrical tape).

The larger details, such as the faucet and shower heads went on the both E6000 and hot glue. Contact cement might have served a bit better, but so far, my staff has survived the Academy of Sciences Halloween party, Halloween night, Wizard World Sacramento, and SF Comic Con with only the need for a paint touch up. I tried to keep as many of the details as possible slotted over the pipe itself for stability - anything just glued onto the outside without a tape cover increases the risk of something breaking off. I did have to glue the shower heads at the ends directly onto slotted pieces - I wasn't able to drill into them with my cordless, though I imagine a drill press and a more sophisticated clamp set up than I have in my living room would get the job done. Three small foamie details, a larger Cloud Clay detail, and the wooden fins were also glued straight on with again a combination E6000 and wood glue, though the fins were also secured with electrical tape.

Once my staff was assembled, it was time for paint.

I'd never used spray-on Plasti-Dip on a metal surface, so I ran a few tests to check and ultimately, I based my entire staff first with two coats of Rustoleum clean metal primer before three coats of the Plasti-Dip, just to avoid any peeling or cracking. I painted the entire staff with alternating black and rust colored matte spray enamels from Rustoleum.

The final touch were strips of muslin and brown felt, just hot glued onto the body of the staff, over the large section of foam and small leather straps with d-rings for a shoulder strap (my strap came from my grandmother's sewing stash I inherited - I can't even begin to guess where or when it may have come from).

And that was Rey!

Ultimately, I was really, really pleased with the way this turned out. I still need some formal photos, but it is by far the most comfortable costume I own and I'm so pleased with the way it all looks!

Rachel Kerns 9/25/17 Rachel Kerns 9/25/17

Jakku Rey - Part Two

The Wraps

I picked a cotton crepe for the drape and arm warps mostly because of how easy it would be to dye.

I bought three yards and decided to gather before the dye bath. I divided my crepe into thirds and cut down the grain so that I had three, three yard lengths. I could tell just three yards wouldn’t be long enough for the drape effect I was looking for so I went ahead and sewed two together to give me one massive six yard run.

Then using reference photos, I draped around my dress form, pinning directly to the form at the shoulders when I was happy with the proportions. The six yards, unsurprisingly, was a bit long, so again with extensive help from my reference photos, I trimmed up the ends to even out.

I decided to go ahead and gather the shoulders, for a cleaner, more consistent finish and so I wouldn’t confuse myself every time I tried to put the wrap on. I did this entirely by hand and stitched the gather down to a strip of bias tape to secure it.

The final bit before the dye bath was the arm wraps. Using the left over three yard crepe, I cut two, two inch wide strips down the grain. I didn’t hem any of this or use pinking shears - any fraying would just add to the overall look I was after.

I used Rit’s liquid dye in taupe for all the crepe. Everything got a short fifteen minute bath before a run through the washing machine. I trimmed up some of the frayed ends and then I was happy.

The Leather Details

The leather wrist cuff was a quick and easy one, though admittedly not the most beautiful.

I don’t usually purchase real leather simply because of the price, but I had found a pretty cheap bag of leather cord and off-cuts at Michael’s which had an off-cut roughly the diameter of my skinny little chicken wrists and enough width to give the effect I was looking for. I had enough of the leather for a rectangle in the dimensions I was after for the main portion of the cuff, but I had to improvise for the strap.

This is where my cuff got a little less lovely.

The remaining off-cuts were much smaller than the one I’d used for the main portion of the cuff and very irregular in shape. There was one in the proper length to secure the cuff, but it was one of the odd shaped ones. I cleaned it up as best I could with a pair of scissors, but it still ended up a bit of a crooked triangle shape. I centered and hand stitched the wonky strap to the main cuff before using a razor blade to slice loops into the main cuff so the strap could secure.

The completed cuff was still a little bit stiff all around, so I finished it off with several coats of Saddle Soap, leaving the cuff rolled and secured with rubber bands to a width slightly smaller than my wrist after each Saddle Soap rub down.

The final cuff is still a little crooked, but tough enough to stay secured around my wrists without any addition snaps, clips, or d-rings.

The belt was my next big challenge.

I didn’t have enough off-cuts or spare cash to build one of real leather, but I did have some taupe vinyl I bought for an in-progress Princess Mononoke cosplay.

I used a pattern found on Google. The original image and creator of the template appears to have been buried in Google results or has been removed. I was only able to recover the image as saved by other makers who’ve used it too and wasn’t clever enough to have saved the original link myself, so while I cannot credit the original source, I thank them. Whoever you are, pattern maker, you saved me a shocking amount of time.

I drafted out the found pattern onto my vinyl before cutting it out and painting it to match my references. I didn’t have the proper primers and time was running short before the Academy of Science Halloween party, so I just made do with the Rustoleum primers I did have and painted it in acrylics, knowing would chip and crack in the long run. The belt survived both the party and Halloween with minor cracking in the paint, but storage has since destroyed the paint job as expected. This was a quick finish only and I do not recommend it.

I do recommend using real leather. I have since remade the belt using the same pattern and real leather in the correct color and I am much happier overall with the look. I did use a very fine and soft tanned leather that I found on sale and I did have to add a seam, as I didn’t have enough for a single piece, so my current belt is much thinner than I would ultimately like, but it stores better and there is no risk of cracking and looks much cleaner overall.

I detailed both the old vinyl belt and the newer leather one with two sets of d-rings and hemp cord left over from my macrame necklace phase back in high school.

The final piece in Rey’s scavenger accessories collection is her bag and this I did not build at all - I owned.

It isn’t quite film-accurate, but I own a small purse my step-mom got me for Christmas the same year she suggested making Rey’s scavenger look in the first place. It has a stamp of inspirational quotes on one side, but the little canvas bag is the size, shape, and texture I was hoping for and I only needed to remove the strap and add attachments so I could clip it to my belt, but I love the way it looks without any serious alterations, as long as the stamp faces in.

Next Time: The Staff

Rachel Kerns 9/11/17 Rachel Kerns 9/11/17

San Francisco Comic Con 2017

Saturday in the Shindig Dress. Photo courtesy of Ashely Soucar (Pictured here as Rey) — Saturday in the Shindig Dress. Photo courtesy of Ashely Soucar (Pictured here as Rey)

San Francisco Comic Con has come and gone and it was another successful weekend!

It was unusually hot (106F at my house; 108F at Moscone Center West), so I shook up my initial cosplay plans to try to accommodate that. I went with Rey for Friday, since it's the most comfortable and most breathable cosplay I own, Kaylee for Saturday, since I would have a car to accommodate the cage crinoline, and I was on the fence for Sunday, but ultimately went with Elsa. It was still more than a little unpleasant and I was insanely grateful for the AC in the Moscone Center.

This was my first year at SFCC and I was very impressed. There weren't quite as many panels I was interested in as I'd hoped, but there was an excellent range of local artists and illustrators in the vendor's hall and Moscone West is well laid out for people watching and photos.

SFCC was a much larger con than Wizard World Sac and the diversity of cosplays was awesome! Of course, there was still a strong showing of Deadpools and Harley Quinns and more than a few Wonder Women and Reys (myself included), but so many underrepresented fandoms too! Not only did I encounter three other Kaylees (all Jumpsuit Kaylees, but still awesome), but three different Malcolm Reynolds and a Wash! I also saw three different Battlestar cosplayers (a Starbuck, a Boomer, and a general Viper pilot), some fantastic Moanas (plus a Te Ka and a Sharkhead Maui!), and an Eggs from Boxtrolls! I was so impressed with everyone (particularly the eight year old Wonder Woman and the seven year old Sabine from Star Wars Rebels who'd made their own armor!) and I had a fantastic time seeing what everyone had come up with. I even skipped out on several panels to just watch all the amazing costumes come and go.

There were quite a few Beetlejuice cosplayers, but this one was my favorite!

I did enter the costume contest on Saturday (in the Shindig dress again) - I'm getting better about being in front of a crowd, but it's slow going. This masquerade was larger than the last one and included a prejudging session, where you were able to actually speak to the judges about the work you put into the cosplay and they could see it up close. It also ultimately streamlined there main event, for which everyone was grateful. Someone must have misjudged a bit in the setup, because the backstage area was very tight and we all end up packed in like sardines and roasting hot. I was fortunate enough to meet some amazing creators and awesome humans in the contest line up regardless and it was a very positive experience overall.

My cosplays did fairly well throughout the weekend, for the most part. Rey held up fine, but I was stepped on pretty severely in my Shindig dress and I'll ultimately want to replace the bottom ruffle. The Elsa dress has a few loose seams in the train (another unfortunate side effect of being stepped on) that will need to be addressed and I did forget a wig cap for my Elsa wig. I ended up abandoning the wig halfway through the day - it looked dreadful and just wasn't worth it. Much to my displeasure, it looks as though I'm going to need a new Elsa wig - the fibers on my current one don't hold a style well and tangle terribly.

And that's it for summer cons this year! Hope everyone had as excellent a summer as I did!

Rachel Kerns 6/26/17 Rachel Kerns 6/26/17

Wizard World Sacramento 2017

It's been over a week now since Wizard World Comic Con in Sacramento and despite being over 100 degrees Fahrenheit every since day, it was a successful weekend of cosplay and panel going!

Friday was mostly a bust - traffic on the the way up from the Bay Area was a massive headache and, even though we expected it to be a mess, it still took us over three hours to reach our hotel and all the panels for the day had finished. I'd brought my Merida dress for Friday, but it was late enough and so unbearably hot, I decided against it and instead we just popped over to the venue in street clothes to pick up wrist bands and then headed off into the heat for drinks.

Saturday panels of interest didn't start until noon-ish and we'd planned to get in some photos of both my Merida and Shindig dresses at the park in the morning, but the heat was so ungodly, even at 8 AM, we decided against it and just lounged in the air-conditioned hotel room. Around 10 AM, I went ahead and steamed and pressed my Shindig Dress for the day and we wandered over to the show floor around 11.

Of course I had to say hello to the puppy!

I was so pleased with how the Shindig dress wore. It was a little stuffy on top, even in the AC, and I was unable to sit easily in chairs (it can be done, but not particularly gracefully), but otherwise I was really, really happy. I was asked if I was Princess Peach perhaps a dozen times, but everyone who identified the Shindig dress was super excited to see it.

We wandered in between the floor and panels for most of the afternoon before I went back to change for dinner - the cage crinoline wasn't really appropriate for the restaurant and I was able to steam my top again before we jetted off for food.

After dinner, it was costume contest time. I re-curled my hair and headed over to line up. I'm not much of a judge of contest size, but it was a fairly efficient sort of thing and I was asked about the ruffles on my dress and didn't fall, despite not having my glasses on (can't do contacts and my vision is just this side of blind), so that was successful. The Shindig Dress didn't place, but I wasn't terribly surprised - there were some seriously impressive makers there that night.

Sunday was mostly a day of panels. We packed the car and I changed into my Jakku Rey cosplay before we headed to the venue. It a nice and relaxed day of sitting in the lovely air conditioned rooms in my most comfy of cosplays and listening to excellent folk be excellent. We did end up ducking out before the last panel of the day to beat some traffic. (Spoiler: We didn't beat traffic and sat for ages off the bridge waiting for an accident to clear).

It was a great weekend over all and now it's time to repair and recover for SF Comic Con in September!

Rachel Kerns 4/28/17 Rachel Kerns 4/28/17

Spell Eternity with Quantum Dragon Theatre!

So many purple lines on the boxes and the walls. Photo by Alandra Hileman — So many purple lines on the boxes and the walls. Photo by Alandra Hileman

We interrupt your regularly scheduled cosplay walkthroughs for some theatre!

I know it's been radio silence here on this blog and most of my social media accounts for awhile, but I've had to pause my personal builds while I worked with the excellent theatre makers over at Quantum Dragon Theatre on our latest production, Spell Eternity!

I’ve been working with the super awesome folks at QDT since June of 2016 and this is my second production with them. This San Francisco-based theatre company focuses on promoting the excellence of science fiction and fantasy in live performance (visit them here: https://www.quantumdragon.org). We've just debuted the world premiere of Alandra Hileman’s high fantasy, Spell Eternity at the Mojo Theatre, here in San Francisco. It's been a long road of burning myself with thermoplastics for fake weapons, boiling borax for glowing crystals, and painting lots of purple lines, but we're up and running. I'm so lucky to be apart of the magnificent team that put this show on the stage and I'm so very pleased with how it's turned out!

Borax crystals not glowing in the bottom right corner. Photo by Alandra Hileman

Official production photos, plus some of my personal shots of some of the nifty things I built and painted are now up here on my projects page, but I thought I'd share some here too. :)

If you're in the Bay Area, you should come see the awesome thing we've made! Spell Eternity runs April 21 to May 6th 2017 at the Mojo Theatre in San Francisco, CA. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and are available here: https://www.quantumdragon.org/buy-tickets

Rachel Kerns 3/21/17 Rachel Kerns 3/21/17

Jakku Rey - Part One

My stepmom suggested Rey's Jakku scavenger outfit. We walked out of our second viewing of The Force Awakens at our local single screen theatre while I was home at Christmas and the first words out of her mouth were "You should make her outfit!"

Since I've been on a bit of a princess kick, I was inclined to agree with her. Besides, it had been a while since I'd tried to make a pair of pants and Rey's staff was super cool.

Also, I found the source the film used for her boots and I am a sucker for sci-fi shoes. I actually waited long enough that the exchange rate dropped and I was able to get the boots for about $160, down from about $220. So obviously I had to make the rest of the look.

The Pants

I knew exactly how I wanted my pants to be - I all ready owned them. Actually, I owned a pair of dance pants (Ainsliewear's Best Dance Pant, in case you're interested). These are very one of the most comfortable, flexible, and softest pieces of clothing I own and when pulled to knee, fold to make a very attractive capri-length pant. I love them and I knew they would make a near perfect Rey pant. Trouble is, they are a dark charcoal grey. Goes great with leos, but not for Rey.

I patterned with newsprint over them. I traced around the seams where I could and measured the rest. Perfect as they are, the dance pant is actually remarkably simple - four pattern pieces. One back leg, one front, the waistband, and the cuff. Fantastic.

Part of the glory of the dance pant is its fabric. It's a stretch cotton jersey. I (unsurprisingly) could not find something as gloriously soft at JoAnn's, but I did come up with something close in a cream color.

I sewed most of the pant by hand. I'm rubbish at sewing stretch fabrics on traditional machines and I hadn't gotten my surger yet. The hand sew held together for the California Academy of Science's NightLife Halloween party and Halloween night, plus three dye baths and two machine washes, so I was pretty happy. I did go back over the seams though once my surger arrived, just to be sure everything held up.

I dyed the pants post-assembly - in the event I ended up hating the final color, I had enough fabric for a second pair. I bathed them first in Rit's powdered Pearl Grey dye for about fifteen total minutes, following the instructions on the dye for my fabric. While the grey alone was great, I went ahead and gave them a two additional shorter baths in Rit's liquid Taupe to add a bit of desert grime to them. The taupe ultimately was a little more patchy than I'd planned (the first taupe bath was interrupted by my puppy and I didn't get the pants submerged completely in time), but I quite like it as sort of an unintentional weathering effect.

They look a little like dingy long underwear when they aren’t pulled up to the knee, but I’m really happy with the outcome of the pants. They’re super soft and make Scavenger Outfit one of the most comfortable costumes I've ever owned.

The Top

This was an easy one.

I didn't properly pattern. I swore to myself I wouldn't do this again after my ridiculous good luck with the Elsa top and train, but I had enough of the bleached muslin to make multiple shirts and I was feeling lucky.

I measured out the length of the shirt from front to back and over the shoulder and cut this out of my muslin. I then folded my freshly cut cloth in half and used, of all things a round cork placemat to chalk out a collar in the center of the fold.

I failed to get any construction shots of the top, since the whole thing ended up only taking about an hour to complete.

I cut the collar before I draped the whole thing over my dress form. My dress form is almost exactly to my measurements and for a looser garment like Rey’s Scavenger shirt, I didn’t even need to pad up the bust where the measurements differ. I pinned along the sides and chalked out where the sleeves and the slit in the collar needed to hit.

I cut the collar slit and trimmed off the excess muslin about an inch off the pins, for seam allowance and any adjustments I might have needed to make before I pulled pinned shirt off the dress form. I laid it out flat, used the same cork round to chalk out and cut arm holes, sewed up the pinned sides and then it was back on the dress form.

I was actually pretty happy with the initial outcome and I didn’t have to do a whole lot of alterations on the top, just evened the sides out a bit. I went ahead and finished the collar with bias tape, before I moved onto the little cap sleeves.

I had two perfect half circles of muslin all ready from where I cut the arm holes. I pleated one for the texture seen in research photos and then trimmed the other before sewing them in. I did have to adjust the length of the flat sleeve a few times before I was totally happy that it was even with the pleated sleeve, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out.

The muslin wasn’t bleached totally white to start with and when paired with my finished pants, I was really pleased with their existing color. I didn’t dye them as I’d initially planned, but I did go ahead and finish off the bottom hem and I had myself most of a Jakku scavenger outfit.

Next Time: The Wraps and the Leather Pieces

Rachel Kerns 2/13/17 Rachel Kerns 2/13/17

The Elsa Dress - Part Four

The Shoes

I held off on the shoes for a long time.

I couldn't decided exactly what I wanted to do about them. The actual shoes in the film are transparent kitten heels with a pointed toe box, open sides, and icy details to match the train. Research unearthed several options and I wasn't totally happy with any of them. Most makers I found seemed to use either a shoe with pre-existing clear straps or just a plain heel that they sliced the shoe's upper off of and used acetate sheets for the ice details.

I have never had good luck getting soles to stick to uppers. I know that it is perfectly possible and other makers have had some absolutely lovely results with this method. I, however, have always been very hard on shoes at the best of times and as terribly as I was tempted to get the perfect transparent look, I could just see my shoes literally coming apart at the seams in the middle of the first event I wore them to if I tried this.

Instead, I took another popular route and trimmed and painted existing shoes. They wouldn't be transparent, but they wouldn't fall apart while I was wearing them. I found a pair of Christian Sirano heels at Payless for about ten dollars that, while taller than I’d hoped, had the toe box shape I was looking for. I carefully sliced off the sides, taped off the sole and insole and based them in gesso. The base coat ended up being about four layers, just to keep the very royal blue from peeking through. Then, using acrylic paint (in this case, Folk Art acrylic, which can be found fairly cheaply at most craft stores), I blended out a teal to match the skirt and bodice. I finished them with the Golden Gel Medium and glitter mix I used on the bodice to give them a little more of an icy look.

They served their purpose and didn’t look out of place for Halloween, but I’m still not super happy with them. I liked the paint job, but the gel medium didn’t read as well as I’d hoped and because after the Halloween festivities I was sick and tired of glitter and teal, I just sort of left them as-is and didn’t detail the way I’d planned. I plan to redo them properly with clear worbla and resin in the near future.

Styling

I cannot do my own makeup.

I probably couldn’t be trusted to do anyone else’s either, but my eyesight is so poor without glasses, I quite literally cannot see my face clearly in a mirror. My eyesight is also so poor that contacts have never been an option and thus I never even properly learned how to apply makeup beyond lipgloss. I don’t even try anymore. I phone a friend.

In this case, the friend actually volunteered. I’d been talking non-stop about my misadventures with glitter and chiffon and she was horrified to learn I didn’t plan on wearing any makeup at all with my dress. She’s the sort who loves fake eyelashes and contour pallets and I only vaguely know that those are things, so she took care of me and did some spectacular things with purple eyeshadow for me.

Now the wig, I could handle.

I picked one up at on of our local shops for about $60. It was a little more than I wanted to pay and more than I know is available online, but, as with fabrics, I like to see this sort of thing in person. I did also get a fitting with it, so I could see exactly where the length would hit me and what the color looked like against my skin in true daylight.

I used a bump-it to keep the shape of the front and braided a side braid the rest of the way down. I hot glued some snowflake sequins to bobby pins to accent the braid. I avoided cutting or setting it in any permanent sort of way, since the wig I selected is also the right length and color for a Season One Danearys Targaryen and I like keeping my options open, but I was pretty pleased with the overall look.

Olaf

I cheated on this one and bought an Olaf bag from Amazon. It was a week before Halloween and I still hadn’t put sleeves on my bodice and I didn’t have time to bust out a thematically appropriate bag without the help of the internet. Fifteen dollars and two day shipping later, I had an Olaf.

Ostensively, Olaf was a plushy backpack. He had straps and a zipper, but the pocket which would make him an actual pack was barely large enough to fit a credit card, much less a phone or a whole wallet.

It was ridiculously easy to rip out the tragically small zipper and pocket. I stitched up a quick pocket of my own out of muslin and removed some of Olaf’s stuffing to make enough room for a phone, wallet, and house keys. Because of the awkward shape of Olaf’s plushy body, I hand stitched the pocket in and because it was the day before the California Academy of Sciences’ NiteLife Halloween costume party and I still had a top to complete, I added velcro for the closure and I was set.

And that was it for the Snow Queen Dress!

Overall, I was very pleased with how things turned out. Some of the styling elements, mainly the shoes and my hairstyling skills need a little adjustment for future events and a new set of photos need to be taken (the one above features me attempting to pose with a 102°F fever and trying not to be ill), but generally speaking, I was very, very happy with how things turned out. :)

Rachel Kerns 1/30/17 Rachel Kerns 1/30/17

The Elsa Dress - Part Three

The Train, the Sleeves, and the Top

I didn't bother with the McCall sleeves - they had a straight finish around the wrist and I'd all ready pattered the pointed sleeve when I made my Brave dress. I busted out the Butterick pattern and had perfectly shaped chiffon sleeves cut in no time.

For the train and the top, however, I didn't pattern at all. I'm sure ever single sewing teacher I've ever had is cringing, but I simply pinned the chiffon directly to my bodice and chalked out the shape I liked best. I wanted to see how the chiffon would fall and it ended up being faster to cut without a pattern. On a whim I used left over square ofchiffon and cut an ellipse in the center, laying it over my dress form to check size and shape of the neckline, which ended up looking just the way I wanted it. It all worked out far better than I'd anticipated, but I wouldn't recommend this fast and loose approach as a general rule - I'm fairly sure I got dead lucky in not messing up the shapes.

The train ended up being three separate pieces - two sides and the main back. I sewed them together, but left the top and the sleeves flat until they could be embellished. There were all ready going to be obvious seams where the train sections met and the sleeves to the bodice, but I wanted as few visible seams as possible. To avoid fraying or a very noticeable hem, I singed the hem of the train, the sleeves, and the neckline Ideally, this can be done with a hot knife for an even singe, but because I don't have one of my own, I used a lighter for the continuous heat. You do need to do this in a well ventilated area - the synthetic fabric will give off some fumes as it melts and brain cells are important.

References and the template projection (including a bungled snowflake tracing)

I did need a pattern for the ice details. I laid the train out on newsprint and traced the shape of the full piece before posting the tracing on my wall and busting out the old overhead projector. My projector is literally the sort we used in school - it actually came from a school that planned to get rid of it. Its lenses aren't great for projecting small details (anything under about 12"x12" gets fuzzy), but it was the perfect size for my train detail.

Projecting the template plus a look at the top on the dress form

I traced out snowflakes and the main ice pattern from print outs with an extra fine point sharpie onto projector sheets and then focused the projection to fit into my train tracing. I used a couple of different snowflake templates I found in research. The snowflakes themselves came from Angela Clayton's Costumery and Creations blog (https://doxiequeen1.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/the-making-of-elsa-frozen-part-four/) and the main ice pattern came from DeviantArt user NostalchicksCosplay (http://nostalchickscosplay.deviantart.com/art/Elsa-Cape-Design-421658247). Both of these makers have some spectacular work and I am massively grateful to them for sharing their templates. The details on the sleeves were too small for the projector and I drafted them myself from screenshots.

Once I had the templates matched up and traced out onto the newsprint, I laid everything out on the floor - newsprint on the bottom, a layer of wax paper to keep the glue from sticking, and the train on top, weighted down to prevent shifting. The translucence of the chiffon made it really easy to add the embellishment - it could be applied directly to the chiffon.

I was fairly certain I was going to need the liquid E6000 and loose glitter I'd picked up, but I tested a pre-made glitter glue I had found at Micheal's just in case, which would have saved a tremendous amount of time. While the glitter glue bonded to the chiffon, when dry, it didn't read from more than a foot away, so I returned to the E6000 plan.

The liquid E6000 comes in a spray bottle. This gives you very little control over the flow, so I poured mine into a resealable glass jar and used a paintbrush to apply it. I painted the glue onto the chiffon, spread the loose glitter over it, and allowed it to dry overnight before shaking it out and collecting the glitter that hadn't adhered.

This was a very slow process primarily because I had greatly underestimated how much glitter I would need for the entire train. I had only purchased three bottles - two in white and one in blue. I didn't end up using the blue, but I blasted through the white in only a couple of passes. When I returned to the neighborhood hobby store, I purchased their two remaining bottles of extra fine white loose glitter and had to order more for a total of six full bottles used on the train, the sleeves, and the top detailing with a bottle and a half of liquid E6000. The whole train, the sleeves, and the top ended up taking nearly a month to embellish - most of that time was spent waiting on the additional glitter to arrive.

The top, sleeves, and train all had to be hand sewn to the bodice. The texture on the bodice was more flexible than some of the options I'd come across in research, but not flexible enough for my sewing machine. In hindsight, I should have attached the train to the top and sleeves and left it all separate from the bodice, but I chose to put it all together as one piece. I foolishly didn't realize that this would make the bodice nearly impossible to get into without assistance, though I am very happy with the overall look.

Next Time: The Shoes, the Wig, and Other Details

Rachel Kerns 1/17/17 Rachel Kerns 1/17/17

The Elsa Dress - Part Two

The Skirt

This was the easy bit - straight forward sewing with decently cooperative fabrics.

I didn’t cut a mock-up. I rarely do for personal projects, since I left school - unless I’m working on something particularly tricky or I’ve drafted the pattern fully from scratch, I don’t find it worth the money or the fabric. I keep waiting for this strategy to come back to bite me, but so far, I’ve not had any trouble.

I used the skirt pattern from the McCall M7000 and cut the pieces in both the sateen and the glitter organza.

I overlaid them and sewed, leaving a slit to the knee in the right side seam that wasn’t mentioned in the pattern. Because the pattern called for the skirt to attached to the bodice, I left the top unfinished for a good long while with every intention to piece the two together at the end. Ultimately, the bodice was just stiff enough that it would have been unnecessarily difficult to try and get it on with the skirt attached and I had to devise my own waistband fishing. I decided on an elastic waist band with a snap. I finished with a basic rolled hem and have since gone back and cleaned up the seams with my overlock.

The Bodice

Gussets on the muslin base and the finished hem

Like the skirt, I used the McCall pattern for the bodice base and cut it in muslin. I’m sure I went wrong somewhere, though I’m still not 100% sure where, because it ended up being surprisingly large. To fix this, I removed a whole panel from the back and added in two gussets in scrap fabric to either side of the zipper so I could zip the bodice closed when I had the thing on.

It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t the most beautifully tailored creation, but it didn’t matter, since the whole thing was going to be covered in foamies. I finished off the bottom hem with scrap skirt fabric, since there was a chance it might be seen and based both the top portion and bottom with a teal fabric paint, in case any of the muslin base might peek out from under the foamies. It turned out that the teal fabric paint was actually a glow in the dark paint and I startled myself on more than one occasion walking past the darkened living room to see the bodice glowing eerily on the dress form. I left the top hem unfinshed so that I would have something for the chiffon top to attach to and I left the zipper long, with the thought that I would attach the skirt.

Then it was time for foamies.

I cut a lot, I mean a lot of foamies. I even enlisted the help of my family to cut foamies, I needed so many. I had cut several different shape options - a mid-size rectangle, a longer, thin rectangle, a square, and a tiny rectangle - which we used as templates. We ultimately cut two full teal 12”x18” sheets of foam and one sheet of white. I can’t even being to estimate how many we finally cut, but I was very happy with the effect.

I was fairly confident that regular E6000, despite its longer tacking time, was going to be the most flexible, toughest, and yield the cleanest finish just from experience and research, but I ran a couple of tests just to be sure. Sewing the foamies left obvious nicks in the foam and hot glue was not only too stiff, but not tough enough to hold up over time.

Initially, I left the bodice on my dress form to try and hold the shape of the bodice, but the tacking time of the E6000 made the process of affixing foamies torturously slow, as each piece needed to be held onto the bodice by hand until the glue tacked up. I was a little concerned about how the the bodice shape would turn out if I laid it flat, but I decided to risk it for sake of efficiency and my own sanity. That’s when the bodice came off the dress form and I was able to speed the process up by allowing the foamies to lay flat with a weight while I kept gluing.

The E6000 was fortunately flexible enough that the flat foamie application didn’t matter - once the bodice was totally covered and back on the dress form, the foamies laid beautifully. They did look rather unfinished and flat on their own, however and that’s where the Gel Medium came in.

I had originally purchased it to experiment as an ice detail option for the shoes, but the Gel Medium gave a nice icy-looking finish, so I used it for the bodice too. I mixed in a little extra fine glitter to add a little bit of shimmer and applied the gel medium with pallet knife. In total, I put down three thin coats (an 8 oz jar and a half in total, including both the bodice and the shoe detail). Ultimately, it wasn't as flexible as I would have preferred, but it was still light and I was super happy with the overall look of the texture.

Next Time: The Train, Sleeves, and The Top

Bodice with Gel Medium. The Gel Medium takes a few days to cure completely. Here, you can see the white patches where it's still setting up.

Rachel Kerns 1/9/17 Rachel Kerns 1/9/17

The Elsa Dress - Part One

I wasn’t going to make Elsa’s Snow Queen dress.

When I found the pattern, I going to make Anna’s Mountain Dress, with the cute little muff and cloak combination. I hadn’t been able to make a solid costume for myself in two years - the previous two Halloweens had found me in the midst of graduate program things with neither the time nor the energy for making anything that wasn’t going to be submitted for marks. Cloaks and muffs sounded like just the things I needed, but after researching the character design for Anna more thoroughly, I came to the conclusion that given the time, budget, and the sheer number of pieces required to properly create the Mountain look, that Anna’s dress would be a Bad Idea.

That’s when I looked at the Elsa research and, while outrageously sparkly, the Snow Queen look didn’t actually seem so bad. Bodice, skirt, train, shoes, and a truckload of glitter that I knew I would regret, but perfectly achievable.

Patterning

McCall's M7000; My pattern was on sale due to the outdated item number.

The McCall M7000 pattern turned out to be considerably less useful than I’d hoped. I tend to prefer historical-inspired and drafted patterns rather than character-specific patterns - I find that I can get more accurate silhouettes if I Frankenstein the historical shapes with my own draped and drafted patterns. Character patterns, particularly if they’re unlicensed, tend to simplify silhouettes to decrease the difficulty and avoid lawsuits with the companies that own the characters’ likeness, but I’d gotten this one on sale at Jo-Anns for two dollars, so I figured I give it a shot.

The McCall pattern is designed to make the whole garment as a single piece and cuts the train length to the hem of the skirt. I had all ready decided it would be best to keep the top and the bottom separate, since I wanted my bodice to be textured and that I wanted the train to actually hit the floor, so I did what I always do and Frankensteined, using the skirt and the princess seamed bodice from the McCall pattern, the sleeves off of a generic “medieval fantasy dress” from the Butterick pattern B4377, and draping.

In general, I rarely cut out store bought patterns - the theatre hoarder in me that just knows I’ll need a different size for something, someday demands I keep them completely intact just in case. Instead, I trace the appropriate size of the pattern onto newsprint (ideally I would use pattern paper, but I have large pads of newsprint left from undergrad drawing classes that need to be used up). The Elsa pattern was no exception - I traced and cut out what I needed off both the McCall and the Butterick patterns and held off on patterns for the chiffon top and the train until I had the fabric in hand.

Fabric and Other Materials

Left to right: Chiffon, remnant (possibly a rayon sateen? I lost the tag, so I'm not one hundred percent on it's exact content), and glittery nylon organza

Before shopping, I hit up my old friend Google. Google revealed quite a collection of other creators’ Snow Queen dresses. Skirts appeared to universally be purchased sequined fabric. Trains were either generally sparkly or were hand rhinestoned in the icicle pattern from the film. The bodice options included hand beading, purchasing sequined fabric, using foamy cutouts, and layering fabric rectangles using calk adhesive.

I knew I wanted my Snow Queen dress to be as light and as accurate as possible. I also knew I wanted my bodice to be at least a little bit flexible and I knew I wanted it to be if only a little practical for moving through crowds, so I ended up modifying ideas from the research. The bodice would be foamies, the train would have the icicle pattern, but I'd use glitter rather than rhinestones, and the skirt purchased fabric.

Adhesives and texture options. From left to right: Original E6000, Spray-On Liquid E6000, glitter glue, teal Tulip fabric paint, and Golden Acrylic Gel Medium (High Solid Gel; Gloss Finish)

For the skirt, I couldn’t find quite the color and sparkle I was looking for, so I ended up combining a glittery nylon organza (two yards) from Jo-Ann’s with a remnant I picked up from Britex (roughly a yard and a half).

The train and blouse fabric I picked up at Jo-Ann Fabrics - a poly chiffon. I decided to shorten the train by several feet, just so I could move around a room without being stepped on or catching on furniture, so I ultimately purchased four yards. I knew I wanted to glitter (rather than rhinestone) the pattern onto it, but I wasn’t sure what would work best, so I picked up some options - glitter glue and regular, fine glitter in white with liquid E6000.

The bodice I decided to base in muslin - no one was going to see it anyway and I could put the money into other things. For the bodice’s texture, I picked up five sheets of foam, three in teal and two in white, a tube of regular E6000, and Golden Acrylic Gel Medium.

Bodice Materials. Craft foam, glitter, and gel medium

For the shoes, I knew I wasn’t up to tackling shoes from scratch, particularly heels. Instead, I found a blue pair of discounted pair of Christian Sirano pumps from Payless ($10, on sale) with the pointed toe box of Elsa’s ice shoes. I had some vague notions of experimenting with the Gel Medium, though nothing concrete.

It was, all said and done, enough to get started.

Next Time: The Skirt and the Bodice