smashsews

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For a recent event, I decided I wanted to start the journey into my long coveted love for the steampunk genre. As SP is generally seen in earth tones and muted colors, I wanted to do something a little different and opted for royal blue! I used the same blue fabric for my bustle skirt so I was nicely coordinated:)

There is a thin round elastic band attached to the inside of the hat that allows it to sit on the head. The bow is a velvet ribbon. The chains are tacked in place through the inside of the hat with jewelery head pins and then covered with the vintage buttons. I lucked out finding those in a fabric warehouse in Winnipeg last year. The chains do actually lay straight, but unfortunately I didn't realize the second row was tangled until I was already saving the photographs :)




 

This purse was a christmas present for one of my lovely best friends. Although I do love how amazing it turned out, it was one of the most ridiculously timely projects I have undertaken in as long as I can remember. I will never repeat this design! Every strip of faux leather that is woven on the front had to have it's edges hand glued so they looked finished. Additionally, those pieces aren't separate. The front is actually only TWO whole pieces with all the strips attached to them and additional pleated around the edges. Whewf, I feel exhausted just recalling the process for this post!

The dimensions are roughly 12" x 7 ", so this image may be quite misleading as I personally think it looks smaller than the actual size here. I used a dark purple faux leather and lined it with black cotton broadcloth. There are two pockets inside and a magnetic closure. There is also a small loop sewn into the back band so the purse has the option of a strap. 

Long awaited Halloween costume post! I unfortunately only have full costume photographs of my second costume, The Green Faerie, or Absinthe Faerie. My first costume was Vampira, cult goddess and horror movie host from the 50s! I got a corset made specifically to use with this costume and although it was insanely late on delivery, it thankfully fit and worked with the dress I made.


For the Absinthe Faery I used green powder over the entirety of my exposed skin which took quite some time as I had different shades for contouring. I didn't want to make myself look completely flat, especially on the contours of my face. Additionally, I had elf ears which were somewhat a pain because it turns out they are quite impossible to do the initial adhering by yourself. This is a two person job! Luckily I got some help last minute for which I was very grateful.



The dress was actually two separate dresses, the top layer made of a two-toned voile that I frayed around the edges. The under dress was made of green satin.


I was extremely excited about making the wings! Instead of doing the typical wings with straps, I decided to experiment with a version that was strapless. It stays on with a reinforced circle of metal wire that slides between your bra band and your center back. It was amazing! I was worried it might not stay in there but it didn't come out once. And I also had the ease of just plucking it out from my back when I was navigating through extremely busy areas.

The wings themselves were made of green tinted cellophane. After cutting out the wing shapes I wanted, I took two different gauges of wire and made veins running through them, using the largest pieces to adhere them to the circle base. Then, I ironed the top and bottom wing pieces together and to finish, repeated ironing with a textured piece of fabric on top so they would have a discreet pattern across them.

One of my favorite vintage sewing blogs, Sew Retro sewretro.blogspot.com/ had a Mad Men inspired vintage sewing design competition. I was honored enough to be accepted into the group just in time to send in my two entires! I'd actually finished these two dresses a while ago but hadn't had any specific inspiration to use them for. Being as I love Mad Men so much, this was a great opportunity!

This is my submission for a Joan Holloway inspired design. I used a reissued vintage Butterick pattern from 1960! It was actually quite a pain to sew around the existing pattern bustline and needed some modifications to make it more tailored. I used black peau de soi satin.



This is my submission for a Betty Draper inspired outfit. I used a reissued vintage Butterick pattern from 1947. I love the silhouette of this pattern! I actually have plans to make a second dress in a beautiful satin for a more dressy look.

It was an amazing experience to be involved in such a phenomenal and epic undertaking. Everyone who supported the insanity of my month and a half 30 costume design insanity and all the extremely talented people I worked with and encountered on the way, thank you :) x

Initially we expected a guy to act as Robert Muldoon in the shadow cast. But as soon as we laid eyes on Rae, 'Sexy Muldoon' was created on the spot. On top of being an extremely hot ginger, she used the increasingly large weapons we provided her with ease and acrobatic flair that would shame ol' Rob. Her costume consisted of a khaki button down short sleeve shirt, matching shorts, a bush hat and knee high socks. I made a leather harness from scratch for her to wear instead of the typical canvas vest. It was the first time I worked with leather but I had a substantial stockpile here so I decided to give it a try! And from the looks of things, I pulled it off:)


Some live shots:


Denis Nedry and Robert 'Bloodsucker' Gennaro as played by Charlie and Trevor!


Nedry's costume included the token garish Hawaiian shirt, khaki pants and a white tee. Charlie also included knee-pads under his pants because he practically smashed his knee caps open during some of the first rehearsals!

Some live shots:


Gennaro's character as the 'bloodsucking lawyer' character could only be punctuated by some snazzy sock garters that I made from scratch and tailoring his pants to short shorts. On top of that, Trevor had a genuine Jurassic Park tie from when the movie actually came out!

Some live shots:


And last but not least John Hammond, Ray Arnold, and Dr. Ian Malcolm as played by Kris, Jeff and Nigel!

Hammond's costume had a detailed button down shirt, light khaki pants, and a straw fedora. Alex Hurter of the Repo! Shadow Cats constructed a kick ass bamboo cane with a glowing amber orb on top for Hammond to wield as well.

Some live shots:


Ray Arnold had an official Jurassic Park labcoat as seen in my earlier post as well as a tee that I screened a fake tie with a snake on it (in lieu of Sam Jackson's character in Snakes on a Plane) and pocket protector. I don't have any good shots of it but you can check out Jeff totally rocking the part and smoking throughout his performace in the shots below. 'Hold on to your butts!'



And we can't forgot the epic and erotic stylings of the proclaimed 'Rockstar' Dr. Ian Malcolm. He spent most of the performance shirtless and writhing around on stage..

We had an exceptional cast with a variety of characters to play. I stayed true enough to the costumes in the film in order for the audience to be able to recognize which characters they were looking at but added interesting little details or accessories to make them a little more unique!

Tim 'Timmy' and Alexis 'Lex' Murphy as played by Shaggy and Nadia:

Timmy costume had a denim button down short-sleeved shirt, a striped jersey t-shirt, khaki short, knee high socks and of course, rainbow suspenders! He carried around a giant illustrated childrens dinosaur book and had an elmo backpack that held the really awesome 'night vision' googles Chris, our excellent prop/set designer designed. Over the breast pocket of the denim shirt I designed and made a nametag specially for Timmy..

The overwhelming and very visible Jurassic Park brand is innate in the movie and I thought it appropriate to represent this in the shadow cast as well:) All of the actors on stage that were not the main characters had as much JP branding as I could cram on them! This is Max, modelling the lab technicians coat:



I illustrated the ID tags as closely to the ones in the movie as well as the personal tags for the main characters. For everyone who didn't get a character one, I made them an honorary tag as a keepsake for them:)


Some shots from the live show:

Our amazing director Alex Woodside stepped forward last minute to fill the shoes of the Drag T-Rex or as I fondly refer to her, Trannysaurus Rex. This involved a wide range of acrobatics, screaming and general molestation and he pulled it off immaculately! I don't have photos of all the costume pieces for this unfortunately but I do have some great shots of him in action!

I wanted to do something different for the Rex head because scale wise, compared to the Raptors it would have been quite larger. Instead of trying to do the obvious and just scale things up, I decided on a totally different route and made a Rex Fascinator, or little hat to sit on top of the head that had a thin elastic band to keep it on around the neck. Then I made a neck corset out of red faux leather and added a row of teeth on the top of it. Additionally, the costume had a white elastic harness like the other dinosaurs. Unfortunately I don't have any detailed shots of the collar or harness but you can see how it looks in the live shots.








Some shots of the live show and full costume: