Spellbinder

Spellbinder was Austrailian television show I used to watch on the Disney channel  along with  other shows at the time Like Ocean Girl and The Tomorrow People. I think these where the shows that lead to my love of   international television. It is also very hard to find anyone over here  who has seen these shows, but that's ok I don't mind being the only fan on this side of the pond.  (But for gosh sakes if you have heard of these  (or others!) let me know!)

  I have only one picture of the costume, I hope to solve that next week  when my friend and I go on a photo shoot. I took it by myself in the hotel room . 


My LJ Post from that time  Aug. 25th, 2009 at 1:09 PM

"...I've also realized that  the tunic I had made for a possible spellbinder costume is not as bad as I first thought it was  (I'm starting to believe my mother when she says I'm too hard on myself about things I make) I   only need to shorten the hem  and dart around the waist .  While rewatching the program I realized that the insignia on the tunic for the show where printed onto paper  (or similar material) and glued onto the shirts  I figure just about any method I use will be better looking then the originals.  I may try and get this costume finished in time for Dragon* Con,( maybe there will be one person there who will know show.)   If I do finish it it will be the lightest costume I own :)   (is it really a costume if you are not dying in the heat?) 

 I used a cheap red felt ( which I think is likely what the show used too)   and just kind of winged the pattern on my own, I'd like to remake it now that I know what I'm doing but for a first attempt I don't think it came out to badly.  No one knew what is was from  but that's ok I enjoyed being a spellbinder.

King Baldwin- 18 days till dragon Con!

 The body of King Baldwin has been finished   Today I went in search  a belt for him. I had toyed with the idea of making my own braided belt but nixed the idea after looking at stills of the costume which show that the belt is cloth  with lots of jewels on it.    After a trip to Joanne's (thank goodness they have cupons in every weekly ad)  I decided to use This:

And this:

Together :

                                   

 I've sewn the two together and now I'm adding clasps so that the sides stay together and it will stay even while I wear it. After this I just need to figure out the headdress which I'm dreading. I know what I want it to look like I'm just not sure how to accomplish it. I also need to figure out shoes for this costume. Oy so much to do so little time :)


Next page on King Baldwin

Sharaz Jek

 Sharaz Jek has the distinction of being the first costume I spent (a lot of ) money on and the first costume I've ever done  without thinking too much about it.   I saw it sometime in January 2009 and by July I was making the costume.  I loved the character on sight. I mean really a Phantom of the Opera type character in Doctor Who played by a great dancer... what's not to like?  I created this costume the summer after I graduated  collage  it was wonderful to get to spend time on something creative and for the first time in a long while without  a large amount of stress.

Research:
The original costume used by the BBC was surprisingly simple, although it took going through the DVD (which has cleaned up the footage considerably from the taped version I had been looking at to start with) to figure it out.

The costume is simply a close fitting leather biker jacket

and leather pants (styled like blue jean pants are) that if you look closely  you can see the pockets and belt loops on it. The belt and neck piece are there to hide the fact that the top and bottom are two pieces. The neck  bit hides the zipper and the belt hides the knit band of the jacket at the join between the it and the pants.

The mask, however is anything but simple. It is leather and is kind of like the Power Ranger helmets.  It opens at the sides with a henge at the top. You can find out more info on the DVD feature "Making Sharaz jek, which uses a radio interview with Mr. Gabel  and footage from the taping of the episode. (Sadly Mr. Gable passed away from cancer a few years ago)  The original mask went up for auction not too long ago, I only wish I could have bought it.

  Creating my version:

 I started  by looking for other people who might have done the costume and, with the exception one picture of someone who had done the face make up and worn a t-shirt, no one that I could find (online) had done it. So  it seemed I would be the first (no pressure there!) 

When I started I was using only the taped footage. I had I thought the body of the outfit was one piece,  and I bought patterns for a one piece animal suit, thinking I would attempt to make it in a black faux leather. After buying the DVD I saw clearly it was two pieces.I started hunting for jackets and  pants on ebay, even going as far as to order one jacket. I quickly realized though that  it was hard to match up  fabrics this way. And then there remained the problem of creating the neck and belt pieces and matching them to the jacket and pants.

I decided then to do what the BBC had tried to create the look of in the first place: a one piece suit. So I bought a PVC suit off of ebay (you can guess what kind of store it came from.)  and then  bought pvc fabric  to create the head, neck, and belt from.  I created a muslin for each of these pieces before cutting the fabric  of the real one.

I kept going on the project by  posting updates online and  on the Dragon*Con Doctor Who group. I found out there would be some dressed as Peri from the same episodes as Sharaz Jek which made it much more fun and gave me something to look forward to. Hearing the squees from people to see an old Who villain represented was wonderful.

The mask gave me the most trouble, and I'm having the same kind of trouble now with King Baldwin's mask. I knew that making it like  they did in the show would be near impossible for me  with what I could easily buy. For Sharaz Jek  I used a store bought plastic mask and covered it with paper clay, thinking when it dried I could pull the paper clay away. Not having used it before I didn't realize it would stick to the plastic. The result was a very heavy mask, but because of time and money (I didn't have either)  I decided to go with it. As you can see the chin is far too pointed  and the nose is the wrong shape, it should be more rounded. But [ainted and with the rest of the costume it does an ok job.


I'd love to have better one made in leather some day.

The other big thing for me with this costume was that it was very close fitting  and during my last year in collage I had put on a good deal of weight, (stress eating!) having this costume sitting in my room and spending the time and money on it motivated me to stay on a diet and exercise  so that I would look better in it. I lost over 20 pounds! I'm quite proud of that, I haven't ever put the weight back on.

Sharaz Jek has been worn to Dragon*Con and Time Gate, I'll be bring him back to Dragon *Con this year for the parade again.

The Phantom of The Opera

  Background:
This is a costume that has been with me my whole life, seriously I was dressing up as the Phantom at the age five.

The musical had come out in London and my father had bought the  recording (on the high tech  Tape rather then the record ooooo :))  and he told me the story as he played the music I fell in love a=in that moment. The story moved me as no other story has  ever done.  Not too long after when the show started to Tour the US my dad got me tickets to the stage show. We went Opening night in Atlanta, my parents went whole hog for me.  My mom had a dress made for me and my Dad took me out to dinner at beautiful old restaurant and  he hired a limo that drove us to The Fox Theater (one of those lovely old gilded theaters).

  It was also the first time   I had seen a stage show (I think unless I had seen the Nutcracker before it). Anyway it was a very special night.  I dressed as the Phantom for many different Halloween's and during middle school I introduced my friend to the show, and she in turn introduced me to Dragon*Con.

The first costume I ever wore was the Phantom and I experienced the thrill of someone stopping you in the hallway to get a picture.  We would actually go on to win best horror during the Masquerade  one year .

We also got hired to play the parts for a bit of atmosphere during a charity auction.  During collage I dropped the costume embarrassingly because I had gained quite a bit of weight and because there where now many Phantoms  at Dragon*Con, mostly of the movie variety. The last year during  the ALS walk I brought the costume out again for the walk  finding that after my dieting the previous year (see Sharaz Jek for details)  the costume fit again. Also this year marked the end of the Touring company of the Stage show which of course I went to see.

Which brings me to the present day  I've done a minor over hall to the costume this year, I've bought a new tailcoat  and while this year I'll be borrowing  a friends cloak I plan on making a new one to better go with the costume. new Phantom will be making an appearance at Dragon*Con 2010.
Next Phantom Post

King Baldwin the IV- Making the finished costume

 And finally I am up to the present time , from here on the costume progress reports are in real time! Only 26 days left until the Con!

  Anyway ...

  I got all of the pieces cut out for the costume  ( it was scary time with the scissors). I cut everything out on my big dinning room table (after cleaning it a billion times and checking that the cats had gone into sleep mode ;)

 Yesterday I spent the day putting to together, and it surprised me at how little time it took. Doing the muslin took the scary out of the real thing.
  I've also spray painted the mask, which looks much better in silver and is growing on me now.

My posts from LJ yesterday
@ 2:27pm
The body of the King Baldwin costume is together and the hem ( the hem that takes for freakin' ever and ever) is sewn. I just need to do the collar, neck, and arms and I'm procrastinating on it, I didn't think it would sew up so quickly.

I've only really encountered one problem and that is the pleats in the back  seem  higher and larger in this fabric and thus  give the back a bit of a bustle look  ( I may be asking you if my costume makes me look fat ;))  I'm leaving it though 1) when I get a chance to do the over robe this will be covered, 2) it still looks better then having a flat back and 3) I'm hoping I can press it down a bit. I still need to do the coif and head dress (not sure how I'm going to do the head dress that's going to take some time and creativity)  

@11:17pm
ooo I just need to do:
the neck line
add the buttons
Find a belt/ make a belt
and figure out the head dress (I have some ideas after playing around today)

and I am done with King Baldwin with time to spare! And even better  I like how it's come out, for once what was in my head is what I got.   I am proud. I still wish the mask where better, but nothing else has come up yet.  A few pictures for you:

 Me trying out the mask and headdress and Coif (which you can't really see) I'll try and get pictures later

The front back and collar.


 Hopefully I'll be finishing up the rest of it this week!  Next entry.

King Baldwin - getting started

  To create the  Main Body of the costume for Baldwin I decided to use the Buttrick Cassock pattern I had bought a year ago with the hopes of making a Snape costume.  I thought that the back pleating would give it some body and formality. The length and collar where perfect  I just needed to alter the front into a solid panel , which  I thought would be within my realm of capablities.  Fearing what would happen to my nice fabric  if I simply started cutting I decided to make a muslin first to see what alteration I needed to make and if they would work.

This is the back  of the muslin.  The first bits I ever sewed on, and I ended up adjusting the pleats in the back so they lined up. It was  making the pleats and the the panel that made me start thinking I might be able to make  the costume look ok and that it was possible to get finished in time for Dragon*Con 2010

 From My LJ entry July 22 210
I am going to try and get Baldwin done for Dragon*con. The muslin is turning out great and pretty much what I thought it would look like which is surprising (since I figured with my luck it won't be at all what I pictured and I'd have to go back to square one.) To that end I've started on the mask, I'm mixing a few mediums to make it, I've molded  the shape to my wig dummy with platicine  and I'm using strips of muslin and wheat paste to create the actual mask. So far it's smooth enough I may not be using paper clay. Yay! Layer one is drying right now. it's showing a lot more detail then I thought it would which is great. I also need  to make a belt, the over robe is something I'll worry about  after the con is over, hopefully with the school year starting soon I'll have some extra money  and I buy the fabric for it.

The mask didn't turn out well, although the muslin mache was very strong and light, I did not like how I made the mask look. I really don't want to post a picture of it since it looked so bad.  I started hunting again for an alternative. I found this on ebay:

   Not quite what I wanted but the shape is right and it is easy to color. The eyebrows are a bit freaky and the features on it are HUGE. ( Have you ever seen those rubber masks of Presidents? Ya it looks like that) I'm hoping that with everything else on it it won't look as bad. But I"ll be sticking to with it as the mask for now.

  On Augest 3rd, with 30 days to go before Dragon*Con and  after fighting with the sleeves and making up the neck trim I finished the muslin. The sleeves gave me hell and made feel like I couldn't do finish it and it would be a disaster.... But I won in the end. I was so happy with how it came out. I also knew for sure I could finish it in time to wear this year.

These are pictures of it hanging after I had finished steaming it.

 Now on to the real deal!

King Baldwin IV- the beginning

  My latest and greatest costume, the one that  made open this blog is King Baldwin IV from the film Kingdom of Heaven.  I saw the film in theaters with friends and afterwords I knew I wanted to do this character. Funny to think now  that my friends had to drag me to see it! They wanted to see Orlando Bloom but by the end of the film I loved it, because of Baldwin, and they didn't think much of the film at all . 

Of course not long after that I was busy tracking down everything I could about the real King Baldwin, he is an incredible person to read about, and while I know the film has it's inaccuracies it is what got me into learning about  the character.  It's funny too but I had met another costumer during Dragon*con  who had a beautiful Snape costume, when I went to her costume site she had the beginnings of a Baldwin Costume, I wrote to her and needless to say we became fast friends. Anyway....

I've  jumped back and forth between which costume of his I wanted to do,  and it finally came down to which of these can I make without breaking the bank and possibly out of found materials, since up till now that is how I've done my costumes.

The first costume he wears in the film (for the Chess scene)    filled the quota, it was recognizable,  simple in it's embellishments and could possibly be bought.  I decided early on to try making the mask, long before I thought the rest of the costume could be a reality. I must have worked on  the mask a hundred times, Knowing from the beginning this was likely going to have to be made by me, since the museum replica was no longer available and was not the one worn in this scene.

 Unfortunately I did not have a camera back then so I do not have documentation of these early attempts.  I put the project on hold for a very long time until we come to last month (July 2010).

 My LJ entry from July 11th
" It's been a great last few days for costume finds! I've bought the fabric for King Baldwin. YAY! ( I'll take pictures tomorrow once I've straighted up my room)  my friend and I went to Jo Ann's  where they had there brocades for 30% off  so with that and a 25 dollar gift card (Thank you Dia!) I bit the bullet and bought the fabric.  I love it too, I've been looking at lots of it on and off but this was the first one  for me that said Pick me! Pick me! I will probably not be bringing this one to Dragon Con this year,  But it is a step to making it (finally) 

I found a beautiful fabric that while not really matching the films fabric was a very rich and regal fabric, with the aide of a gift card a 30% off sign and some nudging from my friend I took the first step towards making the costume. Until finding the fabric at an affordable price I  had been searching sites hoping to find something I could alter to look like the costume.  I had never successfully made a full costume piece before, bits and pieces yes, but not the whole body of the costume. But now I was daring to think I could in fact sew and  thinking that there was no way I'd get it done time for this years Dragon Con... which brings me to the present day. See next entry.

Introduction

 Here we are the start of my adventures in costuming. Actually I've been costuming for a long time now but  this is the first time I'll be blogging  exclusively about it.  I have two other blogs one on Livejournal that is my everyday life, one for Knitting swaps on Blogger and now this one.  Why the addition? Well this is the first time I've made an entire costume from the ground up and I find myself wanting to document it  somewhere I don't have to worry about boring people with extra details. My other costumes  until this one have largely been a mix and match affair  of store bought items and sewing done by me. I'm sure quite a bit on my costuming will still be done this way, and this blog will also serve as a place to document  how I came by many of the items. But  I'm enjoying the process of creating everything, and since thus far this costume is turning out well (I feel like I may be Jinxing my self saying that)  I will likely be doing more sewing as time and money allow.  These first few posts will be on the costumes I'm working on for Dragon*Con 2010 but as I have time I will also be posting some of my other costumes and how they where created. Please feel free to ask me questions.