Cosplay 101: The Costume Postmortem

Shadowen will have your regularly scheduled link roundup a little later, but I wanted to show you one of the most useful things you can learn to do as a cosplayer: a costume postmortem.

While you're wearing your costume, it's hard not to notice and focus on all the problems you encounter. This rides up, this falls down, this has a hole, etc, etc. But as soon as you take it off, you'll forget everything, only to remember it the next time you put it on, when it will be too late. So as soon as possible after you wear the costume, sit down and write exactly what went wrong and what went right.

As an example, I'll be showing you my postmortem of my gender-swapped Dr. Orpheus costume. I can't actually post a good picture, because all the good pictures of me are under copyright to people I don't know (you'll see some in the link roundup), so I refer you to this picture from Venture Bros. Blog. When I do this, I list every single costume piece, from the bottom up, including things like hair and makeup (even if you're going natural). So here's what my postmortem for the Orpheus costume looks like:

Shoes
-The spats (not pictured, because I had already abandoned them) failed to work entirely. New provisions must be made. I'm not sure what, exactly. I've thought about actually sewing the top part of the spats to the shoes and then ripping them at the end of the day. IDK if it would look good. Buying shoes may be a better step (remember the insoles and the breaking in!).

Socks
-Why is the sock glue not working? Either way, they seemed to stay up fine on their own.

Booty shorts (underneath robe)
-No complaints. Saved my life.

Robe
-Robe blew open a lot, which is why booty shorts saved my life. Consider sewing shut? Would that work? If nothing else, Kimono straps are needed.

Sash
-Hem ends of sash. Starting to fray.

Dracula trophy
-This is the main problem here. It was attached by means of two clamp barrettes, but one was gone by the end of the day, and the other seemed ready to make a break for it. Maybe put on a necklace? Hot glue is not my friend here.

Cape
-No complaints. Check hem to make sure Jackson didn't fuck it up when he stepped on it (OMG y'all Jackson Publick stepped on my cape). Possibly put the red diamond that's missing from the back on it, but that's minor.

Shirt
-No complaints. Shirt dyed it pink temporarily, but it is no longer after a wash.

Makeup
-Not totally happy. Using my beloved red shadow was a great idea, but I need something bigger, I feel. The costume lacks a certain element of drama.

Hair
-This is a problem. IDK what I need exactly, but I need bigger hair. It looked incomplete, like I had just forgotten my wig. Maybe just tease it out? Maybe go back to my original idea of a black wig? Maybe wear it down? Provisions must be made.

So now, I have a full list of everything I need to work on before Dragon*Con. This is good even if you don't plan to wear a costume again- you might want to sell it, give it away, display it, etc. Writing is your friend! Remember every ticky detail you can, and get on it as soon as possible.

-Sabine

Cosplay News Items, 25 July 2011

With the frenzy that is San Diego ComicCon, cosplay has definitely been on the collective media mind, this week. Here are a few choice news items for your fannish enjoyment.

Yahoo Movies has a featurette on dedicated cosplayer Victoria Schmidt, who makes the kind of costumes most of us can only dream of. Every one of her pieces is absolutely stunning. Watch the video here.

Equally dedicated and innovative are these professional Venture Brothers cosplayers. If you’re wondering how to overcome the, uh, gravity problem posed by the Dr. Mrs. The Monarch costume, this cosplayer has a solution, and all three of them look amazing.Watch here at The Venture Bros. Blog.

As if to prove my point, io9 gives us a wide variety of Doctor Who cosplayers. It’s heavy on Eleven, obviously, but each of these fans brings their own take on the good Doctor, to spectacular effect. See the slideshow here.

And then, just for fun, Matt Smith and Karen Gillian strike a pose will all 11 Doctors. Here at the BBC website.

Finally, Jezebel has some great pictures from all over the con, including a few celebrities in their best geeky get-ups. Some of the commentary makes me think the writer kind of missed the point, but the pics are worth checking out. See the slideshow here.

Have you started planning your costumes for next year? I know I have.

Good sewing, fellow cosplayers!
-shadowen

A Quick Programming Note

Hello! It is I, Sabine, your increasingly harried/absent blogger. Since it is Wednesday, and on Wednesday we write blogs, and on the eve of Comic-Con we really write blogs, I thought I would share a few little things for you:

1. Buy next year's pass now. Ticketing at Comic-Con is increasingly becoming a pain in the ass. With prices rising to $175/150 next year, I predict a very slight downturn in onsite sales. Slight. So slight that it might not make a difference.

This year, pass sales have been moved offsite and restricted to 8-11 Thursday-Sunday. Check your programming guide!

2. OMG NEW SHUTTLES. Oodles of new hotels, including those on Hotel Circle, have been added to the shuttle system, which this year runs until 3AM (for those of you who have way more stamina than I do). Again, check your programming guide.

3. Find a Sabine! Sadly, Shadowen is not accompanying me this year, but I will be around! Look for the girl in the Dr. Orpheus costume (post forthcoming; I'll be the one in the floor-length cloak with the Sculpey dracula trophy) at the Venture Bros panel, or try and catch me whilst I'm wearing my steampunk costume.

Phew! I think that's all for now. Hopefully I will have some pictures to show off at a later date, but for now, I do believe it is time to collect my party and go get our badges!

One to Eleven: Doctor Who 10-minute Cosplay

Be warned, this post is very long and image-heavy.

Whether you grew up in the UK, glued to the BBC, or you started asking questions when your entire flist declared that bowties were cool, you know that Doctor Who is a force to be reckoned with. No con is complete without a few Doctors running through the halls and running into each other, and even non-Whovians can spot the Fourth Doctor at 20 paces. For the inexperienced or time-impaired cosplayer, Doctor Who can be a treasure trove of simple, low-maintenance, recognizable costumes. So here’s your guide to quick and easy Doctor Who cosplay.

First, a few notes for those just wetting their feet in the Whoniverse and some general comments on characters.

Doctor Who is a British science fiction series about a man called The Doctor who travels through time and space in a big blue phone box called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space). The Doctor is almost always joined on his adventures by a cast of different characters, known as Companions, who are usually -but not always- humans from contemporary Earth. Doctor Who aired consistently from 1963-’89, included a TV movie in 1996, and returned as a series in 2005. Currently, it airs on Saturday evenings on BBC1 in the UK and BBCA in the US, and it is broadcast on delay in 49 other countries worldwide.

Since 1963, the Doctor has been played by 11 different actors, and you’ll often hear fans referring to different incarnations of the Doctor by number. In the series, when the Doctor finds himself dying or close to death, he is able to “regenerate” and essentially become a new person, played by a new actor. (Yes, this is the Cliff notes version.) Though certain aspects of the Doctor’s character remain consistent across Regenerations, every version exhibits a different energy, personality, and style. For the purposes of cosplay, we should consider each of the 11 Regenerations as a different character requiring its own costuming approach.

Likewise, every Doctor has his own Companions, and pairs or groups of Doctor Who cosplayers can make quite a scene. The good news is, the Doctor and his Companions typically have basic, simple costumes that can be put together with a little ingenuity and a trip to the thrift store.

I’ve broken this post into discussions of each Doctor plus Companions, from One to Eleven, with pictures, a little background, and points on hitting the high points. In the places where the pics are grainy or I’ve used pics of action figures, it’s because those provided the best view of the costume as a whole.


The First Doctor
William Hartnell, 1963-’66
Basically, he’s a grumpy old man in an Edwardian suit.
Costume breakdown: long-cut black suit jacket, black and white (or grey) plaid pants, white dress shirt, black cravat.
Most men should have a suit jacket and dress shirt in the closet, already. (If you don’t, you have bigger problems than finding a costume.) Suitable pants should be easily found at a thrift store or vintage clothing vendor, as they’re pretty ‘60s-tastic. The tie could be a store find or homemade. This is a good cosplay for older fans, but it could also be cool done by a young person with make-up and a wig. Just remember to be extra grouchy.

The First Doctor has three major Companions: his granddaughter, Susan, and Barbara and Ian, both schoolteachers. They tend to dress in contemporary clothes, so go for a stylish ‘60s look. Susan is notable for being waifish with short, mod-style dark hair. If you’ve got that kind of look, already, Susan might be a good, easy costume for you.


The Second Doctor
Patrick Troughton, ‘66-’69
If you’re thinking he kind of looks like one of the Three Stooges, you’re not too far off. This Doctor is sharp, disheveled, and super snarky.
Costume breakdown: black suit jacket (the more obviously passe, the better), blue button-down shirt, polka-dot bowtie, moppish bowl-cut hair.
Once again, all things easily found at your local Goodwill. They key, here, is really the bowtie and the hair. After that, just make sure everything’s a bit rumpled, and you’re good to go.

The Second Doctor has a number of Companions, but the most recognizable will be Jamie, an 18th century Scottsman who wears, you guessed it, a kilt. As you can see, Jamie’s costume is pretty epic, and you’ll probably have to make most of it yourself. Even so, it’s a fairly simple look and should be easy to replicate. And, let’s face it, no one’s going to look twice at a con-goer running about in a kilt. Here’s a write-up, with pics, from someone who did this costume.


The Third Doctor
John Pertwee, ‘70-’74
Think James Bond, but from another planet. This Doctor is smooth and has lots of gadgets.
Costume breakdown: velvet smoking jacket, generally old-fashioned formal clothing.
The look you’re going for is old-school English dandy, which will take a little bit of research but gives you some room to move. Despite being one of the Doctor’s more ornate incarnations, this costume may actually be one of the easiest. Accessories like cravats and formal riding boots, though possibly expensive, never go completely out of fashion, so they’re not hard to come by. You can get a smoking jacket at any decent costume store, especially since Austin Powers costumes continue to be everywhere.

The Third Doctor worked with UNIT (UNified Intelligence Taskforce), so it might be awesome to have him wandering around with a random UNIT soldier in tow (fatigues, red baret, UNIT insignia). If you want a more specific and interesting character, try the Brigadier, leader of UNIT. Officer’s uniform + epic mustache = classic Companion!

This Doctor’s story also introduces us to the Master, a fellow Time Lord and the Doctor’s long-time enemy. Just as the Third Doctor puts us in mind of James Bond, this version of the Master makes me think of a Bond villain. Seriously, though. Is anyone not getting a Dr. No vibe from that guy?

 Of course, the one Companion we really care about here is Sarah Jane Smith, who is awesome enough to cosplay on her own. She was, after all, awesome enough to get her own show and to travel with four different Doctors. All you really need is a cardboard K-9 tucked under your arm.


The Fourth Doctor
Tom Baker, ‘74-’81
The longest running Doctor and by far the most recognizable. Excited and unpredictable. If you’re going to cosplay Four, be sure you’ve got the energy to do it.
Costume breakdown: 12-foot striped scarf, frock coat or long burgundy coat, vest, cravat, curly hair.
In this case, it’s all about that damn scarf. The only requirements for the scarf, really, are that it be multi-colored and impossibly long. You can buy different kinds all over the place online, but making your own Tom Baker scarf is a point of pride for Whovians. As long as you’ve got the scarf, you’re golden.

The Fourth Doctor, seeing that he was around for so long, has a lot of interesting Companions. However, unless you decide to stick with Sarah Jane, who was also a Companion of Four, your best bet might be Romana, who’s looks are both recognizable and easy to replicate. Romana, a Time Lord like the Doctor, regenerates during her tenure as Companion, so you have two versions to choose from.

Though Romana I wears a number of different and very cool costumes, by far the most fun is this white gown with an amazing feathered... cloak... thing. I have no idea what it’s supposed to be, and it would be a pain in the ass to make. But seriously, how fierce does she look?

Romana II is all kinds of adorable, and her straw hat and sailor ensemble would make for quick, easy cosplay. In both Regnerations, the character has lots of intelligence and attitude and would be a blast to play.


The Fifth Doctor
Peter Davison, ‘81-’84
It’s worth noting that Davison’s turn as everyone’s favorite Time Lord is what made a young David Tennant want to become an actor. So take a minute to chew on that. And, yes, that is celery in his lapel.
Costume breakdown: matching sweatervest, frock coat, trousers, and straw hat; plimsoll shoes (Chuck Taylors), stalk of celery.
This costume is an old-school cricketer’s uniform with, yes, a stalk of celery pinned to the lapel. The sweatervest, hat, and trousers should be easy enough to find, and some red or orange piping sewn onto a cream jacket will do the trick for the rest. It should also be fairly easy to piece things together from scratch, if you have the time and motivation. Celery is, obviously, available at your local grocery store, though you may want to pick that up on the day of the con to avoid unsightly wilting.

This Doctor has a few Companions carried over from Five (Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan Jovanka), but none that are especially iconic or that would be recognizable to any but the most devoted Whovians.


The Sixth Doctor
Colin Baker, ‘84-’86
I confess I haven’t seen any episodes from this period, but, judging by that outfit, I imagine they would have been fun to watch high.
Costume breakdown: trench coat in mis-matched colors, yellow pinstripe trousers, garish vest, equally garish tie.
Baker himself described the costume as “an explosion in a rainbow factory”. Ironically, this makes it a little easier to put together. Get some brightly colored pants and a vest that don’t match and add an ‘80s-rific cotton scarf. The coat, obviously, you’ll have to make, which might be a bit complicated. I have to say, though, that this looks like it would be a really rewarding cosplay to pull off. Just as recognizable as Four or Five, and there won’t be a dozen of them running around. On the other hand, non-Whovians are likely to just assume that you’re Willy Wonka.

The Sixth Doctor, unfortunately, has no Companions of note, unless you count the rainbow umbrella.


The Seventh Doctor
Sylvester McCoy, ‘87-’89, 1996
This Doctor’s style is about scattered, but I can’t help but think he looks like a stuffy college professor on a school trip.
Costume breakdown: Safari jacket, paisley scarf, vest (waistcoat or sweatervest), Panama hat, fob watch.
Seriously, though. Professor on a trip. All of this should be fairly easy to find, especially if you have older relatives who like to hold on to their old clothes. Bonus points if you have the right watch.

If you want a Companion from this era, go with Ace, a spunky young woman with a cool, punk-inspired style. She may not be immediately recognizable, but you’ll look great, anyway.


The Eighth Doctor
Paul McGann, 1996
I don’t know what it is with the <i>Doctor Who</i> designers and Edwardian costumes, but they seem to be a bit stuck.
Costume breakdown: green velvet frock coat, silver vest, cravat.
Okay, I’ll be honest here. Unless you just really dig this costume, don’t cosplay Eight. My impression is that Who fandom in general would prefer to forget the ‘96 TV movie ever happened. So let’s just get on with our lives, shall we?

It goes without saying that this Doctor is not cool enough to have any cool Companions... but I’m saying it anyway.


The Ninth Doctor
Christopher Eccleston, 2005
Now we enter the realm of new-Who, where costumes are more likely to be recognized and where you’re more likely to run into 20 people dressed the same way.
Costume breakdown: black leather jacket, dark sweater/t-shirt, black jeans.
Easy costume to put together, hard to pull off. If you’re a fit dude with buzz cut hair, go for it. Otherwise, you’ll wind up just looking either fashion challenged or like you’re cosplaying Neil Gaiman.

Though it only lasted one season, the Ninth Doctor’s tenure introduced us to two of the most popular Companions of new-Who: Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness. Rose is curvy, blonde, and dresses in funky, contemporary clothes. For recognition, try jeans and a Union Jack t-shirt or a cropped blue jacket over a fuschia t-shirt. I’ll talk more about cosplaying Jack in a few weeks when we discuss 10-minute cosplay for Torchwood.



The Tenth Doctor
David Tennant, ‘05-’10
At SDCC last year, I think I saw more Tenth Doctor costumes than anything else, and they all looked fantastic.
Costume breakdown: brown trench coat, blue or blue/brown pinstriped suit, tie, Chuck Taylors.
All these costume pieces should be easy to find, but they’re likely to be expensive. (As an aside, I’m totally assuming everyone knows what I mean by Chuck Taylors, but, for those of you who’ve never bought shoes, I’m talking about Converse All Stars.) Like the Ninth Doctor, you might want to avoid Ten unless you’ve got the right physicality. The costume is plenty recognizable, no matter what you look like, but, like I said, there will be a ton of them running around and several of them will look enough like Tennant to turn heads.

(Left to right: Sarah Jane, Mickey, Jackie, Rose, Ten, Martha, Jack, Donna)
Rose and Jack both carry over as Companions, but let’s not forget the awesomeness that is Martha and Donna. Martha has a tough, chic look, topped off by a very modern red leather jacket. (Bonus points to Martha for being the only character of color on this list. Way to go, Doctor Who.) Donna, bless her, dresses like an especially stylish mom, which is an easy, comfortable look for any ginger who wants to give it a try.

The Eleventh Doctor
Matt Smith, ‘10-Present
Just remember one thing: bowties are cool.
Costume breakdown: brown tweed jacket, brown trousers, black boots, suspenders (or braces, if you like), bowtie.
Now that Smith is really hitting his stride as the Doctor, Eleven cosplay is becoming increasingly popular, especially since the costume is so simple. For a twist, add a Stetson or a Fez and mop, or just throw on a torn up dress shirt with blue tie and trousers and be the Ragedy Doctor.


With the Eleventh Doctor’s Companions, you have a wealth of easy, recognizable looks to choose from. First and foremost is Amy, for whom you might wear oversized red shirt and slippers or a Kiss-o-gram uniform. For the lovely and glorious Rory, blue hospital scrubs are a quick solution, but, for added visibility and sexiness, try the Roman soldier ensemble. And then there’s River Song, whose style is built less on a single look than on a sense of tough, timeless elegance. If you have the time and resources, though, turning up in the exploration suits from “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead” would really make a splash.

Another vital character you might not have considered is, of course, the TARDIS. One of the simplest, most brilliant costumes I’ve ever seen was a young woman dressed as the actual TARDIS. She’d simply painted a cardboard box with the appropriate markings and put a flashing light on her head, and she looked wonderful. I spoke with her, and she said the costume had, in fact, been thrown together the day before leaving for the con. Evidence that good cosplay requires creativity above all else and doesn’t always have to break your spirit and your bank account. You could also go as Idris, the human embodiment of the TARDIS, but you might be mistaken for an extra from Sweeney Todd.

And that’s your rundown of iconic Doctor Who costumes, many of which can be put together without too much fuss and money. This series is a crucial part of science fiction culture, even for those who aren’t fans, and we who love it offer homage to its wild style.

In fact, I’m thinking I might go as Romana I, next year. Seriously. That coat is fierce.

-shadowen

Cosplay Tutorial: Lady au Pair

Illustration by Chandra Free

Yes, my Dragon*Con is going to be Venture-tastic, this year. Is anyone complaining? I didn’t think so.

Where the Dr Girlfriend costume draws on a 1960s, Jackie O. motif, Lady au Pair is more like a badass French nanny. This means lace and daisies, plus more purple than you shake a shrink ray at. The costume breaks down into three basic parts: lacy purple dress, matching hat with daisies, and white stockings and black boots.

Dress
Things you’ll need:
-3-4 yards of purple fabric. Something lightweight is probably best.
-3-4 yards of white lace.

I used Butterick pattern 6631, a Regency dress pattern that seems to be out of print, though you can still find it for sale. It worked out well, in the end, but, unless you’re good at improvisation, I’d recommend finding something else.

For the most part, I just followed the pattern as-is, using a light-weight purple fabric (that is actually identical to what I used for my Dr. Girlfriend costume). Obviously, the skirt needs to be cut shorter than the pattern calls for, and you should measure from just below your bus line to wherever you want the skirt to fall.

The two things that gave me some trouble were the sleeves and the back. The sleeves are gathered, which is inherently a pain in the ass, and the pattern requires that you also make lining for the sleeves because they are impossible to hem. Something you should know about me is that I never line anything unless I absolutely have to, mostly because I am lazy and don’t care, and there was no way I was making those sleeves twice. The good news is that the lace trim around the edges makes hemming the sleeves unnecessary.

The back of the dress was another story.

I stared at that pattern for hours, and I still don’t understand how the back is supposed to work. I wound up just folding in the skirt as needed and folding down the sides of bodice back so that it came to a V shape. Since it wasn’t meant to do that, I had to put in something to hold it up, so I used a piece of pearl chain, sewed into the dress on one in with a hook sewn in at the other. It looks a little funky, up close, but it’s fine at a distance. The whole thing actually looks kind of cool.

The other modification I made was to put an inset in the neckline, because it came down way too far. All you have to do for that is cut two triangles big enough to cover the area you want, stitch the hypotenuses together and fold to create a clean edge for the top, and sew it into the neckline. It’s super easy.

Finally, every edge of the dress gets edged with white lace. You would think this would be the easy part, but this is where I made the most screw-ups. To start with, I used off-white lace, because I thought it would look good with the purple, and realized later that it didn’t match my white stockings. This isn’t a big deal, but I felt really dumb. Then I didn’t buy enough lace... twice. If you’re attempting this costume, take heed: You will need much more lace than you think you do. When all was said and done, I think I wound up using somewhere shy of four yards. I also used a wider lace for the bottom hem for complicated reasons related to my dumbassery, but it looked okay.

I hand stitched the lace, which took about 8 hours, total. Specifically, it took something like 10 or so episodes of Fringe.


Hat
Things you’ll need:
-Medium brimmed straw hat.
-Purple spray paint.
-1/2 yard of black ribbon.
-Silk or plastic gerber daisies.

If you can’t figure this one out, you may be too stupid to costume.

I found an appropriately shaped straw hat for $3 at the Goodwill and spray-painted it purple. If you need to paint, you’ll probably want to get a matte paint, rather than a gloss, because straw hats aren’t supposed to be shiny. I was painting over a light blue and got it covered to my satisfaction in about three coats.

I was only able to find the daisies in a bouquet, not singly, but you’re going to be cutting them, anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. I cut two daisies as close to the flower as possible and cut a third with a 4-5 inch stem. I (carefully) hot-glued the ribbon around the crown of the hat, using straight pins to hold it in place. Once the glue was dry, I glued the two short daisies flat against the ribbon so that they overlapped. I glued the cut end of the long-stemmed daisy under the ribbon on the other side of the crown. I used straight pins to hold all three of the in place. Be sure to use enough glue, especially on the long-stemmed flower, since it’s more likely to come off.



Stockings and Boots
Things you’ll need:
-Cash.

Though it’s nearly impossible to find good reference pictures for Lady au Pair (or good Venture Bros. screencaps period) her boots seem to be standard black combat-style, which works as a fantastic counterpoint to the hyper-feminine look of the dress. You can get comfortable, relatively cheap combat boots online, but you'll have to shop around a bit. To save money, I went in a different direction and used a pair of heeled black ankle boots that I already had.

You can get white stockings just about anywhere that sells underwear or lingerie. I had a pair of lacy white thigh-highs left over from another costume, which work great, and I bought them at The Den of Evil Wal-Mart. You’ll probably want to invest in some kind of garment adhesive, like sock glue or adhesive strips, to help your stockings stay up. Come Dragon*Con, I’ll probably be borrowing Sabine’s body adhesive from Sock Dreams. This kind of stuff is a good investment for any cosplayer and is something you’ll want to carry with you at con.


Hair, Make-up, and Accessories

Hair is less of a concern for Lady au Pair than for Dr. Girlfriend, since it’s mostly covered by the hat, but a few little curls peeking out the bottom won’t be amiss. Make-up is almost identical, though I’m using a purple eyeshadow instead of blue. The only major accessory is a purse, the saga of which I will detail in a later post.

Some Lady au Pair cosplayers include Moppet dolls as part of the costume. I chose not to because, one, it’s a lot of extra work I don’t have time for, and, two, I hate the Moppets. If you want your own super-creepy tiny assassins, however, there are tips for making them out of regular baby dolls here. As far as I can tell, there’s no place to buy actual Moppet dolls or instructions on making them from scratch. If I ever become possessed by an evil demon and attempt such a project, I’ll let you know.


This costume wasn’t quite the feat of engineering that Dr. Girlfriend was, but it had it’s own challenges. In the end, I was really pleased with the results, and I think the dress is one that will work even in a non-cosplay context.

Production time: About one month.
Final Cost: Aprx. $15, not including sunk cost of boots and stockings.

-shadowen

Cosplay Tutorial: Dr Girlfriend

Before we go any further, be warned that this is not a costume for the faint of heart. It’s one of the most difficult things I’ve made to date and is, quite frankly, a feat of engineering. If you’re dead set on being Dr. Girlfriend but don’t think you’re up to the challenge, there’s a simpler take on the costume here (no tutorial), and there are a few for sale. I’m not linking to those because we here at Frenemy Cosplay don’t believe in buying pre-made costumes. If you didn’t bleed on it, you don’t deserve to wear it.


Are you scared, yet? Good. Let’s go.

Whatever design you use, the look you’re going for is classic Jackie O. with a super villain twist. This breaks down to a few basic elements: pink dress, pillbox hat, and white gloves and boots.

Pink Dress
Things you’ll need:
- 3-4 yards of pink fabric. Stretchy is good, but not necessary
- One (1) 20” zipper
- buttons

I went for more or less screen accurate, with the dress. I’m not gonna lie, it was a pain in the ass, but I got decent results.

I used Simplicity pattern 5098, which I believe is now out of print, as a base. Patterns can be a pain to deal with, but, frankly, I can’t work without them. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m assuming a basic understanding of how to use a pattern. If you don’t know how to use a sewing pattern.... Well, we might have to do a post for that.

This is not that post.

This pattern has a single, big piece for the shirt front, and it tells you to cut one. I cut two, one that follows the diagonal seam across the front and the other stops at what will be the center of the front of the dress. You can see the basic shape of these pieces in this diagram.

To turn the shirt pattern into pieces for a dress, measure the length from your underarm to wherever on your leg you want it to hit, allowing two to three inches for the hem (and the inevitable screw-ups). Be sure to mark your cutting line very carefully, so you don’t wind up with a dress that’s too long on one side.

The bigger of the two front panels will be your top panel. Fold over the diagonal and center (line A, in the diagram) edges and stitch them like you would a hem. Lay this panel flat over the other front panel, using the neckline to make sure they’re centered, and sew line A flat to the smaller panel. Leave the diagonal line open, because, trust me, you’re going to want an open neckline on this dress.

But, shadowen! I hear you say, Dr. Girlfriend’s dress has buttons up the front! Yes, my fellow Venturoos, yes it does. And do you know why the good doctor is able to wear a skin-tight dress with, presumably, working buttons up the length of it? Because she’s a cartoon. In real life, buttons gap, especially on tight or fitted clothes. If you are, in fact, a cartoon, you may disregard this tutorial and make a dress with working buttons. If not, let’s keep going.

Make the back of the dress as the pattern directs, except with the extra length, obviously. Once you have your back and front ready to go, attach the seams normally on one side. The zipper goes on the other side. Now, this was my first time putting in a zipper, and I’m not even going to tell you how I did it because I did it wrong. Regardless, I positioned the zipper so that it zips down the side of the dress toward the hem.

The fact is, unless you’re a tiny slip of a thing, you’re going to need some kind of fastener to get into this dress.

For this costume, I cut the pattern a size smaller than I normally wear (I’m a size 16 US; I cut it to a 14), and the dress looks like it’s been shrink-wrapped on. This works fine for the aesthetic, but it necessitates the use of a body shaper, so judge accordingly.

Once you’ve got this done, you’re 75% finished with the entire costume. No, really. That was the bulk of the work, right there. Don’t get too excited, though. There’s still plenty to do.

Cut the piece for the collar a little longer and wider than the pattern directs, but otherwise make the collar how it tells you. Same for the sleeves. Measure from your shoulder to past your elbow and cut your fabric pieces accordingly. Once again, mark your cut lines. You may live to regret it, if you don’t.

For the buttons, I used small, matte black pearl buttons, but you can use whatever you have available or think looks best. Measure increments down the top seam on line A and mark them with a fabric pen or straight pin. This is where your buttons will go, so you can do as few or as many as you choose. The button on the collar is a working button, which is a pain, but necessary. It should fall just left of center on your throat.

Finally, I cut away the excess fabric from the smaller front panel, which isn’t necessary, but gives a slightly cleaner look with the fabric I used. If you do this, be careful not to cut too close to the diagonal (see line C in the diagram), or you’ll wind up with a gaping hole. I learned this the hard way.

If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! You’ve made the really difficult and really iconic part of your costume!

Now for all the other parts.

Pillbox Hat
Things you’ll need:
- an empty oatmeal can, or similar cardboard container
- 1 sq. foot-ish of excess fabric from the dress
- hot glue gun
- several large paper clips
- embroidery floss
- a needle with a large eye

This hat? Is something I will never make again. For serious.

That being said, it was cheap to make and didn’t take very long. I cut a can of oatmeal about two inches from the bottom to use as a base form. then I cut a circle of fabric about a centimeter wider than the base of the can. Both of these estimations turned out to be a little much, so I would recommend cutting the can about an inch or and inch and a half from the bottom and cutting the circle a little smaller. Cut a strip of fabric about an inch wider than the height of your cylinder and an inch longer than the circumfrence of the circle. Attach the strip of fabric to the circle of fabric so that it creates, more or less, a cylinder with an open seam.

At this point, you’ll want to see how your fabric fits around the base and adjust accordingly, as well as attaching the open edges of the strip. Once you’re moderately satisfied with the fit of the fabric, use a hot glue gun to fix the loose edges to the inside of the base. Since you want the fabric to fit pretty tight, you’ll need something to keep it in firmly in place while the glue dries. Large paper clips will work fine. Don’t worry about gluing down the entire edge, right now. Just fix enough points on the inside so that the fabric will stay in place.

I’d like to take this opportunity, if I may, to make some observations about hot glue guns. Specifically that there is evidence to suggest their secondary purpose may very well be to make smart people feel stupid. These things are fairly simple tools, but do not underestimate the danger they present, else you will find yourself with minor burns and feeling dumb as fuck.

Hot glue guns, friends. They’re no laughing matter.

Once the first round of glue has dried completely, go back with the glue gun and fix the remaining fabric to the inside of the can. Then set it aside and go do something else for a little while.

Is it dry, yet? Okay, good.

Now that the hat itself is made, your primary concern is getting it to stay on your head. You can try using an elastic band or attaching hair combs, but I stitched four small loops of embroidery floss on the inside edge so that I could affix the hat with bobby pins. At least, that was the plan. In the picture, the hat is held on with small hair clips, which is a temporary solution, at best.

What I ultimately did was gather up a small section of hair where I wanted the hat to go, coiled it up with bobby pins, and used a hat pin (read: very long needle) to secure the hat to my hair. It took some trial and error, and I won’t be doing any rigorous dancing in this costume, which would really be a very bad idea, anyway. Still, it holds well enough to make it through the day.

White Gloves and Boots
Things you’ll need:
- ...cash?

For the shoes, you have two options: buy boots or make boot tops. I chose to buy boots - mostly because I... have a thing for boots - but there are plenty of tutorials on making boot covers.
Boot covers with zippers
Non-stretchy and stretchy fabrics
Pull-over boot covers

If you choose to go this route, take a good look at the tutorials before you get started. Boot covers are deceptively simple and surprisingly difficult to make. It’s definitely the cheaper option, just know what you’re getting into.

If you choose to buy boots, the hardest part will be finding some that you’re willing to wear and that fit in your price range. As those of us with shoe obsessions know, good boots are hella expensive. If you want to go for screen accuracy -and can pull it off - look for white, stretch Go Go boots. Your best bet for these will probably be costume shops or online fetish clothing stores.

Even if you’re not going for screen accurate, white boots can be difficult to find in stores since, y’know, it’s not 1964. Being a lover of boots, short on cash, and having slightly chubby legs, I decided to fore-go the stretch boots for some that will look good on me and that I can wear when I’m not at con. I found these on Ebay for about $35, including shipping. Boutiques.com and ShoeOcean.com also have some good options.


The other thing to consider with the boots, and with all costume shoes, is the heel. If you’re buying boots, be sure to look at the height of the heel before you click “add to cart”. You don’t want to wind up mincing around on five-inch stilettos if you’re used to wearing sneakers everyday. I wear heels regularly, so the four-inch ones I got won’t be too much trouble, but I’ll definitely be putting a cushion in them before the con.

As for the gloves.... Don’t even try. Just buy the damn gloves. Seriously. You want wrist-length or three-quarter white gloves, and you can get them at Claire’s and places like that for not much money. Even if you hand-make the rest of this costume, buy the gloves.

If, however, you are crazy or a purist, there is a tutorial for making lycra gloves here.


Hair and Make-up
My hair is currently a short, black bob, anyway, so it’s more-or-less the right style. I just divided my hair into sections and used a curling iron to add some height and volume, curling the ends of the bottom layer out to give it that kick. I tried the look later with curlers, and it worked a little better. I’ll probably use hairspray or spray gell on the day of the con to help it keep the curl. If your hair is just nowhere near the right color or style, and you’re not willing to make drastic alterations, a wig might be the way to go. At some point in the future, we’ll be doing a post on choosing and wearing wigs, so keep an eye out.

As far as make-up, the important part is really the eyes. You want a classic cat eye shape with a blue eyeshadow. I used Maybelline’s “Blue Freeze” creme eyeshadow over e.l.f.’s lid primer and Palladio’s black Eye Ink pen for the liner. The lipstick is M-A-C’s “Pink Poodle” lip glass (obviously) over Rimmel’s “East End Snob” creme lip liner.


Other Accessories
The good doctor wears gold button earrings, which went out of style about the same time as pillbox hats. I got a pair of plastic button earrings for 99 cents at Goodwill, roughed them up with a metal nail file, and spray painted them gold. Sandpaper probably would have worked better, but I wasn’t about to go buy a pack of sandpaper for one tiny project. I just happened to have a can of gold spray paint left over from another project, like you do.

I’m planning to use the leftover fabric to make a purse, because, as Sabine pointed out, I need a place to put my shit. That’s going to be its own special production, though, and will get its own post.

Production time: About 2 months total, with breaks.
Final cost: aprx. $50, all included

Cosplay Forecast for Summer 2011

Picking out a costume for a con is a lot like choosing an outfit for a party. You find yourself asking a lot of the same questions: What will I look good in? What’s going to stand out? What can I afford? And the ever important: What’s everyone else wearing?

As the summer con season gets into full swing and all the much-hyped summer movies finally make it to our screens, this year’s cosplay trends are starting to emerge. Here’s my predictions for the costumes we can expect to see at up-coming cons.

Obviously, the best place to look for current cosplay inspirations is the “now playing” list at your local theatre, plus recent and soon-to-be-seen flicks. Before we dig in, here, I just want to say that I’m commenting on costumes, not on the quality of the films or even whether or not I liked them. Some of these films are a little divisive, and I don’t want to get into whether or not anyone should wear these costumes, just saying that people will be.

Sucker Punch
io9 already called it on this one, but it bears repeating. Between the sexy simplicity of the costumes and the hype surrounding the movie, I expect every other small-built woman at the con will be donning a sailor skirt and pigtails. The thing is, the popularity of this costume, plus the fact that the film came out in March, means that it’ll be pretty stale by the end of the summer season. What’ll be interesting will be seeing the Sucker Punch cosplayers who do characters other than Baby Doll or take on the costumes from the alternate realities. Can we get some steam-powered zombie soldiers, please?

Super
This movie was made for fast and dirty cosplay. There’s not much to work with as far as supporting characters, but we can expect to see dozens of Crimson Bolts and Bolties running around, with or without tire irons.

Priest
Between the movie’s poor reception and its underwhelming box office performance, we probably won’t see a whole lot of Priest cosplayers. Still, the film’s design was one of its strongest features, and these costumes are so simple and so cool, I’ll be disappointed if there aren’t a few, at least.

Cowboys and Aliens
I can’t make a lot of speculation on this, seeing as the movie’s not out yet, but, based on the nerd buzz and what we’ve seen of the film’s look, I expect to spot more cowboys than usual at this year’s cons.

X-Men: First Class
In addition to being about, y’know, mutants and stuff blowing up, this is very much a stylish, period film. There will certainly be some fantastic takes on the new (old?) X-suits, and Emma Frost’s wardrobe will give us a number of fresh spins on a classic, super sexy costume. Plus, if you got people with the right looks, the evil mutants in this film (It’s not clear whether they’re actually the Hellfire Club.) would make for a great group cosplay.

On the other hand, there are some big list films that we probably won’t be seeing much cosplay from. While the release of Thor might yield some high-quality replicas of the movie costumes, there will probably only be two or three really good ones, plusthe occasional classic Thor. Likewise, there’s always some Green Lanterns hanging out, and the movie might increase that number slightly but not by much. Ditto for Harry Potter and Captain America, though the film variation on Cap’s suit might yield some interesting copies. Finally, despite the release of a new Pirates of the Carribean film, Jack Sparrow is essentially done. He’s become as much of a con mainstay as any member of the Justice League, so let’s just cross this costume off the trendy list.

On the video game front, which I know about only via my Twitter and Tumblr feeds, Portal 2 and whatever the hell the new Pokemon game is out will probably have good showings, and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will continue to be popular through the summer con season.

In general, though there will certainly be some undead stumbling around, there will probably be fewer zombies at the cons, this year. At SDCC last year, you couldn’t cough without breathing in zombie virus, but, by virtue of there being few major zed-word releases this year, the shambling masses will likely be fewer in number. With luck, though, there might be some decent Walking Dead cosplay, inspired by the AMC series.

As always, there will be dozens of Doctors and Companions of every era around and probably one or two Silence for them to run from.

Then again, I could be totally wrong, and every single con-goer will be in the ever classic Ash+chainsaw combo.

This has been your cosplay forecast for Summer 2011. Now get back to your sewing machines!

-shadowen