Cosplay Linkspam, 29 August 2011

Just a quick one this week.

Check out this amazing sugar skull make-up job from the FuckYeahDragonCon Tumblr, which we love.

While not directly related to costuming, this weeks' Sunday Sweets on Cake Wrecks is a celebration of all things geeky as Jen and John gear up for the con. See their Ode to Dragon*Con here.

No linkspam next week, as I'll be rather preoccupied all weekend, but we'll have a Dragon*Con survival guide for you on Wednesday, plus a con round-up on our return.

Hold tight, fellow cosplayers. It's gonna be a wild week.

Cosplay Linkspam, 22 August 2011

This week’s linkspam is heavy on the weird and the sexy, with possibly a little more weight on the weird end.

First, we have two examples of Not Cosplay. First, some dude wearing a Ninja Turtle mask robbed a Wendy’s in Wisconsin. No word on whether he escaped via skateboard. Then, in Oklahoma City, Spiderman hit up a convenience store. Seriously, guys? Whatever happened to plastic US President masks? That's some classic criminal activity, right there.

Of course, the super hero weirdness reaches new heights in this now viral video a rather dumpy Spiderman terrorizing Warsaw with silly string. Y’all, I don’t even know, but I salute his dedication.

As a... we’ll say palate cleanser, check out this super cool TARDIS corset, made by Chandra Free (aka spookychan, who you should love and adore).

And, finally, some sexy Stormtroopers. Because why the hell not?

Just 10 days til Dragon*Con, fellow cosplayers, and my bags are already packed.

Cosplay Linkspam, 15 August 2011

Fellow cosplayers, I saw exactly ZERO cosplay news items this week. I guess everyone's still nursing their SDCC hangovers. the bastards *grumble*


Now excuse me while I go kick Sabine to make sure she's actually writing her post this week.

-shadowen

PS: Only 17 days til I'm at Dragon*Con!

Cosplay Fail: The Purse that Never Was

Most costuming blogs are all about showing you the shiny pictures, focusing on the successful cosplay that makes you gaze at your sad little sewing kit in despair. Here at Frenemy Cosplay, we believe that our failures can be someone else's learning experience. To that end, friends, here is the story of the time I tried to make a purse.

In the interest of limited funds, I decided that I would make my own place to put my shit for the con, rather than hunting around trying to find something that would match anything that Dr. Girlfriend has ever worn ever. In the interest of limited space, I decided that I needed one item for both costumes and that it needed to be more or less collapsible. So I had this great idea. I was going to make a reversible purse - Dr. Girlfriend pink on one side, Lady Au Pair purple on the other - and use stiff facing to make it keep its shape.

Did I have a plan? Yes. Did I know what I was doing? Hell no. Did it work? Well... it turned out looking like this:

I think I'll just let that image speak for itself.

However, the very same day that I created this abomination, I went to the thrift store in search of an unrelated costume piece and found this:

Vintage black vinyl handbag for one stinking dollar. That, fellow cosplayers, is what we call a SCORE.

The moral of the story, I think, is that sometimes you have to try and fail before you can find the right way to do something. An alternative moral might be that you shouldn't be taking costuming advice from me, since I can't put together a fucking purse.

Either way, it's a good story.

Happy sewing, fellow cosplayers, and remember your thrift stores!

-shadowen

Cosplay Linkspam, 9 August 2011

So I’m a day late. (And a dollar short, but that’s another story.) Here’s your cosplay linkspam of the week!

Ok, last one from SDCC, I swear! The Venture Bros. Blog (via Adult Swim) has a video from the Venture Bros. costume contest. Once again, this is most notable because it contains Sabine being epic. Watch the video here.

In fannish news of a different sort, fans of I Love Lucy celebrated what would have been the fabulous Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday by having the largest gathering of Lucy look-alikes in history. Not many pictures, but you can read about it here.

io9 has some good ones, this week. First, we have Japanese politicians in Dragonball Z cosplay. Y’all, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Check it out here.

Also from io9, residents of Vancouver can hire a live-in servant who promises to dress and act as the dinosaur of his empoloyer’s choosing for a full year. I kind of want to shake this guy’s hand... er, claw. Talon? Anyway, details are here.

And... apparently GenCon was this weekend? io9 has a round-up of some of the best costumes, including SFW pics from the con’s burlesque show and a Spike Spiege cosplayer, which I haven’t seen in far too long. See the pics here.

This has been your linkspam for the week! Now I’m going to go frantically write this week’s actual post. It’s not gonna be pretty, fellow cosplayers. It’s not gonna be pretty.

-shadowen

Cosplay Linkspam, 1 August 2011

Are you tired of hearing about ComicCon, yet? Good. Because we’ve got more cosplay photos from SDCC than you can shake a lightsaber at, plus a few other tidbits.

First, and most importantly, we have Venture-related links featuring our beloved Sabine, because she is awesome and looked totally fierce.
Here she is in the LAWeekly slide show.
And just peaking in on the second image in this post on io9. (The interview is also pretty hilarious, even if you're not a Venture fan, though perhaps not as funny as this one.)

IMDB has a great gallery of all kinds of SDCC pics here.

Movieline did a series of interviews with cosplayers throughout the con, but the best by far is The Littlest Hit Girl.

Finally, if you’re looking for all kinds of SDCC news, updates, and stories, LiveJournal has a community dedicated to the world’s largest nerdfest here.

LAWeekly also has a list of convention “Dos and Don’ts” for fans. The article is specifically aimed at us Venturoos, but it’s generally applicable to fans of just about anything. Read it here.

In other cosplay news, if you’re looking for costuming inspiration, I ran across this list of awesome women in science fiction. It’s limited, but very retro and mentions a few I wouldn’t have thought of. My next costuming project is going to be Rachel from Blade Runner, so keep your eyes peeled. See the list here.

In another blast from the past, courtesy of the lovely Harumania (who is a brilliant artist and you should follow her on twitter) we have an older post from the 4chan boards with a metric shit ton of costuming tutorials. It is, in fact, SFW, unlike many other things on 4chan. Check it out here.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more cosplay news and Sabine's SDCC round-up!

-shadowen

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