Rick Grimes from the Walking Dead Cosplay tutorial

In honor of the beginning of October, and one of my absolute favorite of all favorite holidays - Halloween -  I'm sharing a cosplay I made for my son earlier this year for Anime Boston (March).   Peter is a shy kid, however, and ultimately decided not to cosplay for the event.  But the outfit came out pretty darn good if I do say so my self, so I thought I would share it and the how-to's with my readers.  I have tried to include the pricing and source (where I found an item) 

The hat:

I ordered a cowboy hat from amazon.com for about $7 ($11 with shipping), but was a little dismayed when it arrived as it looked a little more like something Woody in Toy Story would wear than a gun-slinging zombie fighter sheriff's hat.    A little creativity and a lot of brown craft paint fixed that.  (Brown acrylic paint, large bottle (about $3) found in the Walmart craft section).

I applied about three coats to the hat along with painting over the white fabric edging.  I went up to the inside  (but did not paint the inside itself as I didn't want to leave any residue on my kid's head)  

Lotsa brown craft paint

Gold Braid:    I purchased a package of thickish gold cording from Michael's  (about $3 per packet which had 6 yards).  Found in the knitting/crocheting section.   I used a hot glue gun to tack down the cording, looped it around the brim a few times, and then made a couple makeshift tassels at the end. 

Yay Tassels!

Making the Sheriff's badges & Police shields:

The next part was adding the 'badge'  to the hat,  and I would also need a second one to go on the uniform, as well as the police shields for the arms & the nameplate for the breast pocket. 

  I looked a lot on the internet to see if I could purchase some pre-made ones, they had a few on ebay but were astronomically priced (like $80 a set)  and all the plastic ones I found looked kind of cheap.  So I ended up making my own:  I found some high quality pictures on the 'net of the Walking Dead sheriff's badges,  'Grimes' nameplate and King's County Police shields.  

 I printed them out onto  Iron-on Transfer Paper (most craft stores like AC Moore, Michael's & Joann's will have it.)  I used to use these sheets all the time for my kids making T-Shirts, and for Girl Scouts crafts.  (They are specific to your printer, mine is an inkjet)  and then once printed out, I ironed them on to a sturdy white cotton fabric.  I have to admit that the first time through I made a mistake - anything with writing you need to print the reverse out (mirror image)  and I was all ready to sew the patches on when I realized they were backward.  I ended up using a photo editing program to flip them so they printed in reverse  (Adobe photoshop,  MS Paint,  there are a bunch of them that can flip a picture) 

 Once you iron on the design, they come out right side round.  The two sheriff's stars I then hot glued to cardboard and then trimmed out the shapes.       I hot glued one star to the center front of the hat.

Finished hat:  the paint gave it a realistic rawhide look

 The shirt:

The shirt we used was an old Boy Scout one.  With my son being in scouts for several years, and myself and my husband being adult volunteers,  we had a bunch of shirts that one or the other had outgrown or become worn out.   If you don't happen to have your own scout shop in the basement,   you can also find them used at thrift stores (I ran across two not too long ago at our friendly neighborhood Good Will store (like $6 each) and I've seen them used on ebay as well.   Note- you could buy them new from one of the Council Shops or Scouting.org, but new shirts run close to $40, and for a costume that you won't wear more than a couple times, it is not cost effective.
I used plain Brown felt cut to sew over the breast pockets, and for the epaulettes (shoulder loops).

For the police shields on the arms, the sheriff's star and the 'Grimes' nameplate, see the Iron on instructions I gave above for the sheriff's star on the hat.   The two shields were just ironed on to the white cotton, trimmed for shape, and then sewn to the arms.   Ditto for the Grimes nameplate patch.   The star as with the one for the hat was glued to cardboard backing and then tacked to the shirt with some hot glue.

Pants:   For the pants, we did try to find some that matched the color at a thrift store, but alas, couldn't find any that were the right color and size (my son is tall!)   I ended up using a pair of his old khakis, then dyed them using RIT Brown dye  (used the stove top method and left them in for a good long time to get a really dark brown)    I had bought a few yards of gold trim (in with the ribbons from the craft section of Walmart)   and sewed it up the sides of the pants with my machine.  (note - sewing up the side of a pant leg is not for the faint of heart....  you can also use hot glue)

 

Finished pants

Kitty wondering what the heck i'm doing

 So here is the finished  Rick Grimes Cosplay costume.      You can accessorize or not (I found a pair of play handcuff's at Walmart for $3 that he could loop through his belt, they also had some play Cowboy gun sets (toy dept.), complete with holsters for $10 (did not get)

Finishing touches to add true zombie fighting reality:  

Cherry kool-aid I heard makes some pretty decent pretend blood - make up a batch and spatter away. This time of year in the Halloween section, you can also find some 'fake blood'   to smear yourself or your kid with.   

Andrew Lincoln as "Rick Grimes"

What will YOU be for Halloween this year?   Love to hear your comments below!

xo Yvonne

Cosplay for PAX East - Elizabeth from Bioshock

Hey Everybody,    I hope this finds everyone in good spirits!   We are wrapping up the weekend, one of the few left of summer.  The past couple of nights have been a little chilly - an early harbinger of fall?   It makes me kind of sad that summer is nearing an end.

This post is a bit of a throw back.  My daughter had wanted to cosplay Elizabeth from Bioshock for PAX East this year (this past March) We worked really hard on perfecting her look, but I was dismayed as she didn't get any pictures of herself at the event, and it was so busy getting everyone ready that I forgot to take any when it was completed.     She did say that many people stopped her and took pictures of her in cosplay while she was there which is always a sign that it came out well.

Since then,  we took some photos at home. She took some by herself on time delay with her Ipad, and some my son took with his Blackberry phone. (See below for several of them.)

The way we usually go about creating a cosplay look - first we find some inspirational photos on the web.   The character of Elizabeth has a couple of different costumes - this one that Autumn chose with the long skirt, corset and short jacket, and a simpler one that appears in a different part of the game that looks more like a school uniform. (not pictured here, but it is a simpler skirt, white blouse and ascot type tie/scarf)   

more "inspiration"

Example of an "inspiration photo"

For the next step, I try to find patterns that have similar shapes to the clothing pieces needed.  In this case, I used McCall's M6845 (bolero jacket)  and McCall's M5681  (50's style full skirt) Both the patterns were rated as easy. 

Autumn was pretty specific about the fabric she wanted - a dark blue velveteen/velour type, not heavy weight (it had to 'swirl' easily).   We bought about 5 or 6 yards at Joann's fabric.   ( A couple of side notes here:     I purchased the fabric for this project as well as another couple cosplays I was helping to make for  friends, and used a bunch of coupons.  If you are not signed up for Joann's coupons,  do it before you go shopping!  Also, sign up for email coupons and texts if you can.  I got about $300 worth of fabric and notions for $80 that night.

Another thing to keep in mind, and I think this is true for most sewing projects.   Whatever your regular size is when you buy ready-made clothes - Disregard them!   Take your measurements (usually bust, hip and waist) and go by the chart on the back of the pattern. In my years of making different clothes & costumes,  the size the pattern says you are has never corresponded to the size you normally buy your jeans or tops in. )

 This look was not as hard to achieve as I initially thought it would be.  Autumn bought the wig,  corset & hooped petticoat online.     The corset we added thin strips of dark blue bias tape to the create the stripes and outline.

I modded the jacket from the initial pattern shape which had a really loose sleeve that morphed into the sides/back of the jacket.                     

You can see here,  I measured where the arm would fit, then sewed a seam in and clipped the excess fabric off.        I also added a collar onto the back of the neck area, and edged the whole thing with double fold bias tape. (these steps not shown in pictures)

 The skirt pattern was actually one that was supposed to be a poodle skirt,- a 50's style full skirt with the decorations  (I left the poodle off!)   I made this skirt the shorter length of the two shown on the pattern, as we wanted the petticoat to be able to peek out from underneath it.  Also, I added some extra width to each of the cut pieces (this pattern was basically 4 large triangles with the tops scalloped off. These were sewn together on the sides with a zipper in the back and waistband on top)  By adding a few inches on either side of each of the pieces,  I got a little more flare, and a better fit over the petticoat.

So here is my beautiful Autumn modeling the completed Elizabeth Cosplay:

I think some of these are her recreating poses from the game

good view of the back of the jacket, and the bias tape striping on the corset

Pretty Petticoat

I also made an Victorian inspired bird necklace ('choker style' shown below) as part of the original costume.  You can see it in the inspiration picture on the right above.   The choker it was a bit scratchy on her neck and she ended up finding a little gold cage necklace to go with it instead. (there is a part in the game where you as Elizabeth's character have to choose between a bird or a cage, so her choice of necklace stayed true to the character which is very important to Autumn when doing cosplays)
To make this, I started with about 1/2 yard of 2" wide dark blue ribbon. Then the same amount (1/2 yard), but slightly less wide lace ribbon (go maybe 1 1/2" wide, this is so you can see the blue as a background when the lace ribbon is laid on top of the dark blue).  Both could be found in the ribbon section at Joann's).  The lace ribbon was sewn to the dark blue ribbon.  The bird charm was in the jewelry/craft section also at Joann's fabrics.   I made a cardboard circle, glued some of the excess skirt fabric as backing, and then glued a string of faux seed pearls around it, and affixed the whole thing to the center of the ribbon.  I put a small piece of velcro as the closure (measuring her neck exactly first so that the excess ribbon could be trimmed)

The whole cosplay turned out really nicely.  There are a couple of other Cons coming up she can wear it to as well.

I will post some other pictures of the other cosplays we did for PAX and Anime Boston this year.

Do you enjoy cosplaying?    Do you sew or create your own?  I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!
xo Yvonne

Is it August already?

I begin by apologizing now for the length of time it has been since my last posting.  I don't know if I have any regular readers, or if most people just happen across my site from other blogs or random internet searches.

Part of the issue was that I moved my computer to my daughter's room earlier this year (mine was better & faster than her laptop, and we were making a foray into the wonderful world of homeshcooling)  but then she discovered Minecraft.... so when she wasn't doing her coursework, she was adventuring with her friends; digging, mining, building, fighting Cave Spiders and Creepers.   I think anyone who knows about this game will understand.   Unfortunately, I never saw my computer again :(
I have been using her laptop, but it doesn't have the same 'feel' so I find that I am not as creative on it, hence the lack of posting.  So what have we been doing with ourselves the past couple of months?

• Some Home Improvement
• Anime Boston 2013
• Vintage clothing shopping in Boston
• Summer camps
• Baby kittehs!

Home Improvement

So first, my old living room curtains were tattered & torn (much thanks to doggies sitting at the window pawing at them, and kitties running up and down them)     I found this really lovely fabric with birds and butterflies (I am a nut for natural themed things) -

"It's Curtains for ya, Rocky! Curtains!"  (Bugs Bunny)

And Voila!    I am really in love with this fabric.  I got it at JoAnn's Fabrics,  and I think this is one of a family of fabrics (if that's what you call them?   Series maybe? ) Anyway, there are other fabrics that go with this one....so I may decide to do some accent pillows or slipcovers or something.

more Bathroom paint

Bathroom painted

The other project undertook was cleaning out and painting the bathroom.   This project is not yet completed, although we got a good deal of the clutter out;  cleaned and mildew-primed the walls and ceiling; and got the walls mostly painted.   I am  planning on erecting some sort of shelving unit (the old one was falling apart so my daughter had a lovely time dismantling it).   We chose a really pretty lilac for the paint color.   I also still need to make curtains for the window, though I'm really undecided about the fabric. I thought a complex pattern with a lot going on (like the fabric for the living room ones)  wouldn't be good for such a small space.  I saw some fabric that was a white background, had sort of caricature lines depicting trees, and owls dotted among the trees.  Although I did like the fabric,  I'm not sure it really goes with anything in the bathroom though.  Suggestions anyone?


Anime Boston 2013

Last year Anime Boston was a mother-daughter trip. It fell right around Autumn's birthday so we made a special weekend out of it - stayed in a fancy hotel and ordered room service.  This year, the convention was a month later, and Autumn got an invite to spend the weekend with a friend who lives right outside the city, and was having several other of their friends stay too (sleepover!)  So this year I didn't go with :(  but Autumn had a great time and got to see many of her friends that she only sees once or twice a year at the conventions.
This year Autumn was Aradia from Homestuck.  I'm proud to say she did the entire cosplay herself

Horns         (ordered from a party store online, she attached them with heavy duty glue to a headband)
T-shirt        (basic black one from Wal-Mart, fabric painted design)
skirt           (second hand long gray one ordered on ebay, we shortened & hemmed it)
Arm socks (gray tights from Target, she found instructions on how to modify them on the 'net to make them into armsocks)  This was a    last minute cosplay change,  she originally planned to use the same gray make-up on her arms as she had on her face.  But                      it didn't look a smooth, especially in the elbow crease,  and kept getting gray dust all over the rest of the clothing.
Tube Socks        (Hot topic)
Gray Make-up   (theatrical make-up from a local art supply store)  

Peter & I went up on Sunday (last day of the con) to pick her up, and spent a few hours vintage clothes shopping in Boston.  We found a few neat new places, but I want to do a separate post on that so as to give it justice as some of the places were faboo!


Summer Camps

Autumn went to a Youth Group camp sponsored by one of the local churches along with a few of her closest friends.  It was near Mount Monadnock in NH. She had a great time, they did team exercises and swimming and stuff. (sorry, I haven't got any pictures of this, you will just have to imagine a blue haired girl taking NH by storm)

Peter went to Boy Scout Camp at Camp Yawgoog in RI.  He has also been working on his Eagle Scout project this summer.

Peter at the Dining Hall

New Additions to the family

Et finalement, nous avons les petits chats noirs maintenant!

By way of one of the kids' friends who has a friend whom she visited in Tennessee,  3 baby kittens made their way back (via plane then bus ride).   We got 2,  their friend kept the other one.
This is Princess Kashi and Mama Cass.   (Mama Cass has a little crimp in her ear and a little white fur under her arms, Princess Kashi also seems to have a deeper 'meow')   I'm sure to tell you more about them in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Ghosts of Sewing Projects past

 Greetings from a very soggy Cape Cod afternoon...
lately I've been in a kind of sewing funk,  I keep wanting to do some sewing, but never actually getting around to it. Whether it's the time of year, the seemingly relentless cold and snowy weather as of late.  Tasha from By Gum by Golly has a good post about  losing your sewing mojo.  I need my mojo back!  She also does a follow up post with tips to jumpstart your creative process.

Anyway, I thought I would pull up some pictures of previous sewing projects.  (these usually revolve around things for my kids)

Autumn as Fem Hungary

My daughter is into Anime.  For those of you who don't know what it is,  a simple explanation would be "Japanese style Animation" but to those into it, it ranges from a mild addiction to a full blown obsession.   (A popular example of the genre would be Pokemon, but there are literally hundreds of other programs.)   The Graphic Novels are known as Manga. People dress up as their favorite characters (called 'cosplaying') and attend Conventions                
or  sometimes just wander around in groups at the local mall or other places.  Anime Boston is the biggest convention around here, and is like Mecca that thousands of Otaku* make pilgrimages to each year.

*(Japanese for people who are obsessively interested in Anime/Manga) 


Last year, my daughter chose for her cosplaying  Fem Hungary and Fem Denmark.   These characters are derived from an Anime series called "Hetalia" the characters of which are incarnations of different countries  (so you have America, Germany, Canada, Russia, Hungary, England etc.)  and they have personalities that match what the countries would be. (Germany is strict and law abiding, Japan is mysterious and quiet, America is loud and energetic....you get the picture.)  To make it more complicated (and believe me, with Anime it ALWAYS gets more complicated)   there are fan-based characters that are the opposite gender of those in the series  (most of the characters are male, so you have a whole bunch of female versions: Fem England, Fem Hungary etc)  

So Autumn chose her character inspirations and we set to sewing up the cosplay stuff.    Usually with these, there isn't any one pattern I can find that will exactly match the character, so I play around with a few different patterns to get the different elements of the outfit and morph them together.   For Fem Hungary pictured above, we used a Dorothy pattern (Wizard of Oz)  along with a pattern for a prom gown for the skirt and sleeves.  She also had a pinafore apron, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like we got it in any of the pictures.

Autumn as Fem Denmark

Here is her Fem Denmark cosplay.  There was very little sewing involved for this look (sigh).   I made the hat, Autumn made the battle-axe. The rest of the pieces were repurposed from her regular wardrobe.

 This is my son Peter, who cosplayed the year before as Russia from Hetalia.   One of the taglines from the show is "Become one with Russia" (as Russia is good at absorbing many little countries)   This tagline was also an internet meme, inspiring fan-based pictures and posters.

During the convention various and sundry women (and one big burly guy) came up and hugged Peter so they could 'become one with Russia.'  Still not sure if he planned this out.....

For his cosplay we repurposed a knee-length khaki trench coat and added dark brown blanket binding for the edging.  I cut off about an inch of the khaki fabric from the hem to make the cross strips on the chest.  The scarf was a silky poly blend in lavender.   (Peter says we should have made it longer)

One non-Anime related costume I made for Autumn was for Halloween. She planned to be a vampiress and saw a really elegant dress online she wanted to copy. This was difficult because it had these pointed wing like things that came off the bodice that seemed more or less free-floating.     The material we used was a shiny black satin, and the red lining was a silk blend.  I used a regular dress pattern for the bodice and skirt, but added the wing appurtenances by drawing my own pattern pieces and extending the front bodice sections. I used thick plastic from some laundry jugs to give them form.

She got red contacts and white powder make-up to make herself look very pale. 

(lower section of the dress)

This was the dress she found online we based the costume on

So that's my trip down memory lane for today.    I am going to go find my boxes of patterns and play with them a bit to see if I can get over my creative slump.
Thanks for reading!