I'm totally hopeless, I know.

Hi, my name is Kat, and I'm a relapsed cosplay addict. Pleased ta meetcha… oh crap, that's Harley Quinn. See what I mean?!

I realized yesterday that I am having Halloween withdrawals. Real bad.

First off, I loved costuming Stevie. Loved. Altering my own costume in many hidden/impossible ways was thrilling and challenging and had a 'damn I'm good' vibe to it, but the entire experience of sewing that Jedi thing was positively unexplainable; I haven't felt that good about my ability to create anything in a really long time. And it's really, really cool to be proud of yourself. As a lifelong perfectionist, it's something I don't experience a whole lot.

But I got the disease, now… again.

Two years ago, I bought a costume - priestess robes - for the first time since junior high. Bellatrix last year was what awoke the sleeping beast inside, but she was kind of a joke. I didn't have a sewing machine, and only made a mock-costume. This year I went a step further and made sure I had the best cheap costume money could buy. Oh, it was glorious. My kid said I didn't look like her mother. =)

And then I went out. And before I even got to the bar, I had people telling me I'd better work it if I was dressed like that. And that was the defining moment of my evening; the moment where everything clicked and my brain said, "OHHHH.. I remember now!"

I had a positive ball being Harley Quinn. I used to watch the cartoon, and I can do the voice, the accent, the mannerisms pretty well. For the couple of people who recognized my character, I really laid it on, and they were quite pleased. Not that it's hard… You just talk like a ditzy valley girl, keep looking around for your Puddin', Mistah J, and if anyone asks you about the Bat Man, you ask if they're working for him or trying to ruin your good time. Yep, that's me: shy Kat who usually can't think of a thing to say in a social situation is the same girl who sang crazy songs a cappella while playing the lead female role in Hamlet on a stage in front of a packed house, and memorized/performed a different skit each day for little kid's summer camp programs, not to mention the bazillion other things I've had bits in. I love drama and running around in a costume. I love costuming. And I miss acting. I have that wonderful ability to totally lose myself in becoming a character instead of just playing a role. It's bliss.

And it's been a LONG time. I missed it badly, and I didn't realize it before. I was absolutely right when I thought 30 would be a year of coming back into myself. It was.

Now I feel like I've come to the end of a journey - I spent the six weeks before Halloween researching, plotting, planning, ordering, shopping, and then sewing like a kid in a sweatshop. It wasn’t because Halloween needed to be a big deal, either, but purely out of love. I realized anew that I can sew well and I am still the same kid who used to make amazing doll clothes out of scrap fabric, except now I've finally learned how to sew stretchy seams, do fits like a tailor, and adjust the finer settings on my new sewing machine to work with any fabric and any stitch. But I've got a whole year before I get to think about Halloween again (sob! - although my family is probably breathing an ENORMOUS sigh of relief, hah)… and I'm having withdrawals. Now I wander around my house, staring at the sewing machine, wanting to stitch up something so badly that I've taken to making a Jedi costume for one of Jackie's Ken dolls out of the Halloween scrap pile.

So I've decided that in addition to Halloween 2009 (affectionately known in my brain as the elusive 'How Do I Top Last Year?') I'm going to start having some fun in my life next year, like going to the Georgia Ren Fest, DragonCon and maybe doing some photos for the Peachtree Cosplay Society if I'm feeling saucy. There are more Cons, but I'm not an anime fan/gamer and I wouldn't feel right cosplaying something I knew nothing about.

And I'm going to take advantage of the time I've got between now and then to properly design my own costumes, and really do everything right. I will potentially need six costumes, if I go to all four days of DragonCon. Hurrah for sewing machines and reasonable skill!

I've got some ideas, but I'm totally open to anyone's! I run into a unique problem, in that I've got this incredible giant mop of wig-worthy curly hair, but 99% of the chicks worth dressing up as are straight-haired and BLONDE! You all know what I look like; if you can think of any characters I might be able to do wigless - and preferably not half-dressed characters, if possible… is that even possible?? - I welcome your suggestions! (I'm not opposed to a wig as a last resort, but we really don't want to get into what it was like to try to cram all my hair under that small Harley Quinn hood.)

FYI: No, I am never doing Bellatrix again unless I can find a really perfect or extremely similar dress pattern. I love her, but that's nearly as complicated (and expensive) as a full medieval/Renaissance gown.

Next post will be a list of potential ideas and commissions I've been asked about. I must say, I'm more excited about those commissions than anything else!

My name's Kat, and I'm a renewed cosplay addict. And I'm damn pleased ta meetcha, Puddin'.

Jedi in a T-Shirt

And here we have the Jedi's cloak...

Misc

I want to start this off by saying, Go Flyers. And by pointing out that the Rep VP candidate (who even old Betty White refers to as, "one craaazy bitch") who soiled my Flyers' arena and touched our captain, thereby cursing the Flyers with a 6 game losing streak to open their season, was at least kind enough to transfer the Palin Curse to the St. Louis Blues on Friday when she showed up in Missouri to drop the puck once more, this time with not two, but three human shields -- er, I mean, her husband and two daughters again. Juse before the ceremony, Blues goalie Manny Legace was first player on the ice, tripped over the red carpet they laid out, and injured his hip. The Blues lost that night, and the Flyers brought home their first win, and won the next game, too.

Took Jackie to the Nerd Parade show at Kavarna on Friday. She's now officially got a serious crush on Ms. Lindsay Appel. (Cindy, Tracey, Lynn, and anyone else who thought she was "so cute" - you can borrow her for a day, anytime you like. I swear, I don't mind.)

Yeah, I know. Everyone is still waiting on the glorious, beautiful Hank's Garage photos. I know. I am ashamed to admit I have not even downloaded or looked at the Kavarna pics. All I can do is apologize for my Halloween-induced distraction and promise that by next week, I will be cured...

Costuming:

I have even been neglecting myself, okay... I keep forgetting to stitch a last minor detail on my own costume, and I still have to make my mask. Nor have I actually put the whole thing on together and tried out my makeup yet.

So my first rant was about ironing pattern pieces. My next unexpected hitch in the mechanisms was forgetting all about the wonders of properly hemming something round and floor length. Especially with the costumee running off in his car between fittings (to his credit, Stevie always returned before or just as I finished pinning). I should have remembered this part of the process taking hours, seeing as the last thing I did this on was a bridesmaid's dress. There was fortunately no laying on my stomach in a permanent crunch with pins in my mouth this time (thank you mother for that metal hem-measuring device) but I repinned that damn hem at least 4 times before we got it right. One inch off the front, one inch off the back, and three inches off each side. (How's that for a nightmare, Ma? I know you're reading this)

But other than one last bit of topstitching and a clasp, I finished Stevie's cloak. 6 1/2 yards of brown mock-linen, one spool of thread, and about 40 hours worth of labor. It looks really good, too, if I do say so myself. Tonight, we take a photo of Stevie in it, with his new... accessory. (Glo-stix, eat yer heart out)

So yeah, that's what Stevie's gonna be. =P

(And it lights up all good, turns on/off with the pssshwww sound and goes wub-wub-wub when you swing it... you can't understand how fresh that thing is)

Picked up some great natural-colored fabric with a bit of a brown fleck in it for the tunic & belt yesterday. (A big shout out to Walmart - they don't have the largest selection, but if you do find something, look out, because the prices are unbeatable.) This shouldn't be bad... other than playing with interfacing, which I hate, now that the cloak is done, there aren't any more pieces of the costume that are taller than I am.

I doubt I will have time to draw up a good Joker face for a pumpkin - heck, I don't even know if I'll have time carve one, at this rate... not that any of us will be home to need a pumpkin! But if I get a spare couple of hours, I've got a great evil clown template that will do just fine.

More tonight!

The Beginning

Started on Stevie's costume this evening. Let me tell you, there is no paranoia quite like ironing a pattern, much less a rare out-of-print Ebay'd pattern, with "a warm iron." And since my iron has no setting for "warm" among its modern choices of synthetic, silk, wool, cotton and linen ('tissue paper' setting, anyone?) I spent about fifteen minutes testing, turning it up click by painful click.

For the record, "warm" is about halfway between synthetic and silk on a fairly expensive Sunbeam iron. Who knew.

So piece # 1 is a cloak. And it's HUGE. Huge. Nearly as tall as I am huge. Bigger than my dining room table huge. So big that the pattern piece had to be printed in two sections and taped together (and for anyone who knows, a single sheet of pattern tissue is hardly considered small). However it is likely going to be a quick & fun sew, from the looks of it. Pics of the process to follow.

I love this time of year

Halloween does indeed bring out the best in me. The cogs between my ears start spinning extra-fast at the beginning of September, and I'm practically worthless between then and October 31st for anything other than thinking about and planning the upcoming debauchery. I love nothing better than to cosplay, even those years when I haven't got the funds to do it properly =1

This year's costume was a purchase, unfortunately, and I had to buy a new sewing machine to conduct the alterations to both my daughter's gothic fairy outfit and my attire (hint: what's black and white and red all over, and matches my new Chucks?). Which led me to the conclusion that if I'd just bought the machine in the first place, I probably could have just made everything myself and avoided the headache.

However, the extraordinarily complication alterations I had to do renewed my lifelong love of sewing/crafting, so I have decided to embark on the creation of a cosplay-quality Halloween costume for my best friend. (I give you three guesses as to what Stevie has chosen... if you know Stevie, it's rather obvious.)

I believe this year's pumpkin will likely bear the Joker's face, and I mean the comic book Joker - I will not be putting Heath Leger's face on my jack-o-lantern. (Not that I have any problem with Heath - Dark Knight was brilliant, and he was brilliant in it, but everyone's fixated on Heath this year, and I dare to be, well, authentic. The Joker doesn't have scars.)

More details & pics soon to follow.