Back from Dragon*Con!

I returned from Dragon*Con safe and sound! It was a blast (though I missed bumping into a few people... argh!). The week leading up to D*C was hell, I caught a bad cold the weekend before, work was crazy, I was working every spare minute on my costume, and I was still beading on the Friday morning before I put it on. All in all, I got the Padme wearable and it got a very positive reaction. I'm not satisfied with how cutting out the beading from the poly georgette came out, and the hair I thought was rather fuzzy and not as neat as I'd have liked, but people kept asking if it was my real hair! So I guess it's good enough. I'll have pictures up of my 4 costumes as I get them in, edited and uploaded, but all in all it went well (except with my new Alice wig I kept getting mistaken for Claudia from Interview with the Vampire... which means I'd like to find a new one... and may one day make a Claudia costume *g*) Here's a quick pic of the finished product, here's me and Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars cartoon, and also the founder of HerUniverse.com, which makes Star Wars/SyFy gear exclusively for women :)

For the Padme, I now know what I have to fix. I need to do some tweaking on the hook closures, I'd like to add a petticoat layer or something to make the skirt larger, clean up the beading application, and do the drape and appliques proper since I just whipped up a temporary solution. I'm giving myself a week break from working on this costume as I'm sick of it for the moment, and I've started sample work on my Hobbit and White Witch costumes for this next year!

This is the smocking sample for the Hobbit chemise that will be made of raw silk, I have to stitch in the design to see if it will work, then I have to pattern it. The chainmaille is a sample of store bought rings and I will be ordering them in bulk online. I bought 5 yards of med-gray linen for the underdress for the White Witch from Narnia, which will be the only actual sewing required for this costume! Hopefully with the amount of hand work required for this costume I'll be able to throw in some active sewing projects such as my hobbit pieces and the Alice ribbon dress (and later, Padme meadow dress). Looking forward to a new costuming year :)