Recently I started taking part in my local Steampunk group Great Kentspectations. So, of course I had to make myself an outfit. Over the course of a week I knocked myself up an under bust corset and a utility skirt to go with my utility belt. What do you think?
Over the last bank holiday I visited the Historic Dockyard in Chatham and their Steam and Transport festival. As well as taking a tour around the areas used in the filiing of Call The Midwife and meeting the Gruffalo in the Juia Donaldson exhibition I also visited Steampunk Central
I have just discovered that there is a Steampunk group here in Kent and I am looking forward to attending more events when I can. Steampunk Central had some great traders - I bought some jewllery, and some fun erformances. I am now a big fan of the female trio Artemiss and Steampunk Morris - I might even join the dance troop!
Now to just come up with a better costume!
I think a while back I mentioned that I am part of Girlguiding UK and am a qualified Brownie Leader.
This year Brownies is 100 years old and to celebrate there are lots of events planned. This weekend I took part in East Kent Guiding's big Brownie Birthday Star Quest - it was super fun! The girls (aged 7-11) got to go into the past, present and future at the Winter Gardens, Margate and do lots of fun activities.
This is me helping out with a science activity where the girls had to work out what the mystery white powder was from doing some tests - we think it was baking soda! That was in the future.
This us me with my original Brownie uniform - well the same as I wore anyway! In the past the girls could try on old uniforms. This, being a costume person, was my favourite part!
I made my mum hold up the best ones :-)
In the present the girls got to have a go at temporary tattoos, hair chalks and see some reptiles, including holding a snake. I think everyone had a good time and I was really glad I got to be a part of the Big a Brownie Birthday in 2014!
This week it was my birthday - yay!! I treated myself to the Harry Potter Exhibition that is currently at the Discovery Center in New York, just off of Times Square.
If you haven't managed to catch this exhibition as it tours the US, you are missing out! As a complete costume geek this exhibition was a real treat. The displays are set out in groups based on areas of the movies, for example, Griffindor Tower, Hagrid's Hut, The Forbidden Forest, Herbology etc. In each section there is a very well presented display of props, costumes and artifacts from the Harry Potter movies. Now, I am not a big fan of the movies, preferring the books instead, but it is the attention to detail that has made these movies successful despite my own opinions of them. Mostly, the costumes are well designed (I have a personal problem with the 'school uniform' aspect though) and there are quirky little touches that destinquish the wizards and witches from the muggles. For me, these were the most interesting things on display at the exhibition. Things like Sirius Black having a double collar on his button down shirt, Bellatrix Lastrange having a leather wand sheath sewn into the design of her corset, the intricate engravings on the Deatheater masks and the overlaid dyeing on the invisibility cloak are just a few I picked up.
This exhibition is fun and a visual feast. The props and sets are just as detailed as the costumes to create a world that you wish was real. The one thing that really surprised me was how big Hagrid actually was. I expected his size to be camera tricks and therefore the actually costume to be regular human sized. This is not the case! Hagrid is actually bigger than the other humans so Robbie Coltraine has a huge costume that must have been padded and stilted to the nines! Very interesting indeed!
Truly Outrageous!
Finally! Here are my halloween photos!
I made the Halloween costume I wore this year for last Halloween. Check out this post from last year to see what I ended up wearing and the story behind it.
Next year I might have to make a Jerrica costume...
It ended up being a good thing that I pushed back wearing this year's costume as I was able to get the PERFECT wig! It is from the California Costume Co. and it is called the Truly Outrageous wig... for Jem from Jem & The Holograms! I am all about the 80s costumes right now :-)
As Jem at the crew Halloween party
I made the dress and belt myself. The shoes are from Payless and were only $14. It took me a while to find just the right tights, but finally I found white glitter ones.
Jem make-up test
I searched online for a Jem make-up tutorial and found a great one that used tape to get the right shape. I then used a bright pink blusher from Make-up Forever to create the geometric shapes she has. I added blue eyeliner and eyelashes. I had big pink ones but they were too much so I kept my usual diamante corner lashes instead.
Jem Star earrings
The final touch was my Jem Star earrings. I made them myself from old Christmas badges with red flashing lights, red foam and glitter. I had them flashing for most of the night and they still work!
Jem and Lady Gaga having a rock star moment
I ♥ this costume! The wig really sets it off and I think I will be using it for years to come!
Jem likes a good beer after a hard day rocking out
With my Nickelodeon cast
Jem hanging out with the drag queens!
We have two Halloween parties when working on cruise ships - a crew party and a passenger party. I wore the Jem costume for the crew party and then went as a vampire for the passenger party. I was a judge for the costume contest for both parties - who is more qualified to judge a costume contest than the wardrobe supervisor?! All in all Halloween was pretty awesome this year - in fact it was Truly Outrageous!!
My vampire costume for the passenger party
Lady Gaga falls prey to my vampire!
Happy Samhain everyone!
On Saturday we (ie my cast and I) were told we were hosting a party on Wednesday.... A little short notice but we worked it out :-) We decided to host a Super Hero party.... and so came my excuse to make a She-Ra costume! I have been waiting for this day! I knocked this sucker up in about three days and I'm pretty proud of it. I made everything - top, skirt, head piece, gauntlets, necklace, cape and even boots!
Craft Night!
My friends and I had a little craft night in wardrobe to get out costumes together, at which point I put together the top and started work on the boots.
Boots!!
The boots took me about three hours to make, which is pretty good going I think! I used gold Lycra and a pair of old tan character shows as the base.
I ♥ my boots!
I love hot glue! That's pretty much all that's holding these puppies together. I did reference a tutorial I found online, so if you want to make some check out this tutorial.
I am She-Ra!
I love my costume, I just need to find the photo of me as She-Ra when I was 5 now to go with it!!
The Craft Night Posse in their costumes
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