Joy!

Comic Con had a "Second Chance Resale" for those of us unlucky enough to use their faulty link the first time, and wound up shut out. And, to my happiness, I GOT A BADGE! W00T!!!

I may try again at the normal resale, after may 15th, to see if I can get Saturday, which is the day of the costume contest. I would really like to see the thing and size up how stiff the competition is, if I want to try to compete next year. Sunday is a quieter day, apparently (the badges are half the price of any other day), so I'd like to see if I can manage Saturday too. But, if I can't, at least I know that I got a badge!!!

Pretty happy, y'all. Now, I can start planning Effie in earnest . . . .

May the Odds Be Ever in My Favor . . .

I'm hoping to have some good news later this morning. Cross your fingers ad toes for me, say a prayer (if that's what you do), or send me some good mojo. I'll let y'all know how it pans out!

Happy Hunger Games!

Okay, that's probably not the best sentiment, given that it's about a bunch of kids killing each other. But, imagine it in Effie's voice, and it makes more sense;)

I decided to go ahead with the Effie costume, and damn SDCC. I know it will be expensive, but I never, ever make myself anything without some kind of excuse, and I end up passing on a lot of projects I want to do because of that. I'm not saying this marks the beginning of a period of willy-nilly spending on crazy costumes. But, I have decided to make this one just for me, and I hope to find reasons to wear it out. I'll certainly show progress to y'all, so at least you can appreciate it;)

And now, let the 74th Hunger Games begin! (Man, if I was a Tribute, I'd be toast.)

Toujours, un petit mort . . .

I meant to post last week on my Find of the Century; I was so damn excited over it. Then, I got busy, what with travelling to Chicago this past weekend, and I figured I would post this week after I had some good news.

Turns out I don't have such good news after all.

I did not get a ticket for SDCC '12.

I did everything right, followed all their instructions, got into line . . . and when there were still 5,000 people ahead of me, the show sold out. I am trying not to feel completely devastated, but I'm not going to lie: I have cried about this several times.

For the non-geeks reading this, you probably think I'm being silly and overdramatic. "It's just some convention! Get over it! There are children starving in Africa!" Yes, that is true. But, I wasn't looking at this as "just some convention". I wasn't planning to go and buy comics and wait in line to have some celebrity sign some over-priced publicity shot. I wasn't going so I could spend too much on the latest "Ironman battles the Anonymous Villain" statue. I was going so I could make a kickass costume and network the shit out of the place.

Since I've been here, I've had zero opportunities to network with film costumers. Maybe if I had more time I could have created more opportunities, but I've been working with what I have, which isn't much. When the Costume College scholarship didn't happen, I gave up on that opportunity, and put all my eggs in one basket. I really was hinging a lot of hope on making it there this year and handing out cards, schmoozing, doing everything I can to see and be seen and hopefully meet one or two people who do what I do, or know someone who does. It would have been work, but the kind of work that forces you to have a blast too. And, naturally, I would have seen lots of cool shit and celebrities, and all that.

I'm crushed. After my unexpected trip to Michael Levine's the week before, where I found the exact Effie fabric and made a squealing sound not unlike a squirrel in distress, I thought it was some kind of sign. I am dumb enough to still believe in those sorts of things. Like, "I found THE FABRIC. That must mean I'm going to be going to Comic-con, right?" Instead, I am out $65, and I can barely stand looking at it. Every time I see a billboard for "The Hunger Games", it feels like a needle jabbing me.

No, I will not still make this costume. $65 was the tip of the iceberg, with much more still to come for shoes, wig, accessories, etc. I cannot justify spending several hundred dollars on something for Halloween, where some drunk guy will tell me I look cool and then vomit on me.

I will try again next year. It's just hard not to feel like I keep getting kicked in the face over my dreams.

Fine Feathers . . .

I'm starting to narrow down the choices for which costume I'll be doing for SDCC '12 (though I'm reserving final judgement until after I see the film next month!) Right now, it's between the purple "Kimono Bubble" dress (my moniker):

And the magenta "Tribute Day" suit:

There are pluses and minuses for each of these choices, though for the moment I'm leaning towards the Kimono Bubble outfit for a few reasons :

1. She looks a little prettier and slightly less harsh in that one.

2. I found those exact boots as a knockoff on eBay.

3. I like the makeup treatment a bit more.

However, the chinese brocade used for the ensemble is going to give me fits. I actually found the EXACT pattern from a seller on eBay . . . in the wrong color. Grrrr! I'll make a trip to the fabric district in LA and take a look around later in the year, but if I can't find a satisfactory fabric, I may be forced to go with the suit. We shall see!

Stay tuned!

Big, Big Day!

In case you missed this, The Hunger Games opens next month, and I'm uber-excited. Not just to see one of my favorite YA series come to life, but for the clothes, y'all;)

Effie Trinket, Capitol PR maven, in charge of making the possible-murder of her tributes look as shiny and pretty as possible, looks to be the front-runner in my race to choose what costume I will do for SDCC this year (I am going, dammit!) My chief difficulty may come in choosing from her myriad looks!

Whenever I start to look into reproducing a costume, I look to every possible source of research and material on the original. The folks behind the film just handed me a big one, all wrapped up in a asparkly bow: Capitol Couture.

The marketers for the film have made this faux-fashion magazine highlighting the wild couture the folks in the Capitol don, and as a source, it is fantastic. The GIF above is just one example: I get to see the entire costume, including shoes, and I even get to find out who made them (Alexander McQueen, as it happens). I LOVE that the costume designer on this film used some real designers ("vintage", for the purposes of the story); it gives it a very identifiable "fashionista" feel.

I can't wait to see the film in March. Stay tuned for my choice for Comic Con (if I can choose just one!)

Comic-Fail . . .

So, I've been pretty excited at the prospect of finally going to the big one, the geek-fest to end all geek-fests,  San Diego Comic-Con. It's so famous, it usually gets referred to only as SDCC, and if you're a geek, you know exactly what it means when you see those letters. Big companies from across the entertainment board show up to promote everything from new TV shows and movies to cars and card games and just about anything else you can think of. It's three days of wall-to-wall Nerd-gasm Madness.

It's taken me a while to decide on a costume. I have to step up my game a bit; SDCC doesn't play around on the costuming front. I finally, just a few days ago (after seeing Thor), decided to go as one of the Avengers, albeit one that isn't going to be in the new film: Wasp. She has a pretty cool and not overly-slutty look (tough to find amoung comic book heroines!), and those wings would be pretty amazing if I could pull them off. I started planning various costume elements, brainstorming, budgeting, and I decided to check to see exactly what dates SDCC falls on this year, so I can figure that into my calendar.

That was when I discovered that SDCC is totally sold out.

I guess that's my rookie mistake; I'm used to Wizard World Chicago, where you can buy your tickets at the door if you want to. I just never considered that SDCC would sell out two months early; for all I know, it's been sold out since last year. I'm pretty disappointed, but I don't have much choice; this year's plans get scrapped, and I'll have to get my tickets very early for next year. I am grateful I checked before spending any money on costume elements.

Oh, well. I guess there's always SDCC'12.

Insecurities . . .

One of my favorite bloggers recently posted about blogging insecurity, how she goes through it, sometimes to the point that bloging becomes more about stats and popularity, and becomes a chore.

I've never had an overly popular blog or made a whole lot of money with it; I never expected it to. But, I definitely get blogging anxiety too, and it can feel a litle like being back in high school:

"Do they like me?"
"Are they getting bored?"
"Is anybody paying attention?"
"Am I keeping them entertained?"

There are times I feel like a complete failure as a blogger, and times I want to quit. But I try to remember that I got into this to have fun, and damn it, that's what I'm doing, for me. I hope I have been entertaining most of the time and educational some of the time, and never completely inane. Thanks for hanging in there with me as I find my feet out here in SoCal, through all the stress and the journey; I promise better posts are coming soon!

Some projects lined up so far for 2011:
-an Edwardian/Ragtime ensemble for March
-a costume for SDCC (anybody have suggestions?)
-a ballgown bodice to go with the money dress skirt
-a steampunk ensemble
-a Regency day dress and pelisse