Calgary Jedi costuming

Lexial:

I wish I could be more help about sewing machines. I have mine and it works ok - it's a Brother. When I bought it I shopped around and talked to the retailers a lot. I came up with my criteria - must be able to sew garment-weight leather, ability to do rolled hems, etc - so I had a clear idea what i was looking for when I talked to them and tried out machines. If I were doing it again I might try looking for websites like Epinions or Consumer Reports to get more reviews.

Wigs - I can do no better than refer you to an excellent costuming resource - the LOTR pages of alleycatscratch.com. They have a whole section devoted to wigs - that's where I learned most of what I know:
http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/makingem/AllWig.htm

 

[face_alien_1] Thanks for responding MagpieJen...I think I will stick with a Singer or the other one my mom wrote down for me. I just don't want to buy a dud as that has happened to some friends of mind. I used to sew a lot a while back but I was using my moms Singer and it was quite good. Not sure about the Leathers though...I better ask my mom. Glad you mentioned that and I want to also check about velvet and possibly will get a used embroidery one if I can't find a class to update me on the fancy stitching..I used to do a lot of cross stitching and some embroidery but I am still trying to figure out the fancy stitches. As for wigs this is new territory for sure, I learned a little bit about straight wigs when I bought mine for the ship of fools dance, but styling is a different story. Thanks for the link reference.

 

Going to be hopefully putting together some robes for the convention on Sunday... Think im gonna go with the McCall's pattern (Looks like Obi-Wan's) Anyone have some quick suggestions or recent sightings for good material?

Thanks!

 

We used the Simplicity for mine and it worked great! I really love this pattern it is very versatile. One thing we noticed was my tabards kept slipping down off my shoulder...so you may want to put in a hidden snap or something. This way if you decide to do a demo with a saber it won't slip. The fabricland on fisher road had everything I needed for mine. It even had a nice textured fake leather for my tabard. As well my cloak is a woven wool mixture which does not wrinkle. I by accident left it on my chair in a mess one night and picked it up and not one wrinkle was to be seen. Anyway check out Magpiejen's stuff on page one of this thread she has awsome info and I think a lot of us have taken the same path to design ours.

 

Lexi,
I noticed in the sales flyers today that London Drugs and Wal-Mart have sewing machines on sale. Wal-Mart has a Singer and LD has a Brother machine. You might want to check it out to compare.

 

That is great...thanks Echosevin. I think I will check it out tommorrow and if I can get one I like on sale all the better.

 

*sigh* no one will ever read my essay on Costume contests - I hate ending up with the last post on a page! No one ever sees them.

Anyway. There's a couple things about styling wigs that I don't think are really on the pages I linked to.

A wig style is much more like sculpture than a hair style. Especially with synthetic wigs I find it better to push and smooth things into place with my hands rather than a comb (which will get tangled and make the wig frizzy). The wig should be dry (and previously gently washed and conditioned). I use a tonne of styling product to make the style smooth and keep it in place: hairspray mostly. I have also used pomade and gel, but I hear that hair glue and clear silicone caulk also work (the caulk especially for gravity defying styles). I don't think the caulk washes out though. Gel probably doesn't actually hold a wig style much, and some people don't like the texture it leaves. I have one really messed up wig that I put gel on to try to get the frizzed bits to smooth out.

I've never tried to curl or straighten a wig, but the advice I've been given is 1) don't make your wig hot - it will melt. But I've heard of people using warm water or a very low setting hairdryer to try to set a style. You can put curlers in a wig and hairspray it - when you take the curlers out it might be curly enough. Braids might also leave a bit of a ripple.

Colouring a synthetic wig is mostly a lost cause - though I have heard of using sharpie markers and I think that might be cool for highlighting.

Cutting a synthetic wig is also an advanced skill and I've never tried it.

If you have a human hair wig then styling is a lot more like what you'd do with your regular hair.

Jen

 

That is what I was thinking ...Real human hair seems to me from what I have been investigating is eaier to handle than synthetic especially for styling. Well I think I better buy multiple ones cause I have a feeling I will wreak something along the line. Thanks so much for our advice on this though... you have brought up some very important points that were on my mind. As well the site you gave me has great info too.

TTFN

 

I forgot to add one more thing about sewing machine shopping -

See if you can get them to throw in a "walking" or "even feed" foot. It's excellent for sewing velvets and slippery fabrics. It often is something you have to buy separately (and can cost a bit) so I've heard of people who make it part of the negotiation when buying a machine.

Jen

 

Hi Lex!

I know you PM'd me and I'm sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I'd go with Magpie Jen's advice on wigs. I'm not very experienced with working with them and found that I had that fake hair everywhere when I sewed my braid to a plain brown wig.

For coils or parts that remain braided (and can be sewed into other wigs or hats,etc.), I like the big chunks of coloured hair they sell at walmart for extensions. They're quite long and stay put when in elastics. I would NOT recommend trying to use them loose however. I tried to make combs with long hair by gluing chunks of the hair to the combs and that hair comes out all the time. They're much better when they stay in elastics.

Cheers,
M.

 

Cutting a wig is the best way to make a really big mess very quickly. My Orc helmet has a ponytail out the back an cutting that thing to fit was a big bru-ha-ha.

 

Well, after over $300 in parts and supplies, and 2 LONG straight days, my hands and fingers are quite sore and tender, but my leather 'gators' are DONE!!! I decided to go with the gold polished brass buckles, instead on the silver polished nickle buckles. But, I can easily change them later, if I so choose. But I probably won't, as the gold polished metal hardware looks sweet on the black leather.

Anyway, everyone will get to see the fruits of my labour on Sunday!

I'll take pictures of them then also, so don't ask for any right now, as none exist!

No chance to work on leather lightsaber holsters right now. That'll have to wait till after this weekend.

I also made a plain pants belt, with a larger buckle. I got it polished up, and it looks a lot better, but I may try to polish it further some other week.

 

Those are great tips. What type of fabric would you suggest for a Tusken Raider? After thinking about the task of making Stormtrooper armor, I think that a Tusken Raider would be a good starter project since it's more organic. The fabric looks very course.

 

Darth_Corro,

We happen to have a couple people in our midst who have experience building Tusken costumes! I would suggest approaching TD8828 or BFett333 (you could send them PM's) to ask for tips. They've both got fabulous costumes!

Good luck!

~ veritate

 

So....you want to be a Tusken? I can help you out with that, the costume is not hard to make but plan on spending about $500 for a complete one, maybe a bit less with some help :wink:

The fabric to use is called Monk's cloth, about $18 a meter, the main expense is the mask and it is the most important part of the costume! Gaffis, bandoliers, etc can be easily made and the rest of the costume is just torn up and weathered strips of duck cloth or canvass (I used an old painters tarp) I have alot of the parts and can show you how to make many of them from scratch.

TD8828

 

I'm testing this link to my armour and tunic/tabbard fabric to see if the image links directly

[image=http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=413993]

Any suggestions on sites for direct pic linking? I'm somewhat sick of fotki, and I had thought image dump would do it, but it seems it won't

 

Try PhotoBucket. I think it works like that.

 

Lets see

[image=http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h85/ShatirLavan/armourandfabric2.jpg]

[image=http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h85/ShatirLavan/armourandfabric.jpg]

 

Lexial......go with the Singer. I LOVE mine. I have 5 machines and thought I'd never like anything more than my old trusty Kenmore. But my new Singer - their home decor model - is my new love. I went with that model because it goes through thick fabric or layers like a hot knife through butter. I've had zero problems with it so far.

I wanted to talk to you about your Luminara as I'm currently working on that one, but there just wasn't time at the show! I have the cloak almost done and most everything else cut out, except the headpiece. I have the leather and tools to learn how to do tooling so I can do all of the gauntlets etc.

It think you girls should put together a road trip and come and have a costume weekend with us girls up here! I know Michelle and I have talked about that. Or perhaps we could all look at staying in Red Deer for a weekend and meeting in the middle for a costuming extravaganza! I know us girls....and Connor..... have a fabulous time and actually get a lot done when we get together.

As for the Tusken.....you'll probably have more luck speaking with Colin as I have the female version. But if I can be of any help, just let me know!

 

a costuming weekend would be so much fun

 

We'd have to bring lots of bandaids.....Liann has a habit of injuring herself during our costume days.....

 

lol, i only cut myself a couple of times

 

If you don't bleed while building/sewing it, it's not a proper costume!

 

Absolutely. It won't be a good costume until you've made your blood offering. I think I may have even offered up some IQ points to the gods of spray paint.

I'm trying to figure out whether the bee sting I got this morning (on my forehead, right between the eyes!!!) can count towards the Londo Mollari costume I'm working on today...

 

Or when building armor.....take a piece of skin off with a dremel or glue yourself to some armor.....which of course I haven't ever done. Nope......never....