Anubis – getting started

Now what?

I had my inspiration images for my Masquerade Ball costume

So from here I made up a sketch of what I wanted to do – taking the elements from each of the inspiration elements that I really liked to make something that suited me (in both what I want, and what I can reasonably imagine making…)

Anubis costume sketch

Now to do the breakdown…

Ears/mask/headdress

I’m not entirely sure how I’ll make this.  Part of me thinks that I could mount the ears on a mask and then just have the headdress separate.  Then I think in terms of balance, that having the ears, headdress, and mask all mounted on a hat-form. Maybe mount the headdress and ears on the hat-form and wear the mask separately? There are a few things to think of – balance is just one of them – also eating and dancing at the ball – if at some point I need to take something off – it would be nice to not loose everything… still retain some of the costume even if I have to remove the mask for instance (to eat or drink..)

Collar

On one hand I could entirely bead the collar which would likely be more realistic and accurate – I don’t love those “cut out a cardboard circle!” collars that I’ve seen on ‘Egyptian costume’ craft sites, but on the other hand that would mean a LOT of beads.. and a lot of time. I might leave this element until last, and then figure out how much time I have.  And in the meantime I can search for huge amounts of large and yet also pretty, and yet also affordable beads…

Staff

This might be the easiest part – but I am sure I’ll figure out a way to make it complicated – like wanting to have it light up…

Pendant

Also super -easy.. probably will just use one I  am wearing right now… (though with my design, a gold version would work far better than the silver one I already have – perhaps I’ll make a mold of the one I have and then cast it in resin?)

Ankh-purse

Probably also easy, unless I decide to also make this be a purse… I AM going to need something to carry my keys, ID, and cab fare in, and an ankh purse would be awesome… again this might be something I save until the end, and figure out how much time I actually have to spend.

Skirt

Complicated – but no more so than the mask, so this shouldn’t be hard. I picked up the gold fabrics and the teal from Marshall’s in Edmonton, and will just have to ensure that my existing basic skirt pattern still fits.

Armbands

I’m not entirely sure how I want these to come together. I really want these to look like metal versus fabric – yet in order for them to stay up they’ll either have to be elastic or be sewn to the shirt. Either way – not really metal-friendly.  Plus – how even to make them in metal/make them look like metal?

Purple toga-like dress

Every year for a number of years (with one or two times I had to miss it) I attended a convention with a Roman theme.  The Friday evening festivities were particularly themed, with a toga party for the meet-and-great.  Each year I aimed to make a new costume – usually hoping to be somewhat in theme, but departing from the normal “bedsheet” which became a staple for the less ambitious.

I thought I’d share some of the process for the purple toga-like dress I made one year.

Initial sketch for the purple toga-like dress

The initial design sketch.

I wanted something that appeared to be one-shouldered, but wasn’t.  Simply because I can’t often get away with not wearing a bra unless I’m also wearing an overbust corset – so this design would have the impression of being one-shouldered, but was actually two.  I wanted a drape effect over the one arm too, and I wanted to take advantage of being able to bead and trim things as well.  My original design also had a silver waist band – but I thought this would end up being  too much fabric, so I skipped it for the final version.  The dress itself I wanted to make to coordinate with a beautiful purple velvet mask I have.

Purple fabrics for the purple toga-dress

The purple fabrics – the lining is just a plain purple silk, while the overlay fabric is a purple netting with attached clear/silver rhinestones.  Both of these fabrics were from Reena Fabric & Saree Centre – as an aside – I went to school with Reena!

Dress (on a way-to-small dressform)

The finished dress (on a too-small dressform, as usual).  The white fabric is an embroidered chiffon (I think from Fabricland, though I forget), while the arm-scarf is purple chiffon (also from Reena’s).  The silver fabric is dupioni silk – I think it was from an Indian fabric store as well.

Close up of the embroidered fabric

Close up photo of the embroidered chiffon, the netting with it’s lining, and the arm drape.

hand beaded on silver silk

On the silver I hand-sewed on silver bugle beads, silver lined clear seed beads, and purple “oil spill” seed beads – they have the effect of changing colours.

Sleeve-esque

The arm drape is trimmed in the same beads, with the corners of the drape falling with tiny beaded tassels.

So, that was one year, another year I made a sheer white sheath (actually a Greek garment called a Chiton) with gold metallic threads running through it, (which I wore a sheer red, and then a red Indian Sari brocade scarf  - called a Stola) another year I made a similar one in a purple sheer with purple sequins (I had a purple sheer Stola for that one).  I actually loaned out the purple one, and still have to get it back!  I also made a one-shoulder gold silk dress with a gold corset to go over it, and have a steampunk-meets-gladiator costume in the ‘work in progress’ file.  Unfortunately, the event has changed a lot, and the time when it’s hosted I have some challenges to attend because of my current job’s annual schedule, so I don’t think I’ll be attending the next one in February 2012. 

Military-inspired Steampunk (part II)

Inspiration

So, with all of that controversy behind me, let’s take a look at some inspirational images! First up, I was totally loving the uniform sketches and photos on the Dr. Steel Toy Soldier fan site. For reference only, here’s some of the images from the site:

Female Utility Soldier

The first is the female utility soldier costume; black skinny jeans, platform boots, brown button up dress shirt, black pvc necktie, cap, utility belt, and the piece that I think makes the outfit – the embellished corset with the stripes and super-large buttons. In other photos (that you can see on the website) you can see that the shirt has some military-esque patches on the biceps of both arms, the utility belt pouch has a patch as well (like the shirt and cap) and the jeans have black pvc stripes on the side. (Like RCMP yellow stripes or black grosgrain stripes on tuxedo pants). Of the different costumes, I really like this one the best.

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Military Nurse

Also super-cute (although a bit more revealing that I would wear personally!) – the Military Nurse costume. In this case it’s a brown pencil skirt with a high slit, a cropped brown dress shirt, the same black pvc tie, a cap, and a holster-style brown (leather?) waist cincher. (The cincher isn’t leather, but the straps look like they might be in this photo… I don’t think that I’d do leather personally…. but I really like the straps!) This costume doesn’t show any patches or decorations at all.

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Winter Nurse

Last up (of the ones that I really liked) is the Military Nurse winter costume, this one is just a concept sketch, and has the same cap, with a brown coat, darker brown cincher, and a hem treatment that makes it look like there’s a yellow-trimmed split skirt over top of a pair of brown pants. I don’t really like how this necessarily is sketched, but I like the way that the costume reflects a bit of Victorian fashion.

I think it’s super cool that someone documented the costumes, as well as interpretations, and then provided resources how a fan could put together some of the costumes using ready-made clothing as the starting point. I’ve provided the images just as inspiration, please go back to the website to see the originals along with all of the other details.

FreyaGushi's recycled corset, click for the Etsy listing

Next on my inspiration-list: Totusmel’s Wunderkammer pointed me in the direction of this awesome corset made from recycled army shirts from Etsy seller FreyaGushi. I love the entire look really – it’s cute and feminine. The shorts are a bit weird to me, but the hoop skirt frame over top is very goth and interesting. I really like the look from the waist up best though – the matching hat and collar are great, and I love how the maker has recreated the chevrons with lace inset to the corset panels. You can’t see it in this small photo, but there are also some snapped flaps on the corset as well that add a great detail.

Chrononaut Mercantile's Military Cape

So, this is from Chrononaut Mercantile on Etsy; a short cropped cape with a double-breasted front lined in brocade. The cool part about it, is that the double-breasted part can fold back entirely, for a very different look. I imagine that worn like this, a removable chain or something would be needed to keep it closed, but that can always be done… I’ve seen it in black and grey, and really prefer it in grey. I think it would make a great topper above a simple sheath dress or something perhaps?

Soldier-on from TotusMel's Wunderkammer

I adore the Etsy treasury blog TotusMel’s Wunderkammer – and it had a great foursome on military-inspired pieces from Etsy on October 2010. The dress is adorable just for starters, and brings in that whole steampunk/military vibe, rather than going directly ‘military’. Love it! Just for reference sake – here’s the full version of the dress, from Etsy seller Sky Creation. (There are a bunch of other Lolita/EGL designs in Sky Creation’s gallery too.)

Captain Jack's costume

Captain Jack has this neat military-inspired steampunk costume on Cosplay.com. This one is comprised of a khaki green shirtdress, with a “tail” back (cut up the centre back) like a Morning Coat, a waist cincher, and then a bustle that pokes out from the tails of the coat/dress. If you click the link you’ll see more photos of the individual elements of the costume, plus the costume being worn – with a cap, lots of medals/pins, boots, and a white shirt under the coat/dress. I actually saw a dress JUST like this while out shopping the other day (but it didn’t fit across the bust… and I’ve noticed that this colour is very popular right now… might be a great time to multi-purpose shop! I think that the colours work really well together to make this military-inspired, while the bustle and cincher are what ties this back together again with the steampunk vibe.

Dress/Jumper from Dracula Clothing

Here’s a super cute dress/jumper from Dracula Clothing - the belt doesn’t do much for me, but the apron-like straps are interesting, and I love the double-breasted effect. I think overall this wouldn’t look good on me though, because of my full chest. Still I like elements of this dress a lot. Click the link to see more including photos of the lace-up back.

Corset and Cloak has some heavily embellished military-style corsets – click the second and third thumbnails on their page to see them in a larger version.

Auxiliary Magazine's fashion spread using Retroscope Fashions' clothing

Auxiliary Magazine featured Retroscope Fashions’ clothing in a fashion spread about military-inspired fashion. For the women’s look, they’ve taken a plain black pencil skirt and added the chevron patch from a military surplus store. The top is black with a circuit board print and white piping (it looks like khaki green to me on my monitor – your vision may differ!), and the jacket is a gothic, military-style jacket with a corseted back. The look is finished off with Transmuter boots, and lots of pins, patches, and medals that the magazine suggests finding at army surplus stores, flea markets, and “your grandfather’s closet”. (I guess we know where they stand on the whole controversial issue…) To me, this look is more military-inspired goth, than steampunk though. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…but it’s likely not precisely the direction I want to head in.

So.. that’s the round-up for now. I think the next step is to sit and consider all of the options, and then get sketching!  … Well.. not anytime SOON though…

Rustic Luxury completed

completed hooded dress

So I started off with the idea of a green velvet hooded cowl dress, (from my Rustic Luxury post) and I just wanted to post the finished version.

Original sketch of the "Rustic Luxury/Winter Wonderland" dress

I did actually finish this on time (hurrah!) but it took me a while to get this post up with photos.  Overall I was very happy with the finished product.  I had to adjust the pattern slightly to accommodate the hood with the cowl; adding a seam between the cowl and it’s self-facing, but the result was good.  I don’t know that I would do another one like this, however I think I would love to do a hooded jacket/topper/etc out of this fabric.  I did a wide facing for the hood in the same fabric (so it has a lovely deep turn-back) but then I lined the remainder of the super deep hood with a black knit lining fabric.

Before cutting out the green velvet, I tried out the cowl neck part of the dress in a super-soft grey knit as my ‘muslin’ to start, which helped significantly since I had to raise the empire waist a lot from my original draft.  I’m hoping that with some tweaking I’ll be able to wear the grey ‘muslin’ as a top at some point too.  (I usually try to make my muslins out of something wearable if I have the option, just to extend the wearability, and reduce the waste.)

The armholes have self-binding with the green velvet, and I used a blind hem stitch on the hem to keep it pretty invisible (since in the velvet a stitching line would show up plainly.  I’ve included the original sketch of the idea for the gown.  I just wanted to scratch down the details so I could see how it could work together, rather than just visualizing elements in my head.  I ended up putting an empire waistline into the pattern (largely to make the cowl be more fabric-efficient), and moved the hood forward slightly to better fit with the cowl neckline.

 

Close up photo of the hood on my dressform and headform

Since I’m usually the one behind the camera instead of in front of it, I needed to get photos of the finished garment on my dressform instead of me.  Just a note, my dressform is vintage, and WAY smaller than I am, thus it’s not exactly the best fit.  The cowl isn’t nearly as low on me as it is on the dressform.  Likewise, my dressform doesn’t have a head (of course!) so I put one of my styrofoam heads on top to hold up the hood.  It’s a little out-of-proportion, but it should give you an idea of the finished garment. 

Full length (almost) photo of the finished dress.