Designer Dalek

Apologies to the dress designer (Leona Edmiston) but as a Doctor Who fan, the moment I saw this dress:

My mind went here: (It's a Dalek, one of the Doctor's
mortal enemies from the television series.)

All I needed was some styrofoam balls and some matching fabric (I found some girls' leggings in Zara which fit the bill:

Each ball was split into a semi sphere, then wrapped in a half circle of fabric - I traced around a cup for the shape. 

I attached the "bumps" with sticky velcro dots, thinking I could peel them off and use the dress in its natural state. Unsuccessfully, unfortunately.

Then it was off to our local "comic con" with a toilet plunger in hand:

There's always a Doctor Who Christmas episode. I suppose that's why this bloke is dressed as he is...

Note Dalek T Shirt

Dressing up for grown ups

What's Comic-Con but an excuse for wearing costumes in public? Like I need an excuse....

I was a latecomer to the Firefly franchise, but figured I've got the hair and sense of humour for Kaylee - seated left, here: (I wish I had the hair, figure, looks and wardrobe for Inara - standing right - but one must be realistic.)

So here's what we were going for:

and what we got:

And a couple of photos from the Comic-Con photographers

All the bits and pieces:The jacket was made by cutting and sewing together a cheongsam. This turned out not to be the easiest way to make a jacket! Still, it was (close to) the right colour.

The parasol was a plain white one, $6 on Gumtree, painted with poster paint, freehand. I should have been able to work out that there was a way of ensuring the design was even - look at the design when the umbrella is folded - left (even design), and right (going a bit wonky):

I didn't get hold of a pair of overalls like Kaylee wears but went with a khaki shirt and pants. Iron-on decals from Spotlight, and a bear face made from scraps of fur.

Austin's Gruffalo birthday party - the play

We held a Gruffalo birthday party for Austin for his 4th birthday. We acted out the story ("The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson). The family played all the parts - Austin (4 that day) was the Mouse, Thomas, (7) was the Fox, the Owl and the Snake and Jonathon (old enough to know better) was the Gruffalo. Bronwyn narrated. Click here to see the video.

Some stills:

Austin's Gruffalo birthday party - the costumes

The Mouse - felt ears and a furry tail

Ears sewn onto an elastic headband

The Fox - an orange jumper, cat mask
painted in fox colours, and two pieces
of fur to make a bushy tail

The Owl - wings inspired by Prudent Baby
and round glasses

The Gruffalo - more fur than you ever want to see, cut into pieces and sewn onto a t-shirt.
Purple spikes, horns and tusks made of felt. Orange sunglasses from eBay

 

Baby Gruffalos - felt horns and fur ears

sewn onto elastic headbands for all guests

Austin's Gruffalo birthday party - the games

Well, there was really only one game (apart from "Mouse Mouse Gruffalo", a version of "Duck Duck Goose"), and that was "Stick the Wart on the Gruffalo's Nose"!  I printed a picture of the Gruffalo's head onto two A4 sheets of paper and stuck them together. Then I bought some green stickers and cut them into wart shapes (you could use dots, but I couldn't find any poisonous green ones in time). I wrote the guest's names on the stickers too, so we knew who stuck what, where!

Even the Gruffalo got into the game!

To download the poster from a Google Docs site (works best if you are a gmail user) (printable on 2 x A4 pages), click here (documents called "Stickthewart").

Or, right click on these thumbnails to open in a new window and print them:

A charming snake (or a snake charmer?)

I had to make a snake costume for Thomas (for reasons which will soon become apparent), and was stuck as to how to do it. I had a "snakeskin" print shirt from a St Vincent de Paul charity shop, but most snake costumes end up looking like a kid in a tube of fabric.

Instead I started a word association, and came up with a snake charmer. Essentially I turned the snakeskin shirt into a long tunic or kameez, which comes down to the knees, with a nehru collar for good measure, and used the offcuts to make a turban - decorated with a jewel and feathers.

Why a snake? Watch this blog!

A 1910 costume for Thomas

Cap from Sarah, white shirt from Vinnies, pants from Josephine, vest from a bag of old clothes (again from Sarah's), socks from Dad. Shoes model's own!





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

My costume was similarly cobbled together - hat, blouse and boots my own, dress from my Mum (made in 1979!), jacket from Vinnies too.

Costumes for a (small) class production of Little Red Riding Hood

When my 6 yr old son came home from school and said he and his friends wanted to perform "Little Red Riding Hood" for the class, I sprang into action.

We needed an axe for the Woodsman (cardboard, tape, tin foil, on a stick), a mask for the (Big?) Bad Wolf (downloaded, laminated, cut and strung with elastic) a no sew hood for Red Riding Hood (from A Simple Nest - thank you!) and a granny's bonnet (old pillowcase, cut into a circle, create a casing for elastic, thread elastic through), and a basket to carry it in. Done!

Halloweening

Halloween in Australia is basically a festival pushed by retailers to sell more stuff. The only way to retaliate is to not buy, but make stuff. And when your son wants to be one of these (a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who), you don't have a choice.

And this is how it turned out:

Whilst nowhere near as complicated as this Weeping Angel costume, it turned out pretty well. The mask is a download from the Doctor Who website, although I altered the colour to match the fabric and laminated it for durability. The wings are from the $2 shop, sprayed grey with a water soluable spray paint. Sheer luck meant they turned out the same colour as the costume.

The body of the costume was made with some fabric scrounged from The Fabric Cave, a remnant warehouse, for $6. It was some sort of polyester. I sewed it into a large tube, leaving the top and bottom open, and spaces for sleeves. I then gathered the shoulders, and made a casing for a ribbon around the neck. So the neck is big enough to step into, then tightens with the ribbon. An elastic band around the waist pulls it in for the draping effect. It was easier to do sleeves than to think about how to colour arms!

Slots were cut in the back to allow the wings to poke out. I also made a casing around the hem and inserted a wire coathanger for weight and shape.

And we painted Thomas' ears grey, and sprayed his hair grey too. Next time we'll paint the hands as well!

Gratifyingly, some people on the Trick or Treat trail recognised what he was dressed as!

Now for something completely different

Can you spot the difference in these photos?

Yes, that's right, Princess Leia has a head!

A couple of months ago the Greenwich Public School in Sydney, Australia, held its annual "Drinks by the Harbour" fundraiser. The theme was "white". My friend Jean was persuaded to go as Princess Leia in the ceremonial scene in Star Wars: A New Hope; ie:

(and see this video on Youtube.)

By "persuaded" I mean that I pointed out that she has the hair and the cheekbones, and I would make the dress and the necklace if she would agree. So that was that.

Turns out we aren't the first to try this - see Kay-dee's page (thank you Kay-dee for the detailed information) and Padme's closet.  We used a white maxi dress from Supre (an Australian chain store a bit like UK's Top Shop), a bit of white georgette from my fabric stash, silver lame for the belt, and cardboard and tin foil for the necklace.

Working with the white dress as the base, I made wide straps to cover the shoestring straps of the dress, and also to give me something substantial to sew the georgette sleeves onto. I simply cut large bell sleeves and sewed them in. It is not an accurate copy of the costume (as Kay-dee has made) - more of an homage!

There are lots of suggestions on the web for making Leia's necklace - along the lines of modelling clay or getting a metalworker to beat some metal pieces for you. My idea was simpler and cheaper - cardboard, white glue and (craft) foil.   

Simply cut pieces of thick cardboard into pieces roughly the size and shape of the pieces in the necklace, and cover with splodges of white glue - thickly. When dry they will look something like this:

Then, cut pieces of craft foil big enough to wrap around the cardboard, and press into the contours formed by the glue. Then string the pieces together - I used a needle to make a tunnel at the top of each piece of cardboard, under the foil, and threaded tiger tail filament through, finishing with a clasp so I could open it.

Here's another view of the finished necklace:

Finally, I couldn't resist trying it on before I gave it to Jean (we made a better belt than this, though).

And here's Jean rocking the look on the night: