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.

Shoes for a Hunger Games fan

Thomas had seen an art show on TV in which they personalised plain canvas sneakers. Then we were in Target and saw this (Cue "Mu-umm?!?"):

Next, images were printed from the internet and stencils were cut from Contact adhesive plastic (good for stencils as it sticks to fabric and helps prevent bleeding a little).

 Stick on the stencil, mask the rest of the shoe.










Spray paint. Or sponge on fabric paint. Whatever you have.

Embellish with "puffy paint" (and touch up with a black marker).

Wear with pride.

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

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: