Ember Costumes and Crafts

So this weekend my friends came down to visit me in San Antonio and we all went to San Japan! It was my first time at SJ and I was really impressed with how clean and classy it was as a whole, and how nice all of the costumes were. It was also a GREAT space that didn't feel crowded at all. Friday night Alli and Amy came down from Austin and we stayed up ALL night making their costumes. They were the pony princesses Celestia and Luna. For Amy's outfit we draped black satin over a dark blue dress and tied it with a silver obi from Japan. Alli's dress was draped and sewn by me out of white jersey and poly-satin, with gold ribbon trim and then I tied an obi around the waist. Alli made the headresses and tails out of strips of tulle. Amy's crown is craft foam and the wings are craft felt and floral wire (More on that later). We ran out of time so they don't have ears or horns and Alli doesn't have a crown, but that should be fixed before Brony-con in Austin n

This is my initial sketch for my Steampunk Sailor Jupiter costume. However, since I am ONLY using fabric from my stash, I may have to get a little bit flexible. So far I've worked on...the undershirt. And I plan on wearing this on Saturday. LOL.  

For anyone who is interested, this is the initial sketch I made when I took John's measurements (in pencil) and then the red scribbles are the notes I made as I was drafting and constructing it. F

For John's Astronomer character for his LARP this week in Kansas. The undershirt is my trusty Butterick 4486 which I LOVE, using a nice gray linen. The doubletish thing is based on The Renaissance Tailor 's drafting instructions and the ruffle (detachable, faux velvet with brass buttons) is also from Butterick 4486. It's not really tied to any true historical period, but I thought it looked kind of astronomerly. John still has to rivet on some closures for the doublet and I fully intend to eventually splatter some gold flecks for "stars" onto the ruffle, but I only had a week to do all of this and it takes a lot longer to sew stuff with a baby around. (Who knew, right?) Now I'm jumping right back into the sewing to whip something up for ME to wear to San Japan next weekend. Yay!

My friend just showed me this and I HAVE to share... http://www.scotweb.co.uk/ You can actually look up and order tartan fabric for a kilt! Never mind that I am not Scottish (Though my mom was a Mahoney) it is still totally awesome. Also Never mind that it's totally out of my budget to pay $400 for a custom "O'Mahoney" kilt, but still. Awesome.