A Dress for a Gardening Vampire

A friend of mine is shooting a music video in which she's a rapping vampire. She asked me to make her a dress incorporating certain elements. She also said that she needed to be fully covered as in the scene she would be gardening, outside, in the sun, and would also be wearing a giant hat. (Thus the collar, to protect from reflection.)

I was very excited about this project and had a lot of fun piecing together a pattern and picking the materials. I love when I get license to play!

Here she is at a fitting, awaiting a few tucks and tweaks...

And here she is on set. As she was directing, and acting, there wasn't much time for dress documentation, so better pictures soon! It was a muggy 85 degree day and that dress could not have been fun to wear in that sun, but we suffer for our art! 

Keep an eye out for "Making It Rain" featuring M.C.M.G. and the Rapping Vampire. It features a gardening vampire, human/ cannabis hybrids, vaginal bling and exotic dancers. In other words, it'll be  extremely entertaining. 

Headdresses for Ancient Heat!

Headdresses in progress for Portland-based neo-disco band Ancient Heat!
The mirror ball effect is CD's that I cut up into little pieces, giving myself nerve damage in one thumb in the process! But it's WORTH IT. In the right lighting they have a beautiful irredescent quality. I can't wait to see them in a real photo shoot!

Super Heroes!

Just finished 4 of these suits for an Intel event! Here they are being modeled by my boyfriend and myself. They wanted general sizes - they'll look more appropriate on the models! I used a pattern for the suits but I had to create my own for the balaclavas, capes, gloves and boot covers, as well as the circuit pattern cut-outs. It was a huge challenge. My spandex order ($300 worth!) was late in arriving from New York so I only had two weeks to pull it all together!
It was also my first time working with EVA foam for the chest pieces. I'm very excited about the potential of this new-to-me medium! There are lots of tutorials online thanks to the generosity of cosplayers everywhere. The results were not as smooth as I'd hoped, but I was pleased at my first attempt and can't wait to try it out again!

Costume Works in Progress

It's been a while since my last post, I've been busy!

I've taken on a few costume commissions for burlesque dancers.

Here's one that I finished in November for Luna Landing! It's a circus playsuit, based on a vintage photograph of a circus performer, for her Pink Elephant number. She made the elephant and the olive headpiece herself, clever lady!

 

Currently I have four more commissions in progress including these two:

Morticia Addams in progress for Miss Alex Kennedy. Morticia is one of my favorite characters so this is exciting. Also, the costume is being constructed in such a way that it can be peeled off in layers during a tango dance with Gomez!

This is from my first fitting with Baby Le'Strange for her Spider-Woman costume. It's my first bodysuit, and I don't work with this material very often. The big challenge was creating the pattern with all of the different color cut-outs. Since this bodysuit is meant to come part in pieces I combined patterns for a swimsuit, a bodysuit and leggings. It took a long time to draw up and cutting into the fabric was daunting but it's turning out fabulous!