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. 

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!

Something old, something new…Lacey's wedding

Busy busy busy bee, sewing constantly this month!

In addition to several costume commissions I was hard at work on some very personal projects for my dear friend's wedding.

Lacey is one of the most considerate, thoughtful people that I know. We were in a burlesque troupe together for years, so we've become sisters of a sort. I love to give gifts to show people that I appreciate them, and for someone who you know will appreciate the effort, it's even more fun.
And Lacey truly deserves heartfelt gifts.

First of all she asked me to make headpieces for herself to wear during the reception, and one for each of us bridesmaids:

 Stephanie Kaloi Photography

 Stephanie Kaloi Photography

 Stephanie Kaloi Photography

 Stephanie Kaloi Photography

It was such an incredible wedding full of personal touches. The bride and groom had couple's portrait drawn by their favorite tattoo artist and made into temporary tattoos. The bride's brother designed all of the printed goods, like invitations. Our friend made Lacey a little coat to go over her dress when she was outside. The groom's aunt and cousin played music during the ceremony. Another friend made a light up heart for their back-drop, and a close friend married them. The result was one of the most beautiful productions I've ever been a part of.

As I mentioned before, Lacey and I were in a burlesque troupe together for years. We traveled the Pacific NW and grew very close. Here's our troupe a couple of years back:

This was taken by Kaylin Idora shortly after Lacey got engaged. It's our troupe version of the wedding photographer classic, "Look at the Ring!"

As our troupe gift to her, from her burlesque sisters, we made Lacey a special quilt. We asked every member to contribute any scrap material from their burlesque costumes over the years, within a certain color range, and we sewed the pieces together to make her a lap quilt!

It was the first quilt I've ever made and I am so grateful for my partners, Charlotte Treuse and Nina Nightshade for being such talented seamstresses! 

 Stephanie Kaloi Photography

Photo by Peter Carlson

 She absolutely loved it, and we accomplished our goal - to make her cry. 

 This is her reaction when we told her what the scraps had come from. Thank you Stephanie, for capturing the moment.

 Success!