Costuming Diary

Entry 002 - Art and Clothing :(

2007-10-17T21:18:00.004-04:00

My friend Paul is being sent to Afghanistan in a few days. :( I really hope he stays well. He says that he'll drop me a line every now and then, which is nice of him. I really should have IMed him when I saw that he was on. Oh, well... I just hope that everything is okay and that he can come visit in March. It will have been two years since I last saw him and his first time in the States.

I finished a T-shirt bear. I took an old T-shirt and made a teddy bear out of it. It's cute! XD My mom wouldn't let me have it back. (Yes, I live with my parents. It's cheap.)

Entry 012 - Yay!

2007-10-31T22:06:00.004-04:00

I spent all last night and today getting the dress ready for a fitting. I found out that there will be a photo shoot for Style magazine and my dress will be in it. I'm going to baste the lining and hem down so that it looks great for the photos if they decide to have it tomorrow. *squeal!!!*

My Art and Clothing uniform project turned out great. I was really worried about it not fitting in but it seemed to have been accepted well. I took a Kingdom Hearts T-shirt with the Heartless emblem on it and using red and black straight pins, pinned thin strips of fabric around the emblem. It looked really cool. I wanted to wear it but it would hurt a lot. :(

Entry 018 - Mood: Tired

2007-11-08T22:02:00.003-05:00

This is Mina's dress in Dracula. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. :)

Ugh. The roads going to my house involve a lot of curves. So, it's not a good idea to drive when you're tired, as I found out. My eyes closed for three seconds and when I managed to get them back open, I realized that the road had turned sharply while I had decided to keep going straight. No harm was done and I immediately got back on the road. I decided to take a nap as soon as I got home. It felt good to sleep for a bit. Now, I'm just dehydrated. :(

Entry 034 - I have a banana but I don't want to eat that...

2007-12-10T22:16:00.004-05:00

Sorry about not posting yesterday; I forgot. ^^; Tee hee hee...

I saw the best homeless sign last Friday. This guy had a sign that read, "Why lie? Need beer." It was the most honest and convincing sign I've seen. If I hadn't been driving, I would have given him money. So much better than Christmas Carol guy or I'm Using My Sign to Push People into Traffic guy.

Finished my dress for pattern making and draping. I'm very pleased with it. (That's it above.) There are a few alterations that need to occur but for a dress made in three days, it's cool! Thanks, Cailin, for the help on the invisible zipper!!! XD *hug* Though, I do think it looks like the school uniform from Revolutionary Girl Utena. I'm a geek. ^^;

Well, off to video game now.

Invader Zim Hat

2008-07-15T21:59:00.010-04:00

Later this month at Kings Dominion is Nickmas (Nickelodeon Christmas in July). For Nickmas, people dress up as old Nick characters. I wanted to be Zim from Invader Zim but I can't afford to make the complete costume. I found this really cool Heartless hat made by Saeru (which I will eventually buy) and thought that it's close enough to what Zim looks like, so I made a pattern based on the pic, mocked it up, and altered the pattern as needed. I was so excited because I almost designed (kind of), patterned, mocked, and made it all in one day but I ended up having one antenna unattached. :(

Changes for next time: the placement of the eyes should be 1" closer and sew the antennae into the seam before stuffing as opposed to sewing them on separately by hand (this will make them more secure). Other than that, pretty good for a prototype hat.

Here are some more pics. I apologize that these were taken with my cell because my camera battery needed to be charged. Better pics later on.

Joker

2008-07-20T23:09:00.003-04:00

This was a really cool Joker costume that I saw at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight. His ability to stay in character was also amazing.

P.S. Finally got the Mobile Blogging to work. Now, I can update on the fly! \ (^o^) /

Invader Zim Hat - Proper Pictures

2008-07-22T11:00:00.005-04:00

So, I finally charged my camera battery and took the proper pictures of my Invader Zim hat. Enjoy!

PS Seem to be having problems with the slideshow in the sidebar. I'll keep working on it.

Halloween Haunt - Pumpkin King creeper

2008-08-13T22:31:00.000-04:00

This is a creeper that we made yesterday in about an hour (designing it and placement of leaves with safety pins). We still have to sew down the leaves. It's pretty cool and really scary in the dark. I'll edit this post and pic in a few days, okay?

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Gothic Lolita Mini Top Hat

2008-08-06T17:05:00.002-04:00

I made this top hat for my costume crafts class in the spring semester. Mini top hats like these are very popular in the Japanese fashion style called Gothic Lolita. Originally, it was supposed to be a black hat with a white ribbon but I fell in love with this fabric and felt that white wouldn't complement it as much as the Hello Kitty pink does.

It's a buckram top hat covered with a diamond-embroidered, navy polyester fabric and a sheer Hello Kitty pink ribbon with white polka dots. To get the ribbon to be solid on the band, I laid a white satin ribbon under it. I am very pleased how it turned out. It's really cute!

These pictures make me realize how much I need a new Styrofoam head. :(

Entry 048

2008-07-31T21:30:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to work on finishing altering a T-shirt but work has me so drained that I don't want to use a sewing machine on my days off. Oh, well...

Work's going well. We're getting ready for Halloween Haunt. Pretty soon, we should start building the costumes.

I can't believe that college starts in a few weeks. My so called summer went by so fast.

Entry 047

2008-07-19T22:54:00.001-04:00

I have been messing with the layout of the site lately, so I apologize if some pictures have been absent. I've hopefully fixed it. Enjoy.

Entry 037 - waiting and waiting

2007-12-15T23:44:00.001-05:00

Waiting for Mom to come home. She's been working 12+ hour days at the club and getting home really late. Dad and I don't know when she's coming home. She also has to go into work at 7 am tomorrow.

Cleaned up my room a bit today. Talked to Paul forever. That was fun. Did a little research for Colored Girls. (Link added because I felt weird just typing "Colored Girls" without further explanation. Sorry for not having it earlier. And I'm too lazy to type out the full title.)

Played .hack// yesterday. Completed the secret SIGN event. Found an area that looked like the Northern Lights outside the dungeon (Lambda server, Greedy Gambler's Drift).

Entry 038 - Holiday Break rules

2007-12-16T22:03:00.001-05:00

Hi, I'm on holiday break. This means that I will not be having a ton of important thing to say. (Well, technically, I never do but I mean that nothing big or exciting will be happening to me.) So, I won't be posting everyday like I tend to. When something does happen, I'll post. So, if you don't want to bother with checking the site everyday, you can subscribe to this blog by going all the way to the bottom and pressing the button. Or, if you have nothing better to do, feel free to check everyday. *shrugs* I really can't make that decision for you.

Things I would like to complete this break:
- Mom's robe
- Re-stuffing Mr. Floppy
- Wash my sheets (don't ask)
- Clean my room
- Catch up on my accounts
- Finish my afghan (it's a blanket!!!)
- Finish either Final Fantasy or .hack//Outbreak (which I have been calling Mutation. Sorry! ^^; )
- Pass speech class
- Find and marry to a rich guy so I don't have to work anymore (j/k though I am not above marrying for money)

Entry 032: Back from Limbo version

2007-12-07T23:36:00.001-05:00

Hi, everyone. I'm finally back in business. Project week is over. I just have to finish my dress for Pattern Making and Draping, make renderings for Colored Girls, do portfolio review, and then my costume history final. Yay!!!

Gahh!!! Let's just say that I really want to save my money to get a navigational system for my car. Right now, I use DadDad. While it is a useful device, I don't like having to use it at night because it's late. Blah...

Went to Karl's party. It was fun. I was able to relax a bit and forget how much money I've spent in the past week on projects and scholarship applications. Grrr... I want to take How to Make a Final Project Look Good for Under $20. That would be a useful class. I don't like spending $50 on pictures that are only looked at for 5 minutes. And with Christmas coming up, it doesn't help.

I hate Christmas. I bought an expensive present for someone and now I'll feel bad if I don't spend the same amount for everyone else. It's like, "******* got a cool present and I got was a wad of thread." Even though a wad of thread is about what one of my relations deserves. He buys me expensive presents but when he visits, can't even have a conversation with me. How does one shop for someone like that? I tried to cut back on my personal expenses to save money but I seem to have only one expense that is not bills or school related: lunch. I would save money if I could just bring food from home this week but a) I forgot, b) hands too full to carry lunch box, or c) lackage of leftovers. I mean, if I just didn't eat lunch, that would save so much money. However, if I did that, then the demon head that lives in my throat and attacks people when I'm stressed would pop out and randomly bit people's arms off. And that would be bad...

PS The little demon head is like the queen mini-head from Aliens but looks like a demonic Derin. It likes randomly biting people, snapping at things that are irritating, and soap operas.

Entry 033 - Drawing in the cold sucks

2007-12-08T23:24:00.001-05:00

Got my patterns done and almost done with cutting the fabric for my final project in pattern making and draping. I'm going to have to scrap the idea of the patchworked skirt for now. It's taking too long to make the fabric from scraps. I've only now worked out the kinks. o.O I'll just use the idea on a later date. I'm going cut the skirt and go to bed.

Amber T. and I went to the mall to sketch renderings for Colored Girls. Her quick sketching style is so cool! I want to get as good as her in quick sketching. *jealous* We came up with the designs and roughly decided who gets which dress. We still need to see the cast before any final decisions are made. Amber doesn't want anyone's skin tone or body type to clash with the dress color or style.

Entry 046

2008-07-11T22:00:00.005-04:00

Hi, all! I've been really busy with work lately and I've been too lazy to post. I'm currently working at Kings Dominion as a costumer. I'm enjoying myself. It's fun. I've got a tan.

My day either involves working with the character costumes or dressing and maintaining the shows. It's a lot of walking, hard work, and laundry. That and the Virginia summers and the techie ninja blacks (theatre techs dress in all black clothing to not be noticeable to the audience) makes you really hot, tired, and thirsty. But I'm not that bothered.

I bought this great book called 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim & Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special. Since I've come to terms with the fact that I'm a t-shirt and jeans girl, I've realized that I don't have to wear my shirts the way that I get them. So, this book is helping me alter my pre-existing shirts into new styles. I really enjoy how they're turning out. If you do not have much sewing experience, this is not the book for you because it gives vague instructions that would confuse many beginners. There is another one that would be great for beginners that is something like 108 Ways to Alter T-Shirts or something. It was a lot of blah-blah for me.

Game Front:
Final Fantasy (PSP) - done
Finished with this game. It was pretty fun but got tedious after a while.

Jeanne d'Arc (PSP) - Post-game
Finished playing the main story and now am into post game. Pretty fun to play, especially if you're a Joan of Arc fan.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (GBA) - Hold
*sigh* This was the game I was trying to playing along with Jeanne but my PSP GBA emulator froze and started shrieking when I loaded it and then the Mac emulator kept losing my save data. :( (I can't find my GBA or game so I have to play it other ways.) I will play this game but now I'm discouraged.

Lego Star Wars (PS3) - Hold
THIS GAME RULES!!! It is so fun!!!

Lego Indiana Jones (PS3) - Hold
This game is cool but not so much as Lego Star Wars. Still fun, though.

Cooking Mama (Wii) - on and off
Weird but Katamari Damancy weird (which is good). Fun to play against people.

Okay, I'm going to focus this blog on costumes and the like from now and create one just for gaming.

Christi, hi! Ha, ha...I thought that you were another Christi. But after looking over your blog, I do remember going to school with you. (Sorry, my brain is fuzzy...) Thank you for liking my designs. Your pics are awesome!!!

Erin, hee hee hee...I got lazy. But hopefully, I'm back. :) How are you?

Entry 045 - Haven't felt like it

2008-04-01T19:56:00.004-04:00

Hey. I haven't posted in a while because I got really busy with For Colored Girls and then just didn't feel like it. This semester has drained my soul... *soul flies away, becomes a zombie and wanders the Internet*

I'll be back when I find my soul and stop procrastinating when I should really be studying...

Shameless plug for Skyline High Class of 2000. Don't know why I'm doing it but someone that I went to school with was at least curious enough to wonder why I didn't show up in the last yearbook. I thought it was a nice gesture of them, considering my memories from that school.

Entry 044 - Colored Girls Production Meeting

2008-01-25T23:10:00.000-05:00

Had a production meeting today. The Sechita redesign was decided on as was the direction of hair and makeup. Can't really go into more.

Entry 042 - For Colored Girls... Production meeting and Run Thru

2008-01-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

On Friday, we had had a production meeting. Everything seems to be on track for the show. No new items really for the costumes. After the meeting, Amber and I pulled rehearsal skirts for the cast. Amber talked to me about going shopping for jewelery this week.

On Saturday, I attended the first run thru of the show. It was really rough since they've had only four rehearsals but it was good. I was really worried that my favorite monologue had been cut but it was still there. Amber was sick so I didn't know what I was exactly supposed to be looking for. I just took notes on stuff like hair, tattoos, and scenes where shorts would be needed. OBTW, the cast really liked Amber's renderings. It was such a shame that Amber wasn't there to see them race over, screaming like it was Christmas.