Pete White

This is all modified. I bought a (giant) white double-breasted jacket at Goodwill. I cut out the lining, and took it in on the sides and on the sleeves. Replaced the white buttons with pink buttons. Turned the double-breasted part under and sewed it in place to make that gloriously 80s neckline.

I also bought some hot pink lining fabric, and I had planned to re-line the jacket. But I really don't know how to do that, and I didn't leave myself enough time to experiment with failure so I just left it a total mess on the inside. (If you can't see it, it doesn't exist!)



The pink parts are a pair of leggings and a sleeveless turtleneck I got at Goodwill. I turned the turtleneck around backwards and slit the seam to make the mandarin collar.



The shoes I bought on ebay, but they didn't have a buckle on them. I wanted a bigger buckle than what I ended up with, but that was the only square buckle I could find at any of the hobby and craft stores around here. I spray painted the buckles gold, and cut some strips of white vinyl, attached the buckles to the vinyl and then glued it onto the shoe. It held up pretty well, but was peeling up a bit by the time I got home so it probably would have needed re-glueing if I'd worn it longer.



The pin I made out of sculpy and wire. Then I spray painted outer edge of the sculpy gold. Painters tape is basically the best thing ever if you need to get some kind of straight edge or use more than one color or otherwise exert some control with spray paint because it's pretty good about peeling off without damaging the stuff underneath. (Although I did have a hugely frustrating experience trying to paint some boots for my failed Captain Liberty costume that proved sometimes the tape does pull up paint from previously painted surfaces.)

In terms of albino makeup, I basically just went for white. I'm already very pale, so I bought the palest foundation I could find on the cheap. (Nyx 01 - Pale). The white mascara on my eyelashes is also Nyx. I tried to highlight it with blush to give it some pinkyness, but I was pretty cautious about that so it ended up still being mostly overwhelmingly white. I also used an ivory highlighter on my cheekbones, brow bones, bridge of my nose, etc. to try to give all that white a bit of dimension. None of this really shows in pictures, but it made it look a little less weird in person. I found that completely covering my lips with foundation to make them white looked really scary so I let a little of their natural color show through but covered them enough to make them mostly blend in. The eyebrows are glue and acrylic paint.

2008 Wishlist

I... Am not very good at keeping up with this blog. Clearly. But! It's con season, and I'm sewing things. So it seems like a good time to share with all you strangers on the Internet. To start us off, here's my costume wishlist for this year.



Lady Au Pair from The Venture Bros. This one is done. I wore it to New York Comiccon this year. I'll put the after pics in a separate post. Obviously I have this thing where I do a lot of Venture Bros. costumes, and I hadn't done a Dr. Girlfriend costume so I wanted to capture the Venture ladies trifecta. But Dr. Girlfriend gets done a lot, and I always figure why do something recognizable when you can do something entirely obscure instead? And honestly, really, I just wanted to make a murderous moppet doll.



Pete White from The Venture Bros. I never see anyone do Pete, and I think I could pull it off. He's fairly feminine so it's not like that time I tried to do Aragorn. I've got parts of it bought, and I'm working on the coat right now. The only thing I'm worried about is the part where he's an albino. I'm white enough to pull it off I think, but my eyebrows are very dark so that may require some experimenting. And I have no intention of buying pink colored contacts if they're going to cost me upwards of $80. But I suppose I can always rely on good old camera flash caused red eye to do the job for me.



Venture Industries Receptionist Triana from The Venture Bros. I already have a regular flavor Triana costume, and we've discussed my penchant for obscure costumes people are less likely to recognize. So of course I am drawn to alterna-Triana variants. But what really tipped it for me is that I already own shoes in the right color. I have so many pairs of shoes I've bought for costuming that I rarely wear. (Seriously, does ANYONE need THREE pairs of purple ankle boots in their real life?) So being able to use shoes I already own is a huge bonus.



Astrobase Go Speedsuit from The Venture Bros. So easy, and yet so awesome. I was shocked (shocked I tell you!) that I didn't see anyone do this at Dragoncon since I basically started shopping speedsuits as soon as I saw the season 2 DVDs. (What. Is that weird?) There are actual vendors that call them speedsuits by the way. I always thought that was something the boys just made up, but no, it's a thing! A real thing!



Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Mainly I just think this would be fairly easy. Heh. But classic. And I'd like to see more classic movie costuming generally. I'd kind of like to do a whole bunch of classic movie costumes at DCon one year. Like a theme. A very obscure and unpopular theme. (I could do Katharine Hepburn's pool wrap from The Philadelphia Story! You know the one that looks like a ballgown, but it's just the super fancy robe she wears to cover her swimsuit?) This seems like a relatively easy and recognizable way to start.



Joannie Stubbs or Alma Garrett from Deadwood. This is an early casualty. I bought a bunch of patterns, because I don't feel comfortable with attempting too many adaptations to a pattern for something this complex. But I've procrastinated too long to do something this labor intensive this year.

But next year! Obviously, if I pull this off I get to be Queen of Everything because this is hardcore. This is also way, way beyond my limited sewing ability and experience. The likelihood that it's going to be an expensive, frustrating, time-consuming failure is very high. But at the same time... How goddamn awesome would it be to make something like that? From scratch even! I really want to try. (And I really, really want to wear a top hat with a scarf tied around it. SO BADLY.) If nothing else, I can present to you my string of inevitable failures.



Squirrel Girl from Marvel Comics. By request. This was a friend's idea. I don't usually do costumes that aren't from things I care about so intensely my love must overflow into costume form. But the idea's been growing on me. I feel like I can pretty easily (*cough* it's never as easy as it seems like it'll be in my head *cough*) handle everything but the tail. And I've never seen anyone wear this costume personally. I think it'd be one of those where not everyone gets it, but the people who do get it are ridiculously happy to see the character done. I love to do those kinds of costumes. So I'm considering it.