Last Minute Progress

Here's a quick list. I'll post pictures when I get a moment to breathe.

Kaylee's jumpsuit, pouch and belt are all complete and distressed.
Wash's jumpsuit just needs to have the patches, pocket and shoulder details hand-stitched on.
Wash's harness needs to have one more area stitched, then all of his details glued on.
Zoe's vest and pants are all done. All the pleather pieces are darkened and weathered, but I need more snaps for the shrug and to attach it to the vest. The holster is mostly complete, it just needs the parts where the gun holds on.
Zoe's gun needs one or two more coats of paint and all of the bullets are painted and drying.

18 hours until Goose, Madhouse and I are on the road. Still need to shop for supplies, do the laundry, make the apartment ready for the weekend for our fur-babies, and pack!
Running on less than 5 hours of sleep today, but it's all worth it in the end.
Can't wait for Otakon!

Never Enough Time!

Once again, Goose and I are hurrying to the finish, despite goals of starting and ending sooner. I love reading the Otakon and cosplay.com boards, but since everyone is counting down to Otakon, it makes it hard to read. Just reminds me of my crunchy deadline.

This past weekend, I have finished the base for my Zoe capris. They still need to be fitted, hemmed and the details of the boot cuffs added. Goose has finished the frames for Ilo/Milo and the foam has been cut to size. They just need to be shaped and the pockets for the fabric made to fit in the foam. After that it's stamping the Ilo/Milo fabric, making the face, arms and legs, and Goose finishing the support system. I started working on Goose's Wash jumpsuit and have finished most of the torso base. I need to sew on one more sleeve, sew the pants, attach the pants and put in all the zippers. Goose is working on the patches for Wash (which is proving difficult without a proper drawing software).

What's left to be done: (Because I love lists...)
Firefly
Zoe
-Capri Details and fitting - Akira
-Vest (pleather for the vest, shrug and holster should arrive this week) - Akira
-Shrug - Akira
-Holster - Akira
-Mare's Leg - Goose
-Knife - Goose
-Darkening and distressing leather - Akira

Wash
-Jumpsuit - Akira
-Harness - Akira
-Patches - Goose

Kaylee
-Dye the fabric for the jumpsuit - Akira
-Jumpsuit - Akira
-Teddy bear patch (furry fabric should arrive this week) - Akira
-Details - Akira

IloMilo
Ilo and Milo
-Finishing securing the frame and supports - Goose
-Shape the foam - Akira
-Make the pockets for foam - Akira
-Sew together the skin - Akira
-Attach the skin to the frame - Akira
-Hands and Feet - Akira
-Face - Akira

If I'm really diligent, I'm sure I can get most of the sewing for Firefly done this week, depending on when my shipment of pleather arrives. And Goose has really been stepping it up for the mascots. I think we can get it done if we work really hard every day until the day we leave for Otakon. (*knock on wood*)
I'll post construction pictures if I remember to take them in the blur of the next few weeks.
Wish us luck!

Progress update (AGAIN)

- Finished gluing the base of my chest and shoulder pieces for Lanfan (must buy heat gun for wonderflex shaping around the edges)

- Gloves 25% done

- Bracers about 50% done (still need to make the outer sleeves for Old Man Fu, attach the clips to that one, add the decorative wrist piece on one of Lanfan's and both of OMF's)

- Finished one gold tie for the Lanfan mask

- Carved out the excess stuff that I don't need for both masks (must get more fine grit sand paper to start sanding..)

Tomorrow, I plan on finishing the sleeves for OMF's bracers, make the lycra leg sleeves to go over our shoes (once I find it in my bins of fabric..) and draft the beginnings of the greaves as well as finishing my other glove.

And we both need a hair cut at some point. I need bangs and face framing layers again, and Nave needs to have about 2 inches of his hair chopped for Malcolm. 

Inara earrings/tutorial post

Completed earrings!

Disclaimer: I do not own any sort of rights to the character, Inara, who was developed by the wonderfully amazing Joss Whedon. Also, I am a small potatoes blogger who does not and will not be asked to do product endorsements or site advertisements in the near future. I am a hobby jeweler and costumer. All opinions and mistakes are mine. 

So those earrings only took me a night! I am so proud of myself for actually pulling off (mostly.. sorta.. kinda?) screen accurate with artistic liberties taken earrings for the training house costume. For those of you who have seen the movie and squinted at the screen shots, you know that there really isn't ever a clear shot of her earrings.

Or at least, I can't tell what the earring bases are. The most I could see was a fluer-de-lys design near the top.

Here is the materials break down and techniques for those who actually do find the blog and are interested in how I made these.

More Progress

Since this weekend was a long weekend, Goose and I were extremely productive. After I finished cutting out the squares from the last post, I stitched together the panels for the four sides of Ilo and Milo.

(Picture heavy post after the jump. But all the stuff I've posted to Instagram.)

Let the Countdown Begin

We're in the middle of May and that leaves us a little over two months to get everything completed. *flail*
Now that Goose and I are done with our wedding stuff (yay, we got married in April *little fanfare*) we can finally get started on our costumes. Not a lot of time for five costumes to make, but we'll make do.

I just ordered parts for Zoe (contacts, wig, boots and Mare's Leg pieces) and a Hawaiian shirt for Wash. There are a lot of pieces that we need to build IloMilo and I'm still lacking all the fabric I need for the three Firefly characters.

I don't assume the clothing for Firefly will take very long at all. I've made jumpsuits for my Portal cosplay and both Goose and Madhouse are wearing jumpsuits. Zoe's vest, shrug and pants will probably take me one weekend of good solid work. Probably a week for all of Firefly's base construction, not including the props and details. Both Goose and Madhouse have a lot of patches, or little details hanging around. Then we'll have to construct my gun, holster, bullets, and Goose's harness. That will probably take another week or two.

The things that I'm more worried about are Ilo and Milo since they both are experiments and Goose and I will have to figure out support, framing, and the skin of the mascots. We have designs of what we think will work, but as of now, we only have theories. Ilo & Milo construction will take the better part of a month to complete if we work consistently and efficiently. This is all assuming that our theories and designs work out the way we're projecting them.

With a lot diligence and luck, we'll be able to get everything done by July 26th, but it'll be close. Again, we'll probably be working up until the day. But hopefully not working while at Otakon. Next year, we'll hopefully get started much sooner.

One More Thing!

Source: Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures

Or three more things...