Weekend Update

Goose and I worked very hard this weekend, trying to get things done.

First off, we finished making the Sailor Sleeves, which I have lovingly nicknamed "arm tacos" since the fabric is shaped like a taco shell and then filled with a bunch of quilting batting.

On Saturday, I worked alone on them, but the technique I was using wasn't working on the fabric I was using, particularly because the darts wouldn't crease neatly like 100% cotton would.

So that was a day of work that didn't amount to anything.

The next day, Goose joined me and helped me measure out the taco shells based on my, Lira's and Kaye's measurements. Then we cut the quilting batting to shape for each taco shell, stuffed the shells and pinned them together like wontons. Then I sewed them, hoping that they wouldn't twist too much and that the lines would appear properly.

Left to right: Completed arm taco for Akira, stuffed wontons for Lira, shell and stuffing for Kaye

They came out better than my first five or six tries, so hopefully this will be the last time I make anything arm taco-y.

Left to right: Akira, Kaye, Lira (I left extra room for Kaye and Lira to stitch onto the leotards)

Goose finished sanding and painting the Pluto earrings we were working on. He sprayed the fronts with the Cherry Red auto paint. After they dried, there were a few air bubbles, so he sanded the surfaces with very very very fine grit sand paper. Auto paint is awesome, because it dries into a hard layer that sands as well as the resin. So he sprayed a second layer onto the front and after that dried, one on the back to make the color look uniform.

Here are the earrings after drying the second layer. I love the shine that comes off them.

All of the Garnet pieces are done drying, so I'm working on the heart shapes to sand them down to the proper shape. Goose says that he can do measuring and cutting based on measurements and stencils, but he hates freehand work, so I'm working on the shape with a dremel and a respirator since I'm still getting over a chest cold I caught in June. Blech.

While I work on those, Goose is working on making the details for the staff part of the rod.

Our Portal costumes are both ready to go and Goose just needs to fix a small electronic problem in the Portal Gun for that to be ready.

Right now, our only focus is on the rod and it's only time consuming because of the drying times we have to account for the Bondo, primer and paint.

More pictures as we make more and get closer to Otakon!