Minor setback...

So I've been decently productive the past few weeks aside from some severe procrastination and excessive photo taking the past few days with my new phone (though, I'm grumbling about the lack of a QWERTY keyboard. This touchscreen only fad needs to go away like, NOW). There's been a minor set back though, and this is because of my own arrogance and lack of decent screen shots.

I had thought that Inara's dress for the training house fight scene with Malcolm and the Operative was an opaque skirt and the jump suit portion was completely unnecessary.

Then I rewatched the movie to get a better idea of how the skirt flows and... lo and behold: the damn thing is made out of some sheer silk material (I'm going with chiffon, so it won't break my wallet) and hits about an inch above her ankles.

So right now I'm looking at fabric swatches on fabric.com and just ordered some. Hopefully this won't be too huge of one. I was planning on remaking the shirt anyways, because the pattern I initially used has this really awkward bunching on the side of the bust.

And her necklace and earrings are going to take some digging to find the components.

...

On another note, I'm mostly done with the sewing for the Xing costumes, and I only need to sew the holsters and coat for Evan's Malcom costume? And order the gun tomorrow?

...

*SIIIIGH*

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.)

Mini progress update!

I finished cutting the squares for Ilo and Milo's checkered patterned fabric.
First I figured out the proportions for both Ilo and Milo versus my and Goose's measurements. That makes Goose's squares 13" and mine an even foot. With one inch on either side for the seams and a little give, Goose's squares were cut at 15" and mine at 14".

My cardboard template

I finished cutting all four colors in about a total of two movies and one season and one episode of Pushing Daisies. Then I'll need to work on sewing four panels for each side of both mascots. Here I go!

One night's work of tracing and cutting

The squares are done!

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.

Automail...

patterns can go suck it as far as I can tell.

So I'm looking at the automail tutorial that Amethyst Angel wrote and for the most part, adapting it shouldn't be too hard for the upper arm, shoulder and the hand. I'm redesigning the finger tips because they don't fit my fingers properly and I don't like the overall shape.

The forearm is going to be a bitch.

*goes off and watches more Supernatural*

One More Thing!

Source: Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures

Or three more things...

UPDATE!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Have I mentioned that I suck at blogging consistently? Because I suck at blogging consistently.

So right now the alarm bells are on massive fire alert mode because I've been so swamped at work that I have NO energy when I get home. That, and it doesn't help that Nave and I got back into climbing consistently and I've been doing

yoga as well. And Nave's been stealing my computer EVERY DAY TO DO HIS ONLINE CLASSES.

There are days that I wish my laptop still works and isn't in danger of burning down the house every time I turn it on. Note to self: invest in a netbook at some point (my wallet is already crying)

But here's our costume line up:

I. Old man Fu and Spoiler!RanFan from FMA

Quite possibly the most bizarre couple cosplay that we're getting ourselves into, considering we're going as a grandfather-granddaughter duo. I've been DYING to do RanFan with her automail arm for a while now. Pretty much since that chapter came out. I also couldn't get Nave to agree to Greed!Ling, so Old man Fu was the compromise.

Plus, they're BAMFs. Who can argue?

II. Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender

... Do I really have to explain myself on this one?

III. Raccoon Mario from Super Mario Brothers

This one is Nave's solo costume for this year. Part closet/part Kaye makes a hat at the last possible minute costume from Halloween. It was a cute costume and it should be recognizable.

Not to be mistaken for Tanuki Mario. I am never going to make him the tanuki costume with the giant ball sac.

IV. Anna and Generic Green Shirt/Nerd Herder from Chuck

Oh Chuck, how I love this show. I am so sad that this past season was the last season, so I'm pulling together a better version of my Halloween costume in tribute. I'm still deciding whether or not I want to make Nave a Nerd or a Green Shirt. Either way, these will probably be our down time/wandering around costumes. Thank you costume designers for giving her crazy AND sensible options.