Costume Review: Pirate costume cosplay

Last weekend one of my friends had a birthday party. It was no ordinary birthday party however, it was a pirate-themed-murder-mystery AND fancy dress was mandatory. Now that is my kind of party!

Anywho, the timing of said party was pretty poor unfortunately as it fell just after a a trip to my parents to pick up a bunch of housey stuff. So with that, a 9 hour car journey and unpacking I really didn't have the time to make a costume.

But fortunately for me Kent based Mega Fancy Dress came to my rescue when they agreed to send me a costume and wig of my choice to review**. Even better, they had a great selection of Pirate outfits! Pirate seems to be an increasingly common party theme so there is a huge range of pirate costumes out there from wenches to captains, form skirts to trousers and even the odd sexy pirate...

My character for the party was Jean Golddust, the town gold dealer, so I needed a look that was slightly less stripy t-shirt and cutlass and more like a land loving lady.

                              

Here is the look I went for:

I managed a fair bit of success during the night. As the town gold dealer I knew a fair number of secrets and was able to sell quite a bit of information to the town governor and grave digger, meaning I finished the night having tripled my pirate dosh. Although, I suppose that's to be expected with the town gold dealer.

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Anywho, what did I think of the costume?!

Well one of the issues I know a lot of people have with bought costumes is that they never look like the advertised pictures.

So for reference here is the promo image from the Mega Fancy Dress website (and the item is here):

And here is my finished look:

I think it actually turned out quite well! Overall I would say I was very pleased with the costume, it was a sized costume (in a 12-14) which meant that it fit quite well! It was a fairly simple dress with a corset style bodice that fitted over the top and the dress section was great, I especially liked the fact that there was a black frilly lining under the skirt so that it could look like a petticoat. 

The bodice part was not quite as good, it was a sort of foam at the front with a stretchy polyester back portion. I know this is used to give a better, more generic fit, bit it meant that the costume could look a little cheap from the back. I'm sure no one looks that closely though.

Having the stretchy bodice did mean that there were customisable options to the costume so that you could ensure the best fit. The bodice was okay, I suppose you could lace it up slightly more open on the top of bottom depending on your shape (something I would have done in hindsight). 

But my favourite customisable option was the skirt length.The straps on the bodice attach to laces hidden underneath the skirt so that you can pull it as hitched or as long as you want. I really loved this detail as I am not a fan of the super short skirts you often get in bought costumes and it meant that I could wear the skirt slightly hitched but still preserve some dignity... although I did wear this outfit on a bus, in the daylight...

I really loved the skirt!

Sadly the headband that was meant to come with costume was missing in the packet. I managed to make do by stealing a bandanna from a local treasure hunter though to tame the wild and wavy locks provided for me by the showgirl wig.

The wig was a bit cheap looking up close, but I expected that based on the price of £8.99, but it did the job especially with the bandanna over the top. It was actually surprisingly comfortable as it was just elastic underneath meaning it was pinned with a few pins but it didn't did into my head the way some more fitted wigs can. Always a bonus.

Anywho, that's about it for pirateyness, it think I made an okay pirate... ish. What do you think?

**Full disclosure: I was sent the costume and wig to review free of charge. All thoughts expressed in this review are my own.

Cosplay Costume: Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz

Once upon a time it was world book day and my work decided to do a fancy dress day. FANCY DRESS DAY! YES! The catch was that the theme was heroes and villains and comic books weren't allowed. Hum, what to pick...

I decided to go with the Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I loved the books when I was a kid and I felt like the iconic blue gingham from the movie was something I could quite easily make, handily I also have the right colour hair so I could avoid wearing a wig all day. It also meant I could keep my 'olden times' look (students words not mine!) and didn't have to confuse anyone with an abrupt change of style.

Just in case you weren't sure about Dorothy's look in the film, here is dorothy cut out that I largely used for referencing:

I already had a white blouse that would work quite well in this costume, but the blue dress, I had to make that from scratch. I got some poly cotton blue gingham from World of Sewing for £3.50/m which was the apparent standard price of gingham everywhere!

I used the same 1960s dress pattern that I edited for my Princess Daisy outfit, only I used a shortened version of the skirt and I shortened the bodice and added straps as braces. I fixed the straps in place as I have stupidly small shoulders and I didn't want to deal with them falling down.

I apologise for the floor covered in thread in this shot ^^

 

For the shoes I had a pair of 80s red pumps that I got for 99p a while ago. The leather is flaking a bit so I didn't mind covering them in glitter. I used a large flake glitter and PVA glue to paint and stick the glitter to the shoes. 

The result was actually way better than I expected, but it did make a horrible mess of my floor, and my Dominoes/Pizza Hut menu.

Of course once I put the out fit on I had so do some cheesy 'over the rainbow' black and white shots ;) 

Were not in kansas any more:

And the shoes:

And this final shot was me trying to click my heels together... I don't really think it worked out that well but oh well.

Best part of the day however was when I won the staff prize for best costume! Happy days indeed.

Did you do anything for world book day?

                                                     

Cosplay Costume: Olga Korbut and a Eurovision Party

At the end of May there was the Euravision Song contest. This is one of my favourite events to get together with friends, drinks and a weird mixture of mishmashed Europiean food. It was no different this year and some of my friends had a Eurovision party where we watched the show, laughed at the terrible music and drank a shot if your allocated country was given 12 points.

Everyone that attended was allocated a country and you were required to wear a themed costume for that country and bring some kind of related dish for everyone to eat.

It all sounds like a great plan, however... my country was Belarus. Not to sound too ignorant, but blimey, aside from being former USSR I had no idea how to put together a costume for this! Fortunately for me Wikipedia saved the day (as always).

I turns out that the super famous Russian gymnast Olga Korbut was Belarusian (Belarus was part if the Soviet republic back in 1972)! Even better than that is that she comes with a signature hairstyle, outfit and accomplishments - perfect for a fancy dress costume.

The gymnast Olga was very well known for her bunches and white and red leotards. Also a little for her gold medal I'd say.

I decided to attempt this look and put bunches in my hair.

I sewed a red trim onto a white long sleeved top and I sewed strips of red fabric together to make the ribbons for a medal and for the bunches. I didn't really want to wear a full on leotard though so I wore some red shorts over the top.

Overall I'm not sure it is my greatest costuming achievement, but oh well I tried.

Have you ever been really stumped by a fancy dress theme?

Cosplay Costume: Gwen Stacy Cosplay at the London Super Comic Convention

Here is the tale of my second day at London Super Comic Con. It was an odd old day, at least 4 or 5 people pointed at me and shouted 'You're dead!' I was possibly flirted at by an in character Kaine Scarlet Spider and was given a hug and some sneaky information by Spider (among other things) -legend Dan Slott.

This was the day I spent dressed as Gwen Stacy, the deceased one-time leading lady of the Amazing Spider-Man.

*Spoilers*
Gwen is especially famous and tragic as she is one of the few comic book characters who has really stayed dead. The Night Gwen Stacy Died is a really moving read and a comic classic from the early 70s and if you're a fan of superhero tear jerkers this one is amazing.

Any who enough about the life of Gwen. If you want to know more I wrote a more in depth article a little while ago for Den of Geek and you can read it here.

Gwen Stacy is an iconic character from the 1960s and 1970s and her style is very reflective of that. She is commonly seen in tall boots, a mini skirt and trench coat and her blond hair is cut in a very 60s style and worn with a classic alice band. This styling was also seen in the latest Amazing Spider-Man movie where she wore short skirts and long socks.

My outfit was something I put together after searching charity shops etc. with all the crafty work I put into my Star Sapphire costume I wanted something more relaxed for the second day of the conference. I wore my blonde Sookie Stackhouse wig, which was a little curlier than I'd have liked, but I thought it was the perfect colour and cut. This was paired with a simple black top, a blue mini skirt, black boots and over knee socks and a green trench coat.

As one final touch I added a cute toy Spider-Man (that belonged to my husband but may be living in my room now...).

Here is the final look in a few of its iterations:

My cosplay was also featured on the Women of comic book cosplay tumblr blog :)

Finally to accompany my outfit my husband CJ dressed as Peter Parker, a chap he resembles a bit anyway, but a few extra touches like a camera and press badge made it more of a costume. I'm not sure that many people knew what we were going for, but that's always an issue when you go for a more relaxed costume option in this way. I did manage to run into a sort of love rival Black Cat too, so I had to get a photo!

To finally make my day I attended the Superior Spider-Man panel with writer Dan Slott. Now this is something I didn't read, mainly because I didn't want to buy into the hype, and I was a little sad about the death of Peter Parker so I wanted to reserve judgement until I could get stuck into a TPB. I have previously enjoyed Slott's work, like Spider Island, so I was interested to hear what he said about the character.

Lets just say that after hearing him speak I am very eager to read the story. I then queued for a little while to get a signature on my copy of Spider-Island, the real icing on the cake was the warm welcome he gave me (and a hug) and he even signed our little Spider-man!!

It was a really lovely day all in all, lots of shopping, lots of comics, lots of happy memories - I love comic con!

Cosplay Costumes: Star Sapphire Cosplay at the London Super Comic Convention 2013

Last weekend I went to London Super Comic Convention! It was a great event and I have spent about a month working on my costume for the event... So here it is, my costume has been worn, the event is over and its time for me to share all the photos! This post is a little about the process of making the costume and the costume itself (I'll post more on the event itself later).

On the first day I dressed as classic Star Sapphire. A somewhat obscure choice as dressing as a DC super villain is rarely the most recognisable thing to do (unless you're dressing as the Joker) but I liked the look of the costume and it seemed like a great choice for the first spin on my sewing machine.
This costume is from the 1960s and is a classic comic book costume so it seemed really appropriate for this blog.

I made the bulk of the costume from a 4 way stretch pink lycra and I cut up an old t-shirt to get the fabric for the collar and waist section. In hindsight getting more lycra for the white section would have worked better but never mind! I used existing clothing to make the pattern pieces for the suit and then sewed it all together. It is handy that lycra is quite forgiving when it comes to sewing, however the fabric is a nightmare to stitch... I bought some pink boots and covered a hat I had with the leftover lycra. Lastly I bought a white mask from a costume shop and painted it in a bright pink. I think the thing I was most pleased with was the fact that I managed to put in a zip, that at least made things far easier on the day!

When it came to actually wearing the costume I was terrified! Debuting a costume is nerve-wracking enough, but when it is something you've made yourself it adds an extra dimension of terror. In fact, the fact that so many people at comic-cons sew and make their own costumes it is a little bit intimidating.

Luckily everyone is super nice! Even the people that don't recognise you're character are friendly, asking about sewing techniques etc. A con is also a great place to pick up hints and tips and new inspiration.

So without further stalling - here is the costume in full!

I met up with fellow blogger and (blue) lantern Saranga so a lantern pic was a must!

I also managed to get in on a DC character group photo with not one, but two green lanterns!

I'd like to add that it is super liberating being able to walk around like that without fear of being judged... I think we women are self critical so often that it is nice to take a moment in a community where all shapes and sizes are accepted and people are able to share in fandom. If you've not tried it yet, I highly recommend it!

I'll have pictures of more cosplay from the event up soon (some of it was amazing)!

Cosplay Costume: A Ghastly Marie Curie Costume for Halloween

This year Halloween fell on a Wednesday and like many other people I spent the day, and the night, at work. This certainly was no bad thing, well aside from the exhaustion of working until almost 2am (!),  but other than that it was an absolute blast!

Image by Elin Roberts

Since I work in a science centre I had the option to spend the day dressed up. This was an opportunity I took to with gusto - I published earlier about some of my favourite science themed costumes and decided to go with one of these for my costume.

I chose to mix a little vintage, a little spooky and a lot of bad taste and dress as a deceased Marie Curie.  Marie Curie is one of the most well known scientists of all time, in fact, a survey by Science Grrl confirmed that 61% of people knew Curie over all other female scientists. She is most famous for her ground breaking work on radioactivity.

A lot of her work was carried out in the 1890s-1910s (she was awarded a Nobel prize in 1903 AND 1911!) and as such I spent a lot of time hunting down the perfect Victorian/Edwardian black dress with puff sleeves and a good length skirt. The dress ended up being vintage Laura Ashley and unfortunately had short sleeves, so I added a long sleeve top underneath to give it a more Edwardian feel.

My hair was done with a headpiece from that looked like a large knotted hair bun. I liked this immensely but I felt it was a shame I hadn't manage to get hold of some coloured hair spray to cover my blonde but never mind. Sometimes things end up a little rushed.
Finally my 'turn of the century' style boots completed the look.

I don't often do scary make up so this is still a grey area for me. I didn't want to be a zombie so I was stuck somewhere between ghost and ghoul (whatever the difference is there?). I used some white face paint to create a white base and some eyeshadow to create the hollow eyes and cheeks. I used the black lipstick l bought to be a flapper to complete the look. I did try to use the paint around my neck but the lanyard made it difficult to get coverage.

Since I couldn't use anything radioactive in my costume, thank goodness, I mimicked the glowing radiation effect using glow sticks. I felt that during the evening these could have been better placed, but never mind, I then added a beauty queen sash displaying the radioactivity hazmat symbol just to secure the joke although I'm not sure this was in the best taste... but I'll leave that up to you.

Madame Curie in the lab, of course...

Finally I added some ghostly cobwebs.

All photos are taken at least 6 hours after applying the make up so I have to say I think it lasted pretty well. Luckily I did have time to give it a top up on the night for the Late Event.

View from the Foley Studio - Image by Elin Roberts

During the late event I was manning the Foley Studio where guests were able to record their own soundtrack to clips from classic hammer horror flicks. It was really great fun but it meant I didn't get to see a lot of the other events - luckily for me Life's head of public engagement, and regular event photographer, Elin Roberts was on hand to capture the spooky science (you can see more photos here)!

Costumes, Cocktails and Glowing Brains - Image by Elin Roberts

Zombies! Image by Elin Roberts

Skull Carnival Games - Image by Elin Roberts

So Many Costumes! - Image by Elin Roberts

Next door to the Foley Studio was the Peppers Ghost photo booth. This was based on a classic theatre illusion that makes it appear as if a ghost is in the room with you. Luckily for me - I got to try this out before any of the guests arrived!

Me as a human and Emma as a ghost - Images from Science at Life Flickr

Now I'm the ghost and Emma is the person - Images from Science at Life Flickr

All in all I had a really fun night and laughed my way through the Foley studio but after nearly 14 hours on my feet I virtually needed to crawl home!

How was your Halloween? Did anyone do anything fun?