The Project Wall

So I've decided to take the next few months (or longer, as the case may turn out to be) to really work on fleshing out my portfolio and learning some new costuming skills. So I've picked a variety of projects I've wanted to do that will hopefully stretch my limits! I'm not gonna put a deadline on any of these, or pick a convention to show them at, because more than likely they'll get repeatedly interupted by other ongoing and more pressing projects I have running, but the goal is to be consistantly working. Anywho, here's all the stuff I have lined up!

Cinderella Girl Genius - Both Cinderella Agatha and the Ugly Step-'Sisters'. Hopefully also the Fairy-GodZetha, which I've wanted to do for sometime. I'm probably, oh 9% done on this one, since I have most of the fabric and the absurdly huge hoopskirt. I've been talking about this one for a while but it's happening!

Tardis Uniform and a complimenting Dalek Dress. - I might try and cram these in before ECCC but it's unlikely they'll both get done. But I'm gonna try. I'm abou 5% on these guys. I've got a really good idea of what I'm doing and a little bit of fabric. I got (hopefully) enough fabric for the Tardis Coat (The bolt was a little short and then I got overcharged for it! Curses!) and a literal butt-ton of copper organdy. It was super cheap and the lady talked me into buying the entire bold. I have enough copper organdy to cover my floor several times over and roll around it...not that I would do that...it's very staticy material...(nobody touch me for a few hours, kay?).

Chaotica and Arachnia:Queen of the Spider People - Cassi, this one's for you. Also I want to try my hand at the bulky Arachnia collar. I plan to both of these and Satan's Robot, which would be a bit of an adventure in armour/bulky costuming. I've only really just got the idea and no progress on this one. I've scoured the fabric shops for days for something resembling their really unique costume fabrics (Seriously, Arachnia is wearing like, a beaded weave? What??? Points to me for picking a project requiring me to hand bead a whole dress -__-) and I have nothing to show for it. But at least I have an idea for how to do the rest. I really want to stick to the monochrome, black and white feel (even so far as to do the face paint in monochrome), which makes the fabric hunt even harder. It needs to be strictly shades of grey, which is harder then one might think!!!

Wampa and Tauntaun - These will be interpretive, like the Dalek and Tardis, and I'd like to have them for ECCC if I can. They'll be sort of chibi'd cute versions, since It's me and Tobi wearing them. The Tauntaun is Tobi's and I'll help her as much (or little) as she wants me to, but I'm enjoying thinking about how to build her yet another prosthetic butt.

Anyway, thats the list as it stands. I'll try and update occasionally.

Oh Also...this.

Nole the Christmas Walrus!

Cthulu Plushie: Quick and Dirty Tutorial

Ah, the post-Christmas post. This'll be a short one, but I made a little Cthulhu plushie for a present and I thought I would do a quick rundown of how I made him. He's arguably one of the cuter things I've done in recent years.

I got the idea to make him from several sources. Firstly, the collective love of Cthulhus, and Michaele's style, and also the fact that I had just enough left over fabric from the Riddler Pajama's to pull together a plushie.

First I had to make the pattern, which is not something that I have done much of. For the most part the pattern was free handed, but I used Jamie, the GasMask Bear as size referance since he was about the size, and pot-belliedness that I was looking for.

I didn't have a whole ton of fabric, so I didn't give myself a ton of seam-space, particularly on the tenticals because they were a little dicy to begin with. This was a bit of a mystake. The Ultra-cuddle fabric I was using is extremely finnicky, and needs a decent seem for the stitch to hold at all. Most of the tenticals ended up needing hand stitching. Also, Pins are just about worthless, the fabric is slipper and they tend to either get lost or slip right out.

This is the prechanged head. Ideally stuffed animals should have more character in front, than in back. Thus having a spherical head is no good. Typically the back of the head should be flat, so the front can 'pooch'. But I, being inexperienced, wanted to make it spherical, and stuff it so I could judge how much I wanted to cut out of the back, instead of patterning it that way. I stuffed it, figured out the back, unstuffed and put a seam in the back, to pouch out the front. The trick is that you have to get it right the first time though, or this fabric will just fall apart when you try to rip the seams.

The body was pretty straight forward, but it took a little trying to get the angle I wanted on the head. In the end I handstitched the head on with a plus sign shaped seam. first I did a short front-to-back stitch, securing the head to the neck, and closing the body. Then I stitched slightly side to side under the tenticals to keep his head positioned just the way I wanted.

 The Cthulhu did go through a small rebellious phase, like all young ones do.
Original I was gonna give him little stubbly limbs, but there were little stumps where I planned to attach the legs and those were adorable enough that I decided to keep him as just a torso. I think he was cuter for it.

D'awww, isn't he adorable? I was very happy with how he came out. The eyes were a lucky find, I had two little black shoe buttons that were perfect. I dimpled them into his head by stitching them tightly and then looping a thich thread from one eye to another inside of his head. The wings were a last minute touch and light stuffed with wire framing in the top section.

Now you can rule the underworld and be adorable.