Out on the Town and a Cancelation...

Bad news first. We've had to cancel our headlining full band set tonight and are having to opt for a middle place spot doing an acoustic set. DAMMIT!!! I was ready to rock some faces off tonight. We've gotta find a drummer, and soon!

So... The costume is a huge, freaking success!!! I mean, people absolutely love it. I've had to take my pic with so many people this afternoon and tonight, it's just totally blown my mind! Here's a pic from earlier of just me, taken by Tonya.

I'm so freaking excited that it looks this good. Really hot, but looks amazing! We went out all afternoon and night and here's another pic with some fellow Star Wars coutumers. These guys are from the Florida Garrison of the 501st and loved my suit.

Here I am, fully covered in my suit, in like 75-78 degree temps and here's Tonya... lol. Showing some skin like she does, getting cat-calls all night!

She did look amazing though. She totally rocked the Ellen Scissor Hands costume. I helped her out some on it, between feverishly working on mine.

About to go change and get ready to play the acoustic set... Wish us luck.

Costume Actually Coming Along Nicely

I knew the minute I saw this anime Lady Vader art that I wanted to cosplay the costume. However, when I started to show some of my friends, I got a few concerned “Wow, that’s ambitious!” comments, especially from Tonya. I mean, could I actually pull it off? Would I look ridiculous in all that armor? My head was full of questions about how comfortable I would be, whether or not I could even make everything in time, and if I would even look right as this character. But in the end, so far, I've had so much fun and am really proud of myself and mom for helping me with this and we've both learned a few new things along the way. So with that, I wanted to share a brief tutorial and the progress pics I took along my journey of making Lady Vader!

The first thing me and mom made so far is the 2 piece suit, which was made entirely of a matte stretch PVC fabric. The stretch came in handy since the back of the top and back of the leggings were not quilted and the fabric was also just the right thickness that I could quilt it without being super bulky. To quilt all the front pieces (front of top, arms, and front of leggings), we drew chalk lines on the stretch PVC (about 3/4″ apart) and sewed the 3 layers together – the stretch PVC, batting, and a thin layer of stretch mesh spandex on the inside.

Once we made the basic front and back of the top, we added a mock neck and sleeves. As for the leggings, I only quilted these about halfway down since I knew I would be wearing tall boots or shin guards.

The leggings and the full suit!

I made the decision early on to eliminate Vader’s outer cape. I really liked the way the inner cape looked feminine and kind of like a dress so I was very specific in draping it a certain way. Mom, being the seamstress she is, already had this wonderful dress form just for this!

Before and after of the draped inner cape.

So, that's how far I'm along on it now. I plan on getting with Luke tonight to work on the armor and electronics and all the other stuff, like maybe modding up the helmet a bit, if I even wear one with this. So far, so good! Once again, THANKS MOM!!! Only thing is I'm worried about is that I'm kinda bloated, big-time this month. Might need to make it a little more snug than the tape around my waist is showing... Yep, you guessed it. Monthly visitor. Yea. :(

This Might be an Impossible Task

So, this is the inspiration for my costume...

Found it on the WWW. I have to have this ready in like less than a week... Might not happen. Gonna try though. Gonna have to work my mom and bro to death on it... I'll update later, if I have something to update.

About to head to the Old Folks Home now to work with mom... like all day!

Bye!