Hocus Pocus - Booooooook!

Hocus Pocus is still technically on hold right now, pending the time to do it justice, so this is kind of a major throwback. But I had already started the spellbook before the rest of the project was delayed, and I decided to finish it to have a prop to carry at WonderCon when we did Jay and Ice.

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As soon as I decided to be Winifred, I knew I needed her spellbook. It's been on my dream prop list for a long time, and this was the perfect excuse.

By chance, we already had a book box laying around, which is how I've always wanted to make it (built-in storage is always a win).

As a bonus, it's even Disney.

It's only slightly smaller than one I was considering buying, so it works really well. I'm thinking this'll be a prop to carry around at events. Being undersized is less of a hassle, and being a first attempt I don't mind if it gets a little beat up. Then I'll go back and buy a larger box as a nicer duplicate for display and photoshoots.

I did some minor mods to the box itself (cut down and flattened the spine, which was originally very curved), then marked the placement for all the seam lines and attached pieces on the covers.

 
I found some old shoelaces that worked well enough for the raised seams, gluing those down and leaving a slight gap between them that the eventual paper coating can be tucked into.

But the hot glue soaked into the shoelaces more than I expected and I wasn't able to stitch through it anymore. So I pulled the shoelaces off, did a bunch of tests, and replaced it with strips of 2mm craft foam (cut at an angle to soften the edge and help blend it with the cover) glued down with Tacky Glue. No photos of that, but whatever. I was making steady progress at that point so I just kept rolling with it.

I also sculpted the snakes for the front and back covers, the three parts of the clasp, and the fingers for the spine, all from Premo Sculpey.

I initially planned to buy and modify toy snakes and fake fingers and sculpt as little as possible, but once I started playing with the stuff it was a lot easier and more fun than I expected, so I went ahead and did it all. The second set of snakes turned out a little rougher than the first, so those went on the back and the nicer first set went on the front. All the snake and clasp pieces were painted solid black, making sure to fill in all the lines and holes, then drybrushed with pewter, then drybrushed even lighter—just catching the edges and highest raised surfaces—with a brighter silver.

The fingers were glued to the spine with E6000, and I made the seams around the fingers and the ridges for the gathers at the snake's mouths with puffy paint. After all the base pieces were attached, I applied paper towels to the entire front/back with watered down Mod Podge, pushing it around a little to get some wrinkles and extra texture. I did a solid base coat of dark grey to mask the colors on the paper, then a solid coat of medium brown, then several different drybrushed layers of lighter browns and yellows.

I got the eye from MisterEyes on Etsy. This was the hardest piece to find, but this is better than I hoped.

After the eye was glued down (E6000 again), I made lids with more paper towels and Mod Podge and painted that to match the rest. In hindsight I should have just applied the eye first and then done all the paper towel and paint, but I had the time to set aside for doing the cover and didn't want to wait for the eye to arrive. I initially left off the eyelashes, but I have a lot of fake lashes and recently found one that's missing its pair, so I might cut that up for the eyelashes someday.

The stitching was the slowest and most time-consuming part, and the part I'd been actively avoiding, so that's what held up finishing. Dental floss ended up being a good match for the sinewy looking stitching on the book.

So I just went through doing random messy stitches. I kind of referenced the screen-used book, but mostly it was just getting the same overall look without replicating the exact placement. Once all the stitches were, I weathered them all a little with light brown paint.

The clasp pieces were glued to a metal hinge, and there's a set of magnets in the book cover and the underside of the front clasp (under the rhinestone), so the clasp actually functions.

Aside from stitches, the last big thing was just gluing all the snake and clasp pieces on, and that was that.

It was pretty handy and a good amount of fun carrying it around at WonderCon, though weirdly a lot of people mistook it for the Evil Dead Necronomicon or the book from The Neverending Story.

I haven't had another chance to bust it out, so for now it has a place of honor on the shelf in front of my Hocus Pocus wall.

I'm currently in the process of researching and prepping version 2.0, which will be more screen accurate in size and detail.

Stay tuned!

Long Beach Pirate Invasion 2019

2019 recap continues!

After a mixed bag experience in 2017 and skipping 2018, I made it back to Pirate Invasion in 2019. We did modified Jack Sparrow and Pirate!Norrington last time and enjoyed it, but this time we went full historical with our chemise dresses. They've served us well as French aristocracy at Labyrinth and French and American middle class at Huntington Beach Revolution, and were reinvented yet again for pirate shenanigans (before we wildly distressed and weathered them for French Revolution Zombaes 2.0; this was actually their last pristine outing).

Back in February as I was prepping for HB Revolution, I did a poll on Facebook asking which side I should support. After getting the clear majority vote for America and wanting to make my ancestors proud, I decided to do an American impression. But Anglomania was always kind of in the back of my mind, so I decided Pirate Invasion was the perfect chance to finally go British. And pirates are cool and all, but I'm Royal Navy trash, so here we are.

First and foremost, this meant getting to make the Horatio Nelson portrait I wanted to do for HB Revolution.

Via Royal Museums Greenwich

Except that didn't happen. And that was really the first in a long line of failures for this event.

Most of the outfit was recycled from HB Revolution—all the undergarments, dress, hat, neckerchief, sash, shoes—and I just made tweaks as needed. The petticoats got a proper hem, both shorter and cleaner and actually finished. I used similar jewelry but swapped out a few pieces to be a little more flashy (I was aiming for a slightly more aristocratic impression, and this is a much less historically accurate event). For the hat, I just added the obligatory feathers and extra ribbon I never decided on when I first made it, and used some hatpins.

I was undecided on shoes for a while. I love, love, love my Kensingtons, but they're a little rough on my feet, especially when walking on hard surfaces (at HB Revolution, walking on the grass was a lot less fraught than on the paved paths). They really need to be stretched, but I haven't got to that yet. And of any historical-esque event I do, this is one where taking shortcuts with footwear for comfort is definitely a guilt-free option. But failure #2 was deciding to wear the Kensingtons anyway, because I have too much pride and my whole ensemble was accurate and stylish enough I didn't want to compromise. Wearing the Kensingtons wasn't a complete disaster, but the discomfort was definitely distracting at times.

We ended up being probably some of the most historically accurate costumed attendees there, which was a strange experience. At cons I usually fall in the "average to good" quality category and at reenactments I feel like I'm probably somewhere between passable and good for accuracy. But we got a lot of compliments, and I think it had to do with being (humblebrag here) good quality and detailed and also standing out aesthetically from the more stylized Ren faire steampunk-ish crowd (no shade; I love those costume genres too). I even got maybe the best compliment on one of my costumes yet: "You look right out of a painting." She went with Vermeer when Gainsborough would have been a little more on point, but I'll take it. On the flip side, two people complimented our "cosplays," someone said "Oh wow, I love the Regency," and I accidentally got into a spat over the timeline of the chemise dress (our respective insistence on worn before/during/after "the Revolution" was all just a misunderstanding over which revolution each of us was talking about, but she wasn't very gracious about it). So you win some, you lose some.

There were some bad and kind of sketchy experiences with vendors and event staff that really put a damper on the whole experience, funnily enough right at the beginning and end of the day. Everything in between was pleasant enough. And ironically, despite the event usually drawing a somewhat rowdy crowd, all the attendees (and in fairness, most of the vendors) we interacted with with were pretty excellent. I really can't say whether I'll be back for a while. There's not a lot there that's a big draw to begin with, and some of these experiences left a bad enough taste. Time will tell.

Stay tuned!

WonderCon 2019

Continuing last year's catch-up...

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My friend and I went to see Captain Marvel a few weeks before WonderCon, and we were still putting together our costume lineup at that point, so when we both fell in love with the movie we decided to debut a new set of Carol costumes at the con. I absolutely had to do her flight suit, and my friend did her grunge disguise.

As per usual for me, what would and should have been a fairly straightforward costume had some hiccups. I bought a screen accurate and actual GI flight suit online, which ended up wearable but slightly smaller than I was comfortable with. I have nice wide manly shoulders, but otherwise I'm short and curvy and proportionally that just doesn't work with standardized uniforms meant for Doritos tall fit men. I ended up ordering two more in different sizes but shipping was delayed and I didn't think they would arrive in time (spoiler: they didn't) so I went to a local surplus store literally the day before the con and bought yet another and that's the E! True Hollywood Story of how I ended up with four identical flight suits. Miraculously that last one was a better size, and funnily enough was actually manufactured at the time the movie's Air Force scenes take place (late 1980s), so it was even a little extra accurate.

Tracking down a suit that fits and spending four times more than I intended was the only real hangup, and everything else went pretty smoothly. I also bought a set of patches, and otherwise used stuff I already had: my go-to blonde lacefront wig, vintage Ray-Ban aviators, and black leather paddock boots. (I skipped the black undershirt for the sake of the heat.)

I'd assembled everything else beforehand, but because I got the suit at the 11th hour I was still doing repairs on it and adding the patches the night before the con.

With some thematic background noise. Shocking no one.

The Carols went to the con on Saturday, and we did the big Marvel photoshoot put on by the West Coast Avengers of the Avengers Initiative which was a blast.

This is probably the first time we've costumed something that was still in theaters (we usually do much more elaborate costumes that end up taking months or years of research and construction, or costumes from retro movies that have already been out for years) and we definitely felt the current of interest in the movie. There were a lot of other Carols there, and we had a lot of people stop us for photos and to chat. Looking at photos afterwards I felt a little retroactively self-conscious, as the flight suit was still more fitted than I was comfortable with, but on the day I felt 100% untouchably amazing. Big Flight Suit Energy is real.

A small thing, but it was also my first time fully gluing down the hairline of a lacefront wig and wearing it with a pulled-back style, and I don't remember how it looked in person, but in photos it looks like I just have blonde hair again and I'm still so pleased with that.

Sunday we busted out Jay and Ice, which were already done from a photoshoot the previous fall (which I'll post someday) but otherwise hadn't been worn anywhere. The only changes were different jeans and an alternate plaid shirt, and I finished the spellbook to carry around as a prop.

We did the Disney photoshoot, which was a little haphazard and I don't remember much now. Not many people recognized our costumes, and the spellbook got more attention than we did—though weirdly a lot of people thought it was the Necronomicon from Evil Dead or the book from Neverending Story. Which, alright, but if you know those movies and know those props, how do you mistake them for Hocus Pocus? But the people who did recognize us or the book went absolutely wild, which is always gratifying. And the highlight of the day was running into a Dani! We hardly ever (if ever) see Hocus Pocus costumes in the wild, so finding her by chance was amazing.

Besides the costume highlights, we walked the floor, bought some cool art, ate at our favorite potato food truck, and hung out with some great friends. It was a good weekend, as usual. WonderCon is a pretty reliable winner. It's even more meaningful looking back on it now, with WonderCon 2020 having been cancelled. Looking forward to making it back next year.

Stay tuned!

The Great L.A. Air Raid 2019

(I'm slowly slogging my way through the backlog of events from the last year that I never got around to posting. Bear with me.)

V for victory, y'all. Big Brother Churchill is always watching. (Sweatshirt by the incomparable SoCal WACs.)

One of my costume goals for 2019 was a proper 1940s ensemble for Air Raid. What I threw together last year was cute and comfortable and not completely inaccurate, but it also left a lot to be desired. I wanted to do something more accurate and more stylish for the second outing.

I have a few pairs of 1930s-1940s heels but they all need repairs, so I didn't have shoes ready to go that worked well with a skirt or dress. I also didn't have the time or inclination to make pants unless absolutely necessary. So the plan was to shop around for pants in hopes of finding something.

Ultimately the whole look was mostly my stuff with just a few new pieces, which is always kind of gratifying. From my closet I used my go-to faux pearl necklace, black pleather low-heel oxfords, a red probably-1980s-does-1940s blouse, a vintage 1950s(ish?) black beaded cardigan, and a vintage 1950s-1960s navy blue swing coat. I added a vintage grey fur collar from the stash to the coat and also did some much-needed repairs on it. A trip to La Bomba on Retro Row got me a pair of vintage blue wool U.S. Navy uniform pants miraculously in my size, and I got a fantastic vintage-looking brass stamping airplane off Etsy and turned it into a brooch. It got a lot of compliments and was a great low-cost jewelry piece to add to the collection. As usual, my hair was improvised with pin curls. My whole look was heavily inspired by a 1946 photo of my grandmother and great-aunt, looking absolutely fabulous in trousers and fur-collared coats.

And I'm not saying my grandfather was Indiana Jones, but...

Unlike last year, we also stayed until the dance was over. The MPs herded everyone out of the fort and it was amazing.

Then we went to the after-party on the Queen Mary, and walking around the halls and decks in period clothing and seeing everyone else dressed to the nines was an amazing bit of time travel. The Observation Bar was completely overcrowded with suits and gowns and uniforms and the scene was right out of a wartime photo.

This all prompted a low-key photoshoot to take advantage of the atmosphere, and it was a lot of fun.

An anonymous Marine crashed our photos in the stairwell...

But I approved!

Off by a few decades, but of course I had to squeeze in some RMS Titanic nerdiness.

And some spooky shenanigans.

Stay tuned!

HB The Revolution 2019

(I'm slowly slogging my way through the backlog of events from the last year that I never got around to posting. Bear with me.)

Going to the Huntington Beach Historical Society's annual Revolutionary War event, The Revolution, was so much fun in 2018 that going back wasn't even a question. With chemise dresses and full undergarment sets already done, conveniently being able to go in costume was just a bonus.

I did a poll on Facebook asking which side I should support: American/French or British? A few scallywags voted British, but the overwhelming majority kept it patriotic. To be honest, my major inducement to do a British impression was because I wanted to wear a miniature portrait of Horatio Nelson c. 1781, and can you blame me?

Captain Horatio Nelson, by John Francis Rigaud, 1781, via Royal Museums Greenwich

But I did ultimately decide to go American if only to appease my ancestors.

Most of my ensemble was already done from making French Revolution Zombaes in 2018. I reused the chemise dress, sash, and most of the undergarments. To account for winter weather, I got a thicker long-sleeve shirt (cut down to elbow-length) for a new shift. To transition the costume to daywear and make it more appropriate for a middle class British North American colonist, I made a second petticoat in blue, a matching neckerchief (based on one made by The Dreamstress), a new hedgehog wig, a Gainsborough/portrait hat, and a miniature portrait of George Washington. I also wore some other vintage/antique jewelry - earrings, bracelet, and rings - from my stash. Most significantly, not wanting to wear and hide sneakers again and without any decent alternatives, I gave in and bought the American Duchess Kensingtons in oxblood I've been lusting after for ages, with the James buckles. They're admittedly a little difficult for me to wear with my foot/joint problems, but I still love them.

The hat.

With the old French Revolution Zombae wig, not the new wig

The George used in the mini portrait.

By Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, 1779, via Princeton University Library

It was chilly and breezy, not unusual for southern California in winter but definitely cooler and more blustery than the year before. (We were lucky to be there on Saturday, as on Sunday it straight up rained.) Being in thin cotton dresses, a few people asked if we were cold, but with full tights, two petticoats, stays, and a decent weight shift, we were actually quite comfortable even into the early evening when we left.
I forgot to bring cash and the library's ATM was broken so I miraculously left without any books from their Revolutionary-themed sale. I bought about 10 last year and still haven't read any of those, so really this was no big loss, though I do regret missing out on the 1776 film soundtrack record. We did find a Franco-American alliance cockade that my friend got to go with her French-inspired ensemble.

We met some fantastic people throughout the day. A photographer duo asked if they could take our photos and very kindly sent us copies after.

We also wandered into the tent of an artist who was set up selling his work and taking photos of the event, and he sent us some candid shots as well.









All in all it was a great outing, and for being my first real attempt at historical costume at a historical event I'm really pleased with the result. This will definitely be a new staple in the costume/event catalog.

Costuming in the Time of Pandemic

All jokes aside, YIKES.

It's been a rough few months of winter and spring for everyone, and for me it's followed a difficult few months last summer and fall. As a result, even though I've still been sewing and crafting and going places (before lockdown this month anyway), I haven't had the time or energy or sometimes the memory to document any of it. Now with more time on my hands than usual, I'm hoping to go back and catch up on posts about last year's events and costumes, many of which have been sitting here as unfinished drafts.

In the meantime I'm also switching costume sewing over to medical mask sewing, and I highly encourage anyone with the means to ask around in your communities or on social media to see if any facilities could use help. The Million Mask Challenge groups on Facebook accept members nationwide and internationally and offer resources for constructing and donating masks in approved designs where they're needed most.

Stay tuned!

1780s Continental Army Gainsborough/Portrait Hat

Guys, millinery is hard.

The Huntington Beach Historical Society's annual American Revolution event was back in February, and I'd been planning to attend in costume for a long time (definitively since I finished my chemise gowns in August, but theoretically even since last year's event). I had last year's French Revolution Zombaes dress and undergarments as the base, but I needed new accessories for a bit more historical realism and less theatricality. A hat was a major part of that.

I used a lot of historical portraits and illustrations for design inspiration. Dames a la Mode's Hats From History is a great source, and this portrait in particular was one of my main starting points.

Abigail Adams Smith, 1784 via Hats From History

It took me a long time to come up with a theme and color scheme that wasn't too theme-y. I was making this for a colonial American impression.  But red, white, and blue gets real match-y real fast. I ultimately went with Continental blue, buff/white, and gold. Classic, aesthetic, and patriotic without being PATRIOTIC.

I used American Duchess's Amazing Craft Hat (Part 1 and Part 2) as a reference for construction, starting with a straw craft/gardening/? hat and reshaping the brim to give it that curve in front and back.

By chance as I was thinking about fabric options, I found navy blue silk track pants (???) and a black tulle-lined evening gown for dirt cheap at a vintage store sale. So I cut large circles from the silk and both the light and heavy tulle and stitched them together, gathered it, and glued it to the crown. (I chose not to cut the crown off the hat itself so the fabric would have a little more support if needed.)

Like actual real 100% silk track pants

  I had zero ribbon, so with my Continental theme in mind I got a few blues, gold, and off-white.

The red was an alternate waist sash idea that got scrapped and returned.

I layered some of the ribbons together and stitched/gathered those to create a trim for the crown, and did black bias tape around the brim edge.

This was the ribbon testing phase. On the hat itself I liked the right side with wider blue ribbon better, but the left looked better when worn with the white dress.

I was going to get some hatpins but ran short on time, so I did some ribbon ties at the sides instead. It's a little fussy and deformed the hat shape a little, but there's (kind of) documentation for it and it kept things secure. For future upgrades, I'll definitely be getting hatpins and maybe leaving the ties just as security but not having any real tension on them.

And that was the bulk of it done.

With my French Revolution Zombae wig, though I didn't actually wear them together.

In action at The Revolution

Just in the past few weeks I busted the hat back out for some upgrades.

Part of the reason I left it plain in February was because I couldn't decide on feathers or extra ribbon (bows, cockade, etc.). So I finally figured out a grouping of feathers I liked and made up a neat little beribboned cockade on the fly.

The cockade is a scrap of the same silk as the crown. The thin ribbon is the same from the trim around the crown, and the wider ribbon is the same as the ties. The button was from the stash.

I also tacked down the center top of the silk crown to the straw beneath to combat some problems with wind billowing the lightweight fabric too much. And I found some short hatpins in the stash. I still want a single long one that can go straight through the crown, but one of these on each side is fairly secure (if a little fiddly).

It's still not quite right to me somehow. Maybe it's still not frilly or ostentatious or large enough. But it's definitely an improvement and I'm really loving it.

Hopefully I'll get some more decent photos of this thing being worn at an outing next week.