Malta Comic Con 2014

So Malta Comic Con's over. That's the last local convention for 2014. I'd say the (very short) convention season ended on a good note, at least in terms of cosplay. The turnout was excellent, and the quality of the costumes was fantastic in general. 

The contest was also much better organised. The judging criteria were much clearer:

Audience impact was a little hard to gauge, because everyone applauded each cosplayer, but the other criteria wee very clear. The judges also asked us questions about our costumes, and gave us a chance to explain exactly what we made, altered, or bought. I think we lost a few points for not completely sewing all of Jenny Flint's costume, not making our own prosthetic, and using cheap plastic swords - my sword was particularly flimsy, and actually fell to pieces on stage. Darn cheap plastic katana.

I think my favourites that day were Lady Thor, the Bioshock Infinite couple, and Annie from League of Legends.

  I've been planning to enter as Madame Vastra with my friend as Jenny Flint for a year now, and we finally debuted our costumes. I think we look pretty darn good. 

 The makeup took about 90 minutes to apply, and I was amazed how well it turned out. Another friend applied most of it for me. I don't think I could have done it without her. The prosthetic is stuck down with spirit gum and blended with liquid latex. Once everything was dry she covered it with green face paint and added details with more paint and some eye shadow.

Because I was so busy with the makeup, and only got to St James Cavalier at noon, I didn't see very much of the con. I had a look around the tables and chatted with various artists and creators. Got myself a copy of Pilot: Mythology, and very nice Tank Girl t-shirt too. I also tried out a demo game: The Adventures of Scottie. It was made by some friends of mine, and it looks like a lot of fun.

We came third in the costume contest (Group Pose category), and I don't mind too much, considering how good the second and first place competitors were. First place were a fantastic Bioshock Infinite couple, and second place were a Magi couple. So many couples this year :)

 I didn't attend the second day of Malta Comic Con, partly because my Female Titan costume is nowhere near ready, and partly because I had other commitments. Oh well, maybe next year. I'm already thinking of all the costumes I could create :) . . . 

Photographs were taken by the talented Sven Farrugia: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Photography-by-Sven-Farrugia/125137150837920?fref=ts
He took some amazing photos of the cosplay contest and of cosplayers at the convention

Madame Vastra: Part 2: The Shirt

I'm making progress on Madame Vastra. The shirt is now finished. I used white poly-linen for the body of the shirt, and a mixture of other fabrics for all the embellishments on Vastra's shirt. 

Madame Vastra's shirt seems to be a blouse with bishop sleeves, no gathers at the should/arm scye, and a lot of embellishments, such as the embroidered collar and applique/colourful material on the sleeve.

 The first step was to cut out the shirt. I was very lazy and didn't use a pattern. The body of the shirt is a rectangle, and the sleeves are a mix of triangles and rectangles. I actually made the sleeves bigger by adding triangles.  Next I sewed on the red patches on the shoulders. These are just rectangles of interfaced satin that were left over from a project. I turned the raw edges under and sewed them down.

 The next step was to sew on the decoration on the sleeves. It's difficult to see the exact pattern on Vastra's sleeve, but it looks something like this. I used a piece of pillowcase for the base, then sewed down bias tape to make stripes. I coloured the cloth with fabric markers to get the right colour, then added white spots with white acrylic. When everything was dry, I sewed it down.

 Here's what the shirt looked like spread out. I tried a new method, with was to sew the sleeve to the shoulder first, then to sew everything together.

 Time to gather the sleeves. This was tricky because the fabric kept unravelling. I just sewed a band of cloth around the end of the sleeve, turned it over, and sewed it down by hand.

 Still not finished but it already looks so pretty.

Next step: finishing the collar. This was just a piece of bias tape sewn around the collar. It was a bit difficult because I had to sew multiple pieces of bias tape together. 

And last, the embroidery round the collar. Luckily it was a really simple pattern, and I just backstitched it with some thick red thread.

Madame Vastra: Part 1: Skirt and Waistcoat

One of my planned cosplays for Expo in October is Madame Vastra from Doctor Who. This costume will be very tricky to make, the makeup trickier still, but I liked her a lot (The Crimson Horror is the best episode of season 7, hands down. The rest of the season is so very "meh"), and want to see if I can pull off the Silurian makeup.

Skirt

 The first step was the skirt, which was a very simple half circle skirt. I just followed an internet tutorial for this, then made some adjustments. I added pockets on the sides, and the back of the waistband is partly elasticated to make it more comfortable. I also sewed horsehair braid to the hem: I have a lot of braid left over from making the Black Aristocrat dress, and I think it improved the look of the skirt, giving it more structure and volume.

 Madame Vastra's skirt is a weird colour: it's not exactly brown, nor is it grey or blue. I dyed tan brown cotton grey, and got a weird brown/grey mix colour.

Waistcoat

 The next step was the waistcoat. I had a Burda pattern which I altered beyond recognition: it started out as a double breasted waistcoat with a stand collar! Once I got the desired look, I traced the pieces on to my paisley fabric, then basted the green mock-up pieces to the paisley pieces. This was to make the paisley material less flimsy. 

 Next I started sewing the pieces together, starting with the back, sides and front, then basting on the collar and finally the facing.

 I also sewed bias tape around the arm holes to prevent fraying. Once the front and facing had been understitched, I added buttons and button holes. the buttons are gorgeous, but you can't see them very well here. I bought a pack of metal buttons on ebay, and they all have this lovely pewter look to them.

 Above is the finished waistcoat. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially since i was worried about the collar. The collar was a bit tricky to sew on because I had to sew through many layers of cloth on the sewing machine, but it actually sits very nicely. The waistcoat looks really smart; I'm tempted to wear it to work.

Slightly blurry photo of the skirt and waistcoat together. Looks pretty good to me.