ComicCon + Sewing Woes

Sewing Woes dress

We had to get Covid-19 tested, in order to get into ComicCon Portugal 2021, so I stood 2h20 in line to get tested. After that ordeal, one of my knees hurt, and my back was in shambles. So I decided, at least Saturday, to wear my Sewing Woes dress, which quickly became my geek events uniform. I ended up wearing it both days.

ComicCon was fun because I invited an old friend, Xavier, a photographer, to go with me. But the event, which wasn't worth the money back in 2016, is even worth less now. It's a positive thing they managed to organize such a big event, when the pandemic still isn't over, but they dropped several fun things, that aren't justified by the health restrictions. I didn't attend any of the cosplay workshops, mostly because they were either Tuesday or Friday, or in the morning. But I attended the cosplay competition, Heroes of Cosplay, and it was quite good. There weren't as many competitors as in previous years, naturally, but their average level was quite good, the skits were mostly nice, and some were fun! Carol Louve entered, solo, with Ursula, from Little Witch Academia, and I also met Afonso, one other of "my" cosplayers, as male Cruella, from 101 Dalmatians, on Saturday, and in his own clothes on Sunday.

I hadn't sewn for myself, apart from cosplay, in ages. Last year, my birthday fell in the middle of the 1st lockdown, so it was the first time in my life I celebrated my birthday alone. Quite frustrating. A little while after, I saw Angela Clayton sewing face masks out of this fabric, and I fell in love! I searched for it online, and found out it's a designer fabric, called "Sewing Woes", by Alexander Henry. Some further searching and I found an UK store, Fabric Yard, that had it in stock, crunching the numbers, it was ex.pen.si.ve! But I was obsessed! I had to have at least a bit of it!

Sewing Woes fabric, by Alexander Henry 

So I ordered 1 meter! It arrived quickly, and it's fabulous. In short, it's a comic 'page', Roy Liechtenstein style, with several sewing woes, as the name describes it. It's so much fun!

But... how can I use it in a garment, while keeping it readable? 1 meter isn't enough to make a shift dress on it's own, so I let it lie. One year and a half later, I had an epiphany, the design was in front of me all the time. The early Blythe Prima Dolly dresses, but with short sleeves! As soon as I had some extra money (and the stores were open), I went downtown, to one of my favourite shops, Tavares & Tavares, with my Sewing Woes fabric, in search of a red fabric, to use for the princess cut sides and sleeves. I got this lovely cotton poplin in bright red. I washed both fabrics, to shrink proof both and to colour proof the red, which is something I usually don't do, I like to live dangerously, but with such a precious fabric, I needed to take every caution. And I cut the dress in both fabrics. I got the really pretty red vintage buckle at Alexandre Bento haberdashery shop, from a treasure box filled with pretty buckles from the 60's!

By then I had a bigger job, so I didn't  have time to sew it. I wanted to finish it before MOTELx, to wear it at the festival, but I was a bit overwhelmed with work. I ended up finishing it for my best friend's birthday, and wore it to the James Bond - No Time to Die opening day.

The dress has been a success and an ice breaker. Since then I wore it to Amadora BD, a comic book festival, to SMOFcon, and, lastly, last weekend to ComicCon. It's very comfortable, quick to put on, I feel good wearing it, and it has POCKETS! Since then, I bought a few meters more of the same poplin in blue, to remake my Sailor dress. But first I need to make my long parka dress, for everyday wear. I will try to at least pattern and cut it during the holidays.

+ I like wearing clothes I made myself, I need to make more.

- Time management has been an issue, so, a dress I would usually make in 2 to 3 days, I ended up making in around 2 months, sewing a little bit each time. 

THE CUNNING PLAN 

I have 4 more dresses planned, and I have the fabric for 2 of them. The 1st will be the parka dress, then the sailor dress. I still need to find the fabric to make the Mary Quant pleated dress, and teal velveteen for the Queen's Gambit velvet dress (in green in the series).

Space: 1999 - Science Officer #1

Maya, Space: 1999 - Moonbase Alpha uniform. 

 

COSPLAY ID

CHARACTER Science Officer/ Main Mission

SOURCE Space: 1999

COSTUME Y2 Moonbase Alpha Female Uniform

COSTUME BREAKDOWN 

• beige turtleneck sweater/tunic, with red left sleeve and metal zipper
• beige knit skirt with slit
• beige pleather belt
• Commlock
• Beige pleather boots (70's style/go-go boots)
• LSRO patch
• photo ID
• Stun Gun + holster

Maya (not yet made)

• auburn front lace wig
• prosthetic eyebrows

A Space: 1999 uniform was the cosplay I needed to make even before I ever knew cosplay was a thing. Space: 1999 was and still is my favourite TV series, and the one which sparked my lifelong passion for sci-fi.

Over 20 years ago, one of my favourite fabric shops in Lisbon, Monteiro, was closing and having a (not so cheap) sale. Among the remaining fabrics, there was this beautiful red wool ponte de roma knit, so I bought it for my Space: 1999 uniform. Only several years later, having finally decided to make the uniform, I got a poly cotton blend cream ponte de roma knit, at Feira dos Tecidos, because it was the closest colour to the original beige, and it wasn't always available for sale. Fast forward into 2014, I believe, and I decided to finally make the costume to wear at the Sci-fi Lx, year one, sci-fi convention.

So, I went to Domingos & Nogueira for the very first time, and ordered the brass zipper, bought the nylon wide strap, to reinforce the belt, the neck's brass hook + eye, and asked if they would add the brass stud buttons to the belt.

Fortunately, I was able to find a very nice quality beige pleather, a bit too thin, but still fine, colour wise, and I also bought the thicker thread, for the top stitching, in red and beige. I also bought and tried to dye the cream ponte in beige, using Dylon dyes, but the synthethic fibre content must be too high, so I just managed to tone down the yellowish hues, but not really turn it actual beige colour.

Between buying the fabrics and deciding to go ahead with the costume, I met a Portuguese film costumes and props collector, who has one Moonbase Alpha uniform in his collection. He let me see, touch and take private photos of his pieces. I thank him for that until today, even though there are lots of pictures of extant pieces at the Catacombs website.

I started by patterning the sweater/tunic, without the middle back seam, visible in the extant series costumes, simply for practical reasons. They must have had narrower fabric than I did. Then I patterned the very simple A-line skirt, but without a closure, like the original ones had, but adding an elastic to the waist. Why? No one will see the waist, I had the elastic at home, and it's more comfortable that way. I cut the pattern pieces in the fabrics, and managed the asymmetry quite well, I usually always cut it wrong when things are asymmetrical. Not before standing at least 10 minutes looking at it and thinking about it.

After sewing all the basic seams, with normal thread, I proceeded to sew the red zigzag top stitching across the chest. Vertically, my sewing machine did a great job, but it decided to skip a lot of stitches horizontally. So, I machine top stitched all the vertical seams, both in red and beige, and then top stitched the horizontal lines by hand. All the seams and hems done, I added the hook + eye and red velcro to the turtle neck collar. Top and skirt: done!

finished top and skirt, complete with patch and ID

I hand embroidered the patch, from scraps of white and red cotton, and had the printed ID cut, glued to cardboard, and added a pin on the back. Later I made a new ID, the correct size and with the photo printed in photo paper.

Commlock, ID and LSRO patch

I measured the belt length, cut the nylon strap to the size, and cut two trips of the beige pleather. A wider one for the top part, and a second one, the size of the strip. I made the buckle in 2mm craft foam, lined it in the pleather, and then added the silver strips of silver vinyl on top of the grooves. Took the belt to Domingos & Nogueira to add the stud buttons. At home, I glued the buckle to the belt, and it was done.

covered boots

For the boots, fortunately I had some burgundy pleather boots in the correct shape where the pleather had turned to dust. I cut the leg part, and made a pattern for the boots, a mixture of the bottom of the boots I was going to cover, and the leg of my black go-go boots. Ah, the zippers are black, because the original boot zippers are also black. I sewed all the parts by hand, and added a thin cotton ribbon to the vertical seams, to reinforce them. I ran out of top stitching thread mid way, so I glued the bottom to the boot base, and finished them later.

I tried to make the Commlock, the Moonbase communication system, back then, but I made a measuring mistake. In the reference photos, there was a ruler beside it, but it wasn't placed at 0cm, but at the 10cm mark. My commlock pieces were too big. I was already in con crunch mood, with all the hand sewing, so I decided to ditch it, and make it later, without stress.

The next year I began making it again, cut all the pieces the right size, but I still had a dilemma. The small buttons are in acrylic, or plexiglass, are really tiny. The guy at the acrylic shop uses a strip saw to cut it, and would rightly refuse to cut such tiny pieces. I tried hand sawing them at home, but without a precision saw, they were coming out all wonky. Entirely by chance, I found a place where they would laser cut acrylic, and I could take my own acrylic pieces. The guy at the store was a bit dense, but, the day before leaving for ComicCon 2016 (in Porto) the buttons were cut. That evening I glued them to the Commlock, glued the vinyl sticker numbers on, and the metal parts are a Fanta soda can, cut and on the reverse metal side.

This is my first costume based on a live-action source. It's harder to deal with the materials and techniques, if you're a perfectionist like me. I wore the costume again at ComicCon Portugal 2016, and later on the 13th September 2019, during MOTELx, Lisbon's horror film festival.

All this because, although I already had decided not to attend ComicCon Portugal 2021, I won a 4 day pass (thank you SyFy channel!). But I'm not in the mood to go through all the trouble that is putting a cosplay on. Even my most comfortable costumes are a bit of a pain to either put on or take care of, and I was left with only a few comfortable choices: Non, but I'd have to paint my face white - too much trouble; Tsukikage-sensei, but I'd have to make the burn scar; Yuuko Baseball Bat, but I don't know where I hid my Yuuko wig, and it's a bit too slutty, so I'd have to take off leggings on top of the fishnets at the venue, and I wouldn't be allowed at the event with an actual baseball bat; Andromeda, but I don't want to have to deal with a 1,5m wig right now; or the Science Officer. The Science Officer won, I only need to glue a bit of the boots that came off, and I can switch from comfortable shoes to the boots at the venue, without much trouble. All this provided I can have a Covid-19 test done tomorrow, Friday. I'm planning wearing it Sunday, because I'm mostly going to watch the cosplay competition, and on Saturday I'll wear my Sewing Woes dress, which has quickly become a geek event uniform. But more on that one in a dedicated post.

+ I tried to use the original, or the closest to the original materials as I could, and I'm quite happy with the final result, although there are things I'd change, if I could.

- I had quite a few mishaps, having to sew much more by hand than I had expected,  and it was a small saga to have the buttons cut.

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Add inner light to the commlock, and make the Stun Gun, with the holster.

Hokuto Sumeragi - Mad Hatter #71

buttons!

Sewed on the first 4 buttons, but I'm still sewing the hem's bias tape, and I keep losing my gauges for the bias tape, I've made 3 already. But, although it takes time, I quite enjoy sewing the bias tape.

Meanwhile, I've been crunching the time I have until ComicCon Portugal, in no way I will have this costume complete by then. Actually, I've been working at a good rhythm, but I still want to make this one at a slow but steady pace, which won't be enough to finish it. I'm not worried, I have costumes I can wear, if I decide to go. That's something still to decide, but I've had no answer from the person coordinating the cosplay competition, in order to do my research backstage, the entrance fee is an abuse of €37 just for Saturday, and now there are new covid rules. We have to be tested for big events, and pharmacies have been overwhelmed with test requests. I've been entering competitions to win tickets for CC, and I guess that's the only way I'll be attending, if I win a ticket.

So, I'll keep working on this costume, I think I'll have the jacket finished before the new year, most of the bias tape is already sewn, and then I only need to finish the sleeves and the closures, both real and fake ones. To complete are the gloves, the skirt's hem, and the 3D teacup, still to begin are the bloomers (only the patterns are made), and covering the shoes, which, by the way, are very comfortable. 

+ I'm enjoying hand sewing the costume again.

- I'm not really bummed a out ComicCon, I'm not a fan of the event, and I don't have the money, and most probably the patience.

THE CUNNING PLAN 

Finish the jacket. Finish the sleeves, attach them to the jacket.