Remember The Odyssey? No? well, I don’t blame you. At the bottom of this post is the sketch and this posttalks about the components. It took me about 3 months of sewing to get it all done, and I got plenty of other things done as well. This is why I am being so lazy about my new costume, which I have purchased the fabric for but that is all. A bit backwards, buying fabric first but that’s how I roll. Anyway, back to The Odyssey.

So I ended up using these patterns…
Laughing Moon #100 Ladies Victorian Underwear
Laughing Moon 112 Hoops and bustles
Truly Victorian 362 Wash overskirt
Butterick 5232Victorian jacket
Simplicity 2556 misses vests

All except the Simplicity are “costume” or recreation patterns. The laughing moon patterns were an absolute dream to work with, Very well drafted, they went together like a dream. I never followed the instructions for the corset. but I did for the small bustle I ended up making. I made the Silverado bust gore corset and I love this corset so much. It fit me like a dream come true. It was awesome and comfortable to wear. Of course I don’t have any good pictures of it, but I’ll review this on the web somewhere and when I do I’ll cross post it here. The truly Victorian pattern did not suit my body type at all, and it had this weird bit on the front of the corset that stuck out. Hmm, very strange, Instead f adapting that one to work, I tried the Laughing Moon and was very pleasantly surprised. The Laughing Moon bustle I ended up making was the View E short bustle. See, I was very concerned about having a “shelf” because I wasn’t wearing a full underskirt under my overskirt, so I thought I needed a tiny lobster claw bustle. Well, I never dis like the look of it, but by then it was too late to do anything about it.Knowing what I know now, I would have made the View D, perhaps shortening it a bit. This was my first go at bustles, and it turned out not so bad. I ended up not wearing a chemise under my corset, I made a tube of of cotton ribbing and that worked quite well. I also made these sort of tap pants to wear under it all, they ere quite comfortable and made restroom trips very easy! Most important when wearing a bustle, 2 skirts and a corset!

The Simplicity vest had to be seriously altered to fit smoothly over my corset. It had modern sizing and a corset is not modern sizing! I had to redraft the entire pattern, and I actually ended up over fitting it somehow. I made two of these vests, and one was significantly smaller than the other. I’m still not sure how that happened. I had to go back and insert a panel under the buttons so my corset wasn’t showing through.

I don’t recall too much pain from the Butterick jacket. I did make toiles of EVERYTHING! So I did have to make some sizing adjustments to the jackets. I do remember getting the cuffs on was a bit of a headache, and I had to hand sew quite a bit of the trim on. Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. I really like the recent Butterick costume patterns, they are decently drafted, just the sizing needs to be checked. Most of the directions seem to be quite well. Non-period of course but since this was an original design, I wasn’t going for historical accuracy. I just wanted it to look good.

The Truly Victorian pattern was also well drafted. Although this was the last part of the costume I made, well second to last. I must have been pretty fatigued by then as I made several large errors with it. Things like having the pattern pieces backwards, sewing the darts in the front instead of the back. It was crazy! Luckily though, this skirt has a LOT of draping, so the darts were not critical, but this was really the worst made item of the entire costume. I screwed up the hems, and tried to sew the trim on to hide it, and it looks terrible. Only from the wrong side, someone looking at the costume would never know, but that is the kid of thing that drives me crazy.

When I had the costume all sewed up, I had Jason tie me into the corset and I tried everything on. I didn’t like the way the over skirt was falling and the combination of the bustle and the overskirt just felt weird on my bare skin, so I whipped up a mini-under skirt to go with it. I was so proud of the wee skirt and NO ONE EVER SAW IT! Well! I made this gorgeous pleated trim that went around the bottom, it was SOOOOOO Victorian!

Anyway, here are some lovely photos of the ensemble completed and me wearing it…

This is the “official” photo…

This is a rear photo…

Rather nice, eh? Jut looking at these I realize that I forgot to mention much of the other trials and tribulations that went along with this costume. I’ll have to remember to blog more on the next ones.

At any rate, this was my very first masquerade entry, so I did enter as Novice for the first and last time. I won a wormadship award for Best Tailoring and a……Best In Class!!! W00T!

If I look tired in this picture, it would be because I WAS! This was taken at about 1am, not so terribly late, but I was so nervous for much of the day….I was exhausted.

Okay, enough of that for now. I’ll write another post to get caught up on the costume sewing (maybe) then I’ll start with my more mundane posts. Ta!

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Costume madness!

Ah, the promise that is a new costume! There is the figment, then the idea, the sketch, the colors, the fabric, the trim, then the very long but oh-so-worth it constructions process! We are now officially 233 days away from Costume Con 29, where this beauty will be competing in the Fantasy and SciFi Masquerade. How very exciting!

So, I have had the figment (some sort of snake charmer), to the idea (Yes, a snake charmer!), the sketch (see there!) with the colors. The Fabric has been purchased, now……

I know it’s not the best sketch ever, but you hopefully get a lovely idea of what I am trying to accomplish!

I went to G-Street fabric the other night and they were having the MOST AWESOME sales and I was able to get all the fabric I’ll need!

I am so looking forward to this costume! For those of you not going to Costume Con, but who will be at Balticon, don’t worry! You’ll get to see it there, thought I hopefully won’t be able to compete it there as I hope to win an award at Costume Con!

Well, watch this space for updates! I still need to come up with my patterns1 Yes, I know. I purchased fabrics without a pattern, bu I think I’ve been doing this long enough to estimate fabric allowances (says I now, will those words haunt me?)

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Dreaming and thinking of Costume Con 29

Steampunk!

I’m on the far right, in case you didn’t realize…:)

P

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

My steampunk costume…

The Good

Where to begin. It was great seeing folks I met last year, meeting new people this year, and meeting some of my favorite authors and podcasters. The panels I attended were FANTASTIC! Only one panel I questioned why I was there. The rest were quite excellent. Highlights were: opening ceremonies, Steampunk Ball, Science programme, meeting the FDO, costumes (mine), Volunteering (con suite), launch party (JC Hutchins/Christiana Ellis), New Media party (more talking, meeting and greeting), the Singularity.

Wow, so much goodness! First the people! I met SO MANY new people, it was awesome! If you’re here because I gave you one of my wee cards, HELLO! I love you! Drop you name in the comments or email me, I would love to hear from you again! I don’t remember anyone’s name! I met some great people during my volunteering as well. I met great people walking around, I met great people dancing at the Steampunk ball, I met great people in the bathroom, I met great people in the dealer’s room, I met great people in the lobby, I met great people outside, I met great people at the panels. Listen, I met some great people this weekend! Hello!

I met the FDO! Scott Sigler himself. He was the nicest person ever! I hope I am spared when he becomes the FDO. I managed to corner him for almost an hour in the Con Suite during the Meet the GOH thing and nobody else wanted to talk to him! What is up with that! It was kinda hidden though, and being a volunteer I knew ALL ABOUT IT! W00T!

I also met PG Holyfield. You know him as the author of Murder at Avedon Hill, which I talked all about in this earlier post. He was also super duper nice.

Then there was JC hutchins, and if you go by the massive amount of evidence, I was stalking him!

I wasn’t really stalking him, but as usual I didn’t take many photos, but I ended up with four of him. Go figure. He was also super duper nice and so easy to talk to.

This was one of my favorites. I took this during his reading and he was really into the story and bringing it alive for us all.

I just cannot talk about all the good I was involved with. There was too much of it. I do want to talk about my costume. I loved the steampunk and I am sorry I never got a decent picture of it. I’ll have to put it on and have Jason take some pictures. There should be plenty of pictures of it on the interwebs because I had dozens of request for have my photos taken, and you can just see the top of it in the photo of me and JC above. You’ll have to excuse the lunatic smile on my face. I was exhausted and it was like 12:30 am and I hadn’t gotten much sleep in the days/nights previous.

The Bad

The worst thing was that I never got anything like enough sleep or enough to eat. I calculate that between Thursday AM and Monday AM, I got ~22 hours of sleep (I usually get at least 36 hours), spent a total of ~7 waking hours at home with the family, and ate a total of four full meals, mostly on Thursday and Friday, I never did eat (anything of consequence)on Sat or Sunday and it got to the point that on Sunday I was unable to regulate my body temperature, I was freezing and went to the Con Suite where my new friends injected me with treats and goodies. Very stupid and I am old enough to know better. When you get that little sleep, you MUST eat!

My pirate wench costume. Actually in the picture above, the top looks really good. I hope that’s what it really looked like. I wasn’t very happy with this costume, I did find the big full skirt very comfy but i think it was too big and poofy and the costume seemed unbalanced. I spent the longest time on this costume and I am upset that I was so unhappy with it. I made the top, the scarf and the sash myself, and they seemed to turn out well. Of course, you can’t see much in the photo. Oh well, you can’t win them all, right?

I also, for the second year running, never did get a chance to talk to Mur Lafferty. This is my own fault. Every time I saw her she looked really busy and rushing around, I didn’t want to “bother” her. Oh well, nothing like missed opportunity. Maybe next year.

The Ugly

Not so much of this. The entire Con was great, and even the stuff I listed above in The Bad, wasn’t bad so much more like unfortunate. I was snubbed by an author. Listen, I am a fan. I went out and purchased your book. Then I have logged many an hour listening to your stories. Then I try to talk to you at the con and you can barely drag up the interest to respond to my questions, well excuse the #@%$%out of me for daring to bother you during a FAN convention. Maybe I’ll just take your book, shred it, mail it back to you with a big #%@$% off written on the envelope! I’ll probably just send him an email letting him know the depth of my dissatisfaction. Then if he is a jerk I may well do as I said. There is just no reason to be rude to a fan. If it wasn’t for people like me he would be nothing!

So, there you have it. Balticon 43. We’ll see you at Balticon 44.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Balticon, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Pocket Programis up! I have already planned my schedule and it is full. Needles to say, on Friday the big events I’ll be at are the Opening Ceremonies, the Dancing in the Gears Ball, and a few panels. On Saturday I’ll be at the Scott Sigler autograph session (with my Contagious book), lots of panels, the Con suite where I shall be volunteering, then on Sunday I’ll be at Singularity!, the Scott Sigler Autograph session if I was denied the day before, and the Nina Kimberly the Merciless/Personal Effects Dark Arts book launches, then on Monday I hope to go to the Scott Sigler Kaffleklatche, then say a tearful goodbye to all my new and old friends. I didn’t list the panels I plan on going to, as things change and who knows what will happen.

The costumes are DONE. Let me say again, the costumes are done! I plan on being in costume Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. On Monday I’ll be in my civvies. This will be my first con in costume, though I have been is costume before, just not at a con. Does that make sense? And for those of you who won’t be at Balticon 43, do not worry. I’ll post pictures of me wearing them. I showed them to Jason last night and he was……okay with them.

So tonight, I have karate with Martin, then rest. I’ll try and watch the last episode of BSG. Then tomorrow I’ll go to the Con hotel and help out with some basic set-up, then Friday morning I’ll be there to help with the Con Suite set-up, then the Con will begin! Yippeee!!!

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

My last Pre-Balticon post

I went to the Balticon/BSFS business meeting on Saturday. The great news is that Balticon is shaping up rather nicely. I am donating quite a bit of my time, I’ll be helping to stuff registration packets on Thursday, helping get the Con Suite set up on Friday. Then I’ll have to find a bathroom to get ready for Dancing in the Gears on Friday night. Then back to the Con on Saturday to fill in for the Con suite on Sat afternoon, then time for myself. A bit of Con suite time on Sunday, then free time. Monday AM there is lots I know I want to do, but I’ll be around to help tear down the con suite. The con is really shaping up quite nicely and it was quite exciting to hear all the “behind the scene” stuff. The only bad news is the programming schedule is not up yet, but hopefully in another day or two so keep checking the site. I thought about helping out with Registration a bit also, we’ll see.

So, if you are going to Balticon, stop by the Con suite and say hello. I’ll be the only Pavlina there.

I’ll post pics of the costumes as they are completed, hopefully a few days before May 22.

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Balticon 43…10 days

Steampunk look by Pavlina20 featuring Forever21 necklaces

So, there is the outfit I assembled. the majority of it can be purchased for ~100 USD from Forever 21, a shop I usually only buy scarves from. I already have the corset, and I will try and find shoes in my wardrobe. So, what do you think? Is is thumbs up or thumbs down?

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Steampunk!!!

So, I am going to Balticon 43, at the glorious Hunt Valley Marriott, Memorial day weekend. If you will also be attending, stop by and say hello.

The program is not yet finalized, but the panels have been somewhat set. I am a visitor, not a guest or participant so I don’t know the details. There is a Steampunk ball on Friday that I would really like to attend. Steampunk is quickly turning into my new passion. The masquerade is on Sat night and I don’t think I will be attending that one. I don’t plan on being in costume this year. I always think I will be, but then I run out of time and never get the chance to make one and never have any good ideas anyway. blah blah blah.

I am looking forward to the author readings, this is one of my favorite parts of Balticon and I discovered some new authors and got to see some old favorites. Some of the podcasts also do live shows, so I will most definitely hit some of those. I’ll be volunteering in the ConSuite this year as well, so if you stop by and I am on duty be sure to say hello. I look forward to meeting new people as always.

I’ll be updating this post as I get more info. I ditched the BSFS meeting last weekend as I was tired and it was also RavenCon, but I will be going to the next business meeting on May 9 and hope to have some new info by then.

See you at Balticon!

Other than that

Post from: Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

Balticon 43?