Hello! This is Saphinora speaking and this is my costume progress!
11/14/1999
ACK! I'm not too good at writing in this often, am I?
What I've done since I last wrote in this, was made the wig and the top part of the whole body. Like I said before, instead of having a unitard, I had some leggings and a leotard. I got a black leotard, painted part of the sleeves yellow, and sewed on a white triangle kinda thing on the front and back. Actually, my mom did that for me. First she used fabric glue, but the white part kept peeling off. So I would recommend using sewing to put on white, because you really wouldn't want to paint it white and not be able to move around in it. It turned out pretty good actually.
Okay, what else? Ah yes, the wig. We had some really furring material that my mom sewed to fit my head, and sewed it in a way to form some ears. Thenn when she finished that, I spray-painted black, yellow, and a little orange onto it. It turned out looking spectacular! We did the same with some long triangle strips of the same material and sewed them onto the shoulders of the leotard for the shoulder fur.
All in all, my costume turned out FANTASTIC! I got sooooo many compliments from people. We'll have some pictures up soon of us in our costumes. I hope you guys send us pictures of you in your own costumes so we can post those up too! :)
10/25/1999
Okay, we have done SOOOO much since I last wrote in this! I'll start with the tail...
Sewed the tail onto some black elastic stuff. *shrugs* Simple.
Legwarmers: Bought some cheap, thick material, had my mom measure my leg, she sewed the legwarmers, and I painted them with black and peach acryllic paints. When I tried them on, they kinda puffed out, making a really neat effect that looks like they're really thick.
Gloves: Got some nice white gloves that go up to my elbow, cut out the fingertips, and used orange and yellow markers to color them. Yes, markers. Paint isn't the best idea for gloves. Use markers. They looked really neat when I put them on. Just like Demeter's gloves.
Collar: My wonderful mother bought a belt at a garage sale for me. My wonderful uncle cut it to fit around my neck. My wonderful father put a hole in it for the buckle. Now, whatcha gotta do if you want a spike effect, is you take some silver or gold squeezable fabric paint. First you put just a bunch of dots, about an inch away from each other. When those dry, you put another dot on top of all of them. Then when those dry, put on another layer, and another, and another. Keep going until you're satisfied with the length of your spikes. For an even neater effect, alternate between silver and gold for each dot.
Shoes: The best kind of shoes to use are split-sole jazz shoes. My sis and I take dance classes, so we're just using our old jazz shoes. If you can't find any, you can use some solid colored tennis shoes that match the color of your costume.
And finally, the pants: Yes, pants. See, we didn't want to go through all the trouble with a unitard, so we're using a leotard and leggings. I already finished the leggings. I got a pair of white leggings, and dyed them yellow. Then I used some acryllic paints to paint all those neato stripes on it that Demeter has.
There ya go. Now all I have to do is the leotard and the wig. Oh, I already have a list of things I'll do differently next time, or for you guys (so you don't do the same thing I did!)
1.) I won't use accrylic paints. When they dry, they make the fabric really stiff so it's kinda hard to move around in it. But hey, it's worth it. And if you do use accrylics, wear your costume around for a day so the dried paint gets flexible enough (kinda like breaking in a new pair of shoes?). Is there any kind of fabric paint that won't make the fabric stiff?
2.) If I do end up using accrylic paints next time, I won't paint on the elastic waste thingie on the pants. *grins* Nope, that's a no-no. I had a REALLY hard time trying to get into those stupid pants because I painted on the elastic waste. So don't do that!
3.) I'll start working on my costume earlier! :)
And there ya have it. Well, I'll write in thi some more later... not today of course, but maybe Wednesday. Seeya!
10/2/1999
This is my second entry here! I just finished my tail for my costume. Like I said in the below entry, I used small pieces of yarn for my tail. I know I've seen a lot of costume-making sites out there that say yarn is the worst thing you could do for your tail, but that's not true! It looks TOTALLY authentic, and is really easy to do too! The hardest part is the last two pieces of yarn (which I learned today). You just have to keep a firm grip and make sure you tie it REALLY tight. I'll have a picture up for my finished tail soon. 9/11/1999
This is my first entry here. I'll tell you about what I've done so far.
That picture up at the top is a picture of me! *gigglez* That's what my makeup is gonna look like! Sorry for the terrible quality, but I'm still not used to our digital camera. I hope to get a better picture soon.
Anyway, that's gonna be the makeup I'll be using for my costume. The only other part of my costume I've done is the tail. I'm doing it totally homemade from scratch. I'm not done with it, but I'll tell you how I'm doing it. First a took a string. Okay? Yeah. And I cut up lots of little pieces of yellow yarn about as long as my index finger. I tied them to the string one by one, starting at the bottom. When I thought I had enough yellow I started with some white, then brown, then white, then yellow, etc. Is that too confusing? Maybe I'll be able to come up with a diagram of some sort. Anyway, that's my progress so far! Thank you for your time! :)